Destiny's Revenge (Destiny Series - Book 2) by Straight, Nancy (management books to read .TXT) 📕

“Halt, Setzen.” To my amazement Peanut stopped and sat down right in the middle of the road staring at the man. The man walked over to him and reached down to pet him, and said in a similar booming voice, “Gut hund.” Peanut’s ears were perked up and his tongue was hanging to the side.

I walked up to the stranger, and he asked, “Is this your dog?”

I nodded that it was.

The stranger asked, “Where was he trained?”

I shrugged my shoulders. “I don’t know, I rescued him from a pet adoption place a week or so ago.”

“Where’s his lead?”

“We left the house without it. He kind of got away from me when I pulled in.”

The stranger had a very disapproving look for me, and his tone wasn’t any nicer when he said, “If you are going to own a dog of this intellect, you need to follow the rules. He is obedient. Chasing him like a child does nothing but confuse him. It was irresponsible of you to remove his lead. This is how he’s able to please you. He’s confused without it. He wants to please you, but you make it impossible, do you understand?”

Having this stranger talk to me like I was a big bag of donuts didn’t do anything for my emotional state, and the tears that I had under control began streaming again. I turned to walk away, knowing that I couldn’t defend myself as a proper owner. I patted my leg and said, “C’mon Peanut.” To my shock, Peanut didn’t move. I turned around and slapped my leg harder, and said more sternly, “Peanut, let’s go.” The dog looked at me, then looked back to the stranger but didn’t move a muscle.

The stranger only ten feet away said a little less sternly, “You may want to try, Peanut Fus.”

No pride left in my entire body, I did as instructed, “Peanut Fus.” Peanut sprinted over to me and walked in stride with me on my right side. When we were out of the stranger’s ear shot, I quietly said to the dog, “What the heck was that? Are you showing off now? I thought we were a team?”

I opened the door to the truck and Peanut leapt in and sat on the passenger seat like this had been a grand adventure. I closed the door and rested my head on the steering wheel. I’m the eternal optimist, but with a quarter tank of gas, I couldn’t go any further than a hundred miles. Wherever I ended up, it needed to be safe, have food and shelter, and be no where Max would ever know to look.

I heard a tap at the window. I looked up to see the stranger standing there. I knew I couldn’t take another lecture on proper pet ownership, so I put my head back down on the steering wheel. He tapped again. If nothing else, he was persistent.

I rolled down the window half way and managed to get out, “Ah, thanks for your help back there.”

“Miss, are you okay?” He was a little older than I was, tall with dark hair, dark eyes, and this time a warming smile.

I shook my head but managed to choke out, “I’ll be fine.”

He had a leash in his hand, “This is a spare I keep in my car in case of an emergency. I can’t guess at your circumstances but thought your situation might be some sort of an emergency.” He handed me the leash through the window.

“Thanks,” was all I could manage.

“I know this is a little unconventional, but do you need help or anything?”

I shook my head that I didn’t and began to roll up the window, when he said, “Sometimes it helps to talk about it, even with someone you don’t know.” What kind of do-gooder was this?

I shook my head again, and he threw out, “All right, I’m sure it’ll work itself out. You’ve got a great looking dog there. Someone spent some real money on his training.”

The stranger turned to walk away, when I asked, “What did you say to him anyway?”

He turned back toward me and said, “Owners of German Shepards, Rotweilers and Dobermans usually train them using German words instead of English. The dogs are extremely intelligent and very obedient. So obedient, that if an intruder broke into a house and told the dog to sit and stay, it most likely would. I guess enough guard dogs sat still and watched thieves walk away with stuff they were supposed to be guarding that owners started training using German words instead of English. I guess Peanut’s previous owners must have thought that a good idea. Halt means stop, Setzen means sit down and Fus means come to me. You should still keep a lead on him. Even the most obedient dogs will be curious and do things you don’t want them to do.”

“Well, thanks, I appreciate the help and the advice.”

The stranger reached his hand through the window and said, “My name’s Mike.”

I shook his hand. When I touched him, I could tell he was as genuine as he could be - no wariness or dangerous vibes, “Well, thanks a lot, Mike.”

“Look, I don’t want you to think I’ve got any ulterior motives, because I don’t, but it looks like you’ve got the weight of the world on your shoulders. I might be able to help if I knew what was wrong.” He motioned to a picnic table, and I reluctantly agreed. What did I have to lose, right?

We sat down, Peanut crouched at my feet. Mike began with, “Okay, what’s the biggest problem you have right now at this minute?”

I took a deep breath. There were hundreds of people at this rest stop, none of them listening in, my danger sense wasn’t going haywire, and he was right – talking through the situation without any detail might help me figure out what to do. I started with, “I left my wallet at my boyfriend’s house, he isn’t there right