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To say we were all moved to tears by this outpouring of hospitality would be an understatement. Hugs followed, and even Dooley appeared appeased by this denouement. The only one who seemed unaffected was Tex, who was reading something on his phone.“What did you say the name of this dog is, Vesta?” he asked suddenly.

“Windex. Why?”

“Says here that Windex’s owner has been looking for him.”

“Her,” Gran corrected her son-in-law. “What do you mean, looking for her?”

“Just what it says in the paper. ‘The daughter of Mrs. Eileen Dobson, who was recently admitted to Cherryvale Nursing Home, has launched an appeal to find her mother’s beloved dog Windex. The day Mrs. Dobson was admitted, Windex was accidentally left behind in the apartment they shared. By the time Mrs. Dobson’s daughter returned to fetch the dog, she was gone. Mrs. Dobson misses Windex very much, and has offered a reward for her safe return.’” He looked up. “I thought you said you got her from the shelter?”

“I did. They said her owner had gone to a nursing home where pets aren’t allowed, so she had to get rid of her.”

“Looks like you were fed some wrong information, Vesta,” said Charlene.

“Oh, hell and damnation,” said Gran. “And now the dog has vanished!”

Just then, Chase appeared in the door. He was positively beaming.“It’s a girl!” he cried.

As one person, the whole family rose to their feet to crowd around the young father.“Can we see her?” asked Marge.

“Not yet. I’ll let you know when you can,” he assured us.

Tex cleared his throat.“So what’s the name of my granddaughter?”

Chase gave him a sheepish look.“We haven’t decided yet, Dad. Though we were thinking about calling her Ida.”

Tex’s face clouded. Ida was the name of his least favorite patient.

“Just kidding, Dad!” said Chase, clapping the other man on the back, almost causing him to take a tumble. “And now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to see if I can hold my daughter!”

Chapter 24

It took a while, but finally we were all invited to partake in the happy occasion. Chase lifted us all up in turn to take a look, and what we saw was Odelia, looking tired but happy, with a tiny human in her arms. In fact the human looked so small it took me a moment to identify it as human at all. It was wrinkly, red, tiny and generally pretty ugly.

Of course I didn’t voice this sentiment, but when finally we had all taken our turn, and were back on the floor, Harriet whispered, “I didn’t know that babies were so ugly.”

“I know,” I said. “And why is it so small?”

“And why are its eyes closed?” asked Dooley.

“And why is so red and scaly?” Brutus grumbled.

Generally it didn’t look like anything to be afraid of, though. Not like the formidable enemy Dooley had made it out to be. Satan’s spawn it most certainly was not, unless Satan deliberately makes its spawn look as vulnerable and fragile as possible, which is unlikely.

“It does have something, though, doesn’t it?” I said finally. “Thatje ne sais quoi?”

“I don’t know about that, but it does look sort of cute,” said Harriet.

“And Odelia looks very happy,” said Dooley. “So maybe we’ll be all right.”

“Of course we’ll be all right,” said Brutus. “Didn’t you hear what Marge said?”

All in all, I have to say I felt more relaxed and happy than I had in days. And judging from the soft words spoken by the humans in the room, they were all pretty happy, too. So if this is what it was like when a new human arrived into this world, I was beginning to see why they all enjoyed the prospect so much. It truly was a source of joy. Ugly, but joyful.

Odelia was going to stay at the hospital for a few days, and so was the baby. Chase would stay put while the rest of us all got to go home, and tomorrow was another day.

When we arrived home, the Pooles remembered their mission to organize a search for Windex, and so we were all recruited to assist in the search.

“Max and Dooley, you take that side,” said Harriet, adopting the persona of fearless leader, “and Brutus and I will go that way. We have to find her, you guys. We have to bring her home!”

“Yes, sir!” Dooley said, and would have saluted if he’d known how.

Harriet took off with Brutus to scour the landscape for a sign of Eileen Dobson’s precious little doggie, and so did Dooley and me.

And as we traipsed along the sidewalk in the direction indicated, my friend had a confession to make.“I’m sorry about all that Satan’s spawn business, Max. Looks like I overreacted.”

“And I’m sorry about the shelter business,” I returned. “I also overreacted.”

We shared a smile.“So looks like we’ll be fine after all.”

“Yeah, looks like it,” I agreed. “Now all we have to do is find Windex and await Odelia’s return with the baby.”

“Do you really think they’ll call her Ida?”

“Somehow I doubt it.”

“They could call her Harriet. Nice name, Harriet.”

“We already have a Harriet in the family, Dooley.”