Love Is a Four-Legged Word Read Online Free PDF Page A

checked it on the Internet. A dog is a pack animal. All the dogs in the pack are subservient to the alpha male. In the human world, Walter was a kind old man. But to Brutus he was leader of the pack.”
    “Leader of the pack? Well, now I’ve heard everything.”
    “Not quite. The vet said Brutus could pine away and die of grief if he didn’t soon attach to another alpha male.”
    Tom made a sound that could have been disgust or could have been a smothered laugh.
    “Well, that’s what the vet told me,” she said. “I’m no expert on dogs.”
    “Die of grief? If this is true, it could be serious—especially in light of Walter’s will.”
    “Tell me about it. But right now all I care about is this poor, sad animal and how I can get him to eat something.”
    Maddy followed the length of the porch and turned the corner of the house to where Brutus’s kennel was located under the shade of a magnificent jacaranda tree. A sprinkling of purple jacaranda flowers had fallen onto the roof of the kennel. It was very quiet.
    Her heart sank. No Brutus rushing up to meet her, sniffing around for snacks. This dog was normally a trash can on legs. With an overdeveloped sweet tooth. He must really be sick not to have sniffed out the treat she held in her hand. The hunger strike thing was a worry.
    “C’mon, Brutus, C’mon, boy, I’ve got a nice snack for you,” she coaxed. But there was no response.
    She was conscious of Tom O’Brien behind her, imagined she could almost feel his warm breath on the back of her neck.
    “Is he in his kennel?”
    Maddy nodded. “But he won’t come out for me. Not even for a frosted cupcake.Why don’t you call him? If the vet is right, he might respond to a man’s voice.”
    Tom O’Brien approached, giving the large kennel a wide berth. “Is it vicious?” he asked.
    “Vicious? He’s a good watchdog. Barks a lot.”
    “I’d better approach with caution then.”
    Approach with caution. From the little she knew of Tom O’Brien, Maddy suspected those words just might sum up his entire attitude to life. But did he really need to tippy-toe around the kennel like that?
    As she watched him, a suspicion began to form.
    “What kind of dog do you think Brutus is?”
    “With a name like that I thought maybe a German shepherd.”
    “Right. Or a Doberman, perhaps?”
    “Yes. Or Rottweiler. Uh, he’s not trained to kill, is he? Like, he won’t go for the throat if I call him?”
    “You can only try it and see,” said Maddy, her stifled laugh making Tom O’Brien cast a sharp glance at her.
    Self-consciously, he cleared his throat. “Uh, here, Brutus. Come on.” His voice was sufficiently deep and commanding.
    Maddy could hear a shuffling and a clinking of dog tags from the kennel.
    “Here he comes!” she said, her voice rising in excitement. “It worked, the male voice worked.”
    Tom O’Brien stepped cautiously back.
    Brutus slunk slowly on his belly out of the kennel, making little whimpering noises as he fixed his black button eyes on the tall, well-built man who stood in front of his kennel.
    Maddy had to put her hand to her mouth to kill her laughter at Tom’s disbelieving expression.
    “ That is Brutus?” he said.
    “Meet your new client.”
    Tom paused for a long moment before he spoke. “Walter must have had a real sense of humor to christen this animal Brutus.”
    “You could say that.”
    Maddy could only guess at what was going through the lawyer’s mind as he stared at the little dog’s long, low-slung body, pugnacious face, and scruffy black-and-ginger-brindled fur.
    His face wasn’t giving much away. “I guess I’ll have to rethink Rottweiler,” he said.
    “Walter used to call Brutus a Heinz type of dog—you know, fifty-seven varieties.”
    “At least fifty-seven by the look of him.”
    “He’s slung so low to the ground he must be part dachshund.”
    “The coloring looks bulldog.”
    “But I think there’s a lot of shih tzu in him, too.”
    “What?