OXYGEN

13 - Unleashed

UNLEASHED - Dog Daycare

I stared at the sign for a long time. The letters were red; the font was simple. Forrest had parked right in front of the large, orange building and now, he was unbuckling his seat-belt. I, however, remained still.

"So," Forrest blew out a breath, "have you ever been here before?"

I slowly shook my head. "No, and I'm not sure why we're here now."

"Because," he opened his door, "if there's one thing that always makes me happy, even if it's just for a little while, it's dogs. Now, come on."

"Wait," my eyes widened, "hold on - it's not like we can just barge in there to play with the dogs."

"Says who?" Forrest merely replied. I parted my lips in disbelief as he closed his door. Even though I was still in the car, he started walking to the entrance of the building, clearly certain that I was going to follow. I huffed and - without much of a choice - did.

Forrest held the glass door open for me as he locked his car. I muttered a thanks, examining our surroundings. We were in the lobby where there was a young lady at the counter. She looked occupied with her computer, but once she noticed us, she flashed a smile. "Forrest," she politely acknowledged, "she's in the small dogs' play area."

I saw Forrest smile back. "Thanks, Camille." With just those words exchanged, Camille then returned to her work. I furrowed my brows, wondering who "she" was. I guessed Forrest had planned this beforehand. He looked at me and seemed to enjoy that I didn't know what was going on. "Let's go," he murmured and began walking to the hallway at the corner of the room.

"So," I began, trying to keep up with his pace, "I'm going to assume this isn't your first time here, which is weird because you told me you've never had a dog. You want to tell me why you seem so familiar with this place?"

Not glancing at me, he continued to walk through the long hallway. There were multiple doors with labels such as GROOMING and OFFICE. The further we went in the hallway, the more a peculiar stench filled the air. Off to the distance, I could make out the sound of barking.

"Well," he coughed, "let me just say that I, uh, used to date a girl who worked here before. Throughout our relationship, I would come here and just hang out. I grew close to most of the staff, though. And of course, the dogs. So when our thing ended, I, uh, couldn't just stop coming here." I wanted to laugh once a shade of red started to creep up his neck. "But yeah, I really do love this place."

"So this is essentially Favorite Place #2?" I asked, recalling that Vienna was Favorite Place #1.

Forrest looked at me then, the corners of his lips going up. "Yeah, you can say that."

Finally, we reached a door labeled SMALL DOGGY PLAYROOM. The sound of barking grew much louder. Forrest pushed open the door and I blinked at the sight.

The bright, lively room was incredibly spacious. The walls were painted a pale shade of violet and the ceiling had several white lights installed. Along the diameter of the room was a metal gate and beyond it was a bunch of equipment to play in. There was a lady standing outside of the gate, watching intently. But this all wasn't what I initially noticed.

What caught my attention - and quite frankly, my heart - were the dogs. About a dozen dogs of varying breeds were dashing around in glee. All of them were quite tiny but definitely enough to make me squeal. "Aw," I gushed, my eyes trained on a little white chihuahua lying on its back. I then looked at a young bulldog, wagging its tail. "Look at how wrinkly it is!" I cried out.