The Travels of Zoe, the Wonder Dog
Chapter 6
By Carrie Jacobson
The story so far: James Dunning worked at the Record for more than 20 years before his job was eliminated. He and his wife had to leave their home and James had to take their little, blind lhasa apso to a shelter. He tied Zoe to the gate of the Pike County Humane Society in Shohola. In the night, a big red dog named Kaja came along and untied Zoe. The two have set out to find Zoe’s home.
Kaja and Zoe have 
reached the end of the road. Now, there is only woods.
Kaja leads the way into the underbrush. The soil beneath their paws is sandy and soft, with layers of leaves and pine needles to cushion their steps. It’s quiet, too, and shady, and cool, even though the day has grown warm.
They’re heading for the river, and it’s a route that Kaja knows. But she’s never traveled it with another dog, and never thought about leading one who is blind and old and small. The little dog wants to find her human, though, and all that Kaja knows now is that he is on the other side of the river.
Zoe has no idea of rivers or of roads. She knows about houses and humans and cities, but she doesn’t know about the woods. She knows that James and she had driven over water, but she doesn’t know what that means.
Kaja knows what it means. She knows about the river. She knows that sometimes, she can go in the water and get cool, and that at other times, the river is too high and too fast and too dangerous.
She knows that in the winter, she can sometimes walk on the river, at least on its edges. And she knows that in the summer, there are lots of people on the river, in boats, and swimming and fishing. People mean danger, she knows that, too. They will have to be careful.
But first, they have to get there. They scramble through the brush, and into the deeper woods. Kaja sniffs the air, focusing on the scent of the water, walking so the scent gets stronger and stronger.
They scramble down a small hill and Kaja sniffs the air and stops. There’s something ahead. She can smell it and she can hear it. She and Zoe drop down, bellies on the ground, and Kaja sniffs the air again.
Then, in a clearing, she sees a mother deer and two spotted babies. They’re eating ferns, and the mother is pulling berries off a bush in a splash of sunlight. The babies buck a little then and one snorts, and they prance around the mother deer –
And then she freezes. The babies freeze, too. They stand absolutely still, stiller than the trees and the branches and the bushes. In the sun and the shadows of the woods, it’s almost impossible to see them. The mother tenses, her eyes wide, turning in her head, and then she gives some sign and the three of them explode into action, leaping up a hill and vanishing, just like that, into the woods.
An instant later, a coyote angles into the clearing. He is smaller than Kaja, but he looks taut and tough and mean. She trembles. She hears Zoe sniff the breeze beside her, and before she can do anything, Zoe starts a soft, small growling, deep in her throat.
The coyote’s eyes turn toward them. He drops his head and curves his body and sinks into his legs.
Kaja watches. Zoe growls again, and Kaja knows the coyote knows the little dog is there. She’s not so sure he knows she’s there, though, and so she gathers her feet under her, and just when he’s ready to spring at Zoe, Kaja leaps from the underbrush, with a wild, raw growling bark, and lunges toward him.
There’s a moment when he thinks about attacking. She can see it in his yellow eyes. She can smell his raw breath and the oily stink of his coat and she can see that one of his teeth is broken. She gathers her courage and her strength and she bounds right at him, and she is ready to bite him and rip at him if she has to, to save herself and Little Zoe, but he sees her, a giant, wild, red, snarling beast and he sees his defeat, and he turns and runs away into the woods.
Carrie can be reached at carrie@zestoforange.com
Tags: Carrie Jacobson
