Page 39 of Wayward

Gale was chuckling beside me.

She waved her hand dismissively. “Summerland is on the side of the mountain, and the forest is a bit dense in that area. You don’t want to lose your baby to predatory birds or a pack of coyotes, now do you?”

“No, of course not, but—”

“Neon yellow or froggy green?” another tech asked, holding up two vests, one the color of safety gear on a construction site, the other of little life jackets I’d seen kids wear into pools. The colors weren’t really the interesting part. What made the vests stand out was that they were both covered in a mix of bondage spikes and porcupine quills.

“So? Which one?” Connie prompted, and I realized she was waiting for me to say something.

“I’m sorry, what are those?”

Long exasperated sigh from Connie. “They are anti-coyote-and-hawk vests.”

Apparently it was a really stupid question on my part. “Okay,” was all I could think of to say.

“The spikes on the collar and back stop the birds, the longer needle-like pieces stop coyotes, other dogs, and any other predators. Clearly, we’ve modified them.”

“Clearly,” I agreed.

“When we get them from the supplier, there are straps on them and the spikes are only on the top, but we modify them with a fitted liner so there are small sharp spikes on the bottom in case your dog gets rolled, not over, but to their side.”

“Sure,” I agreed.

“The question is now, which color do you prefer?”

Misha would be the laughingstock of the forest dressed in that.

“I’d go with the yellow,” Gale chimed in. “The bushes are green, and the grass is high in some spots, so…yeah. Yellow makes the most sense.”

I found his logic to be sound.

“Oh, we have purple too,” the tech said as she was joined by another woman carrying what could only be described as puce, not any shade of purple I’d ever seen.

“That’s more mauve,” Gale corrected her, but then quickly turned to me. “But we’re not here to say that color has any gender, it’s not about that.”

“What?”

“I mean, I just don’t care for the mauve, and I think he’d be harder to see, but if you like it, I say go for it.”

“I don’t even know what you’re talking about right now.”

He snorted out a laugh.

“The yellow is great,” I assured Connie.

“Give him to Shannon so she can try it on him.”

I did as directed, even though Misha let out the saddest little howl.

“I had no idea Morkies did that,” Connie told me. “I think that might just be yours.”

Great.

“Now tell me, does that Jeep parked out front belong to you?”

“Yes. Why?” I tried not to whine.

They explained there were things to carry to my vehicle and that the puppy’s car seat had to be installed.