Stars Always Shine Read Online Free PDF Page A

than the walled and cement enclosure of the small patio.
    The ranch excited Rosa. It challenged her. It called to her. There was a myriad of mysterious smells, and they provoked her to explore each and every one. Her nose floated upward as she took periscopic whiffs of horse manure, cow manure, mildewing hay, the fresh scent of trees, and the dry smell of dust. Her coallike eyes, set deep in curly reddish fur, scanned the ranch as she breathed in the canine’s mother lode.
    She was Mitch and Place’s only dependent. Before they married, they had peaceably agreed that they would have no children. In a way, they were still youthful and did not feel capable of molding the personality of another human being. So they agreed that animals would be as far as their parentage would extend, and Rosa was their first. The three traveled together up and down the state on camping trips, hikes in the mountains and woods, to Disneyland where there is a kennel, to rivers, lakes, and the ocean where they all jumped in and splashed about. But those outings were always too short and impermanent. And while Mitch practiced law, Place washed, brushed, and took Rosa to the vet, to the groomer, and to the park.
    Once, Mitch and Place decided that Rosa should have her own family, so they bred her to a champion Airedale. Just exactly what he was a champion of was never clear, but he was beautiful and could pose like an Adonis. He sired five healthy pups who had purebred conformation. It was a trying pregnancy for Place, who made sure that Rosa was comfortable and well nourished during her gestation. But the addition of five terrier puppies drove Place to such vigilant nervousness that he decided that there would not be another litter after this one was sold. Rosa’s puppies did sell for impressive figures, and it made the puppy business appear lucrative, but it was frustrating living with them in a now cramped home and always looking for things like underwear, a belt or cap, or a favorite pen. The condition of motherhood soon evaporated from Rosa, and once again the family returned to a cohesive unit that could lie around the house and watch television without a smaller, more exploratory terrier chewing and teething on the leg of a chair or a shoe or an umbrella.
    Rosa had not grown as a member of her human family as much as Mitch and Place had become members of her canine pack. Together, they were alpha, beta, and gamma dogs. And their bond had even inspired Place to write poetry. He worked sedulously one day creating an ode to his dog Rosa:
    We have a dog, a curly haired mutt,
    With curls from her head all the way to her butt.
    Her vet bills are high, if she talked she’d say ouch;
    That is except when she jumps on the couch.
    What’s the breed of this dog? Oh, she’s an Airedale,
    And now that I remember, she has a malodorous smell.
    She’s the dog of the house, and we love her dearly,
    But her passion for the couch runs from acute to severely.
    She is our dog; she has captured our hearts,
    And armed with incense, we tolerate her farts.
    So here’s to our dog, who barks and does snore.
    We ask very little, and she gives us no more.
    Of course others found the human and animal relationship a little strange, but Mitch and Place jokingly explained that they simply got along better with four-legged animals than with upright primates who spoke English. And they were grateful after a session of honest and earnest negotiating that Jacqueline and Mickey Kittle allowed them to have a pet on the sixty-acre ranch.
    The transformation occurred in a flash. Rosa the condominium dog became Rosa the ranch dog in the time it took her to jump from the back of the moving pickup to pursue a flock of bobbing blackbirds who poked and jabbed at the lawn where hints of green remained. The birds flew away, squawking back mockingly at such effrontery.
    Place and Mitch casually called Rosa, certain that their commands of “Rosa, come,” and her weeks of private puppy