Cocoa by Ellen Miles Page B

it must bea chocolate Lab, because it looked just like Zeke and Murphy, Harry’s and Dee’s dogs.
    “Yeeeooww!” yelled Meg. “Sorry! Sorry!” she said to the other people on the sidewalk, as she ran along behind the dog, barely missing a lamppost, a mailbox, and a fire hydrant.
    Dad had finally let his phone fall to his side, and he stared openmouthed as Meg and the dog charged closer. “I guess that must be the puppy she was writing about,” he said.
    “Here, pup,” said Charles, as the dog approached. He squatted down and held his arms open and the dog barreled into him, knocking him over. Then, as Charles lay laughing on the sidewalk, the dog licked every part of his face: his chin, his mouth, his cheeks, his nose, his closed eyes, his forehead, and his ears. Charles laughed even harder because it tickled so much. When he opened his eyes, he saw the dog standing over him, grinning a doggy grin and panting happily.Her big thick tail bashed Dad in the knees with every wag.
    “This is a puppy ?” Dad asked Meg, as he bent to pat the dog’s head.
    Meg laughed. “Well, yes. She’s only about a year old. But I have a feeling this dog will be acting like a puppy for a long, long time.”
    “She’s beautiful,” said Charles. He threw his arms around the dog’s strong neck and kissed her silky soft ears. Her glossy coat was the exact color of a Kit Kat, Charles’s favorite chocolate bar. But she didn’t smell like chocolate. She smelled like dog, which was even better. Her yellowish eyes were bright, her ears were alert, and her brown nose twitched and shivered, working overtime to sniff out all the good downtown smells. She had long, gangly legs and huge, chunky paws, and she was at least twice as big as Buddy. “What’s her name?” he asked Meg.
    “Cocoa,” said Meg.
    When the dog heard her name, she whirled around and jumped up excitedly onto Meg, making her stagger backward into Dad. “Whoa, there,” Dad said, as he helped Meg stand upright again. “This dog sure does have a lot of energy.”
    Charles squatted on the sidewalk and tried to calm Cocoa down. He gave her nice, long pats the whole length of her body. That usually worked for Buddy when he was overexcited.
    “Tell me about it,” said Meg, sighing. “That’s why we need to find her a home — fast. I already have my hands full with my two dogs. I can’t handle this one, too.”
    “A home?” Dad asked.
    Charles felt his heart skip another beat. Maybe Cocoa was going to be their next foster puppy!
    “Didn’t you get my texts?” Meg said.
    “I was just trying to read them, but I couldn’t quite —”
    Meg waved a hand. “I know. I was kind of in a hurry. Anyway, here’s the story. This pup belongs to an older couple, Ernest and Charlotte Thayer, out on Franklin Street.”
    “Judge Thayer?” Dad asked.
    “That’s right, he used to be a judge. He’s retired now. He and his wife are both pretty frail, but they still manage to live in their own house and take care of themselves.”
    Charles wasn’t sure what “frail” meant, but he had a feeling it was the opposite of the way Cocoa was.
    “And?” Dad asked.
    “And a couple of hours ago, the dog came running toward Ernest, banged into him hard, and knocked him over,” Meg finished, all in a rush. “I was one of the EMTs on the call, and it was obvious that Charlotte was not going to be able to take care of this puppy on her own. Anyway, Charlotte came with us in the ambulance, sothere wasn’t going to be anybody at home with the dog, so —”
    “So you brought Cocoa along, too?” Dad asked.
    Cocoa’s head snapped up when she heard her name, but Charles still had his arms around her, so she didn’t jump onto Dad. “Good girl, good girl,” he whispered into her ear.
    Meg nodded. “She rode right up front in the ambulance, with Ted. I couldn’t figure out any other way to deal with the problem. And now —”
    Dad made a face. “I get it. Now you want us to take