Danny pushed his bike alongside Melody as they strolled towards her home. He cleared his throat nervously, trying to think of something to say. "What would make dogs attack Ben like that?"
"Haven't you heard about the dog packs?" She stopped walking and turned to face him.
"No. There have been others? Where did they come from?"
She leaned back against a large oak tree that was buckling the sidewalk and pushed her hair behind her ear. Danny zoned out briefly as he watched her, admiring the way the setting sun added colors to her dark brown hair and glinted off her nose ring; her only makeup appeared to be eyeliner. He came back to earth when she began speaking, "I guess I hear more of the local stuff because my mom works for the city. There have been cutbacks everywhere and they laid off some of the dogcatchers. Now, with more people abandoning their pets, they can't keep up. The dogs are scavenging for food and form packs."
"Why don't the owners take their dogs to the shelter if they don't want them?"
Melody looked sad, "The shelter is full. It's no-kill, but they have no choice other than send the excess to the county shelter which does have a kill policy. So, you get people who feel guilty about taking their pets in to be put down and figure if they let them loose somewhere else in the city, maybe someone will take them in. But what really happens is the dogs get run over or starve or join a pack."
"That's terrible. Aren't you worried about walking alone?"
She pushed off the tree and walked up the path to the house they had been standing in front of, turning at the door to grin at him, "I wasn't alone and I drove to work."
Danny stood with his mouth open as she went inside and the ramifications struck him. Shaking his head and laughing, he swung onto his bike and turned towards his own neighborhood.
Part 12
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