Read Running Home for Free Online Page B

chocolate fur ball took a liking to me. How was it that I always attracted the misfits; the ones who didn’t seem to just have it all completely together in life? I loved watching the trainers put the dogs through their paces, and thought it was the path I hoped to travel down in the future. I wanted to have my own dog. I valued that type of partnership a handler had with his K-9 companion. Little did I know my partnership with Waylon would come unexpectedly so soon. Around the kennels, people referred to this dog as a ‘slug’ he had a nose for searching, but nothing seemed to motivate him. I started spending more of my free time with the trainers and other officers, trying to soak up as much knowledge as I possibly could, and of course, whenever they had Waylon out that dog seemed to gravitate toward me. It wasn’t until I accidently had a granola bar stuffed in my pocket one morning, did it finally click that all he wanted was food. Shit, if I didn’t keep my pocket filled with tasty morsels for the creature, we couldn’t get him off his bed each day. I’m betting that’s why, when they went to place him in a county office, ours being so slow, was the only way he wouldn’t be a failure on the job. Not to mention, we didn’t have the funds to support a complete graduate of the K-9 course; hence the ‘almost’ drop outs came at a reduced cost, or free like Waylon.
     
     
    “Waylon, let’s go to work , Buddy,” I called to the dog, as I walked up the narrow hallway to the front office. I heard the ladies laugh, and I’m betting it was at my stubborn dog still laying on his bed.
    “Waylon, come,” I demanded as he lifted his head off the bed, only to immediately drop it back down again.
    “I’m sorry Walker, he just took two doughnuts from the box Leanne had on her desk .” Gloria laughed, giving me a meek smile.  That dog was the worst dog in the entire world. No wonder why no one on the force wanted to work with him.
    “Waylon kommen,” I barked again. Eventually this dog was going to listen to me. I reached into my pocket, which I recently stuffed full with little sausage treats, and tossed one just a few feet in front of his bed. I was sure he was up even before the treat hit the ground, wagging his chocolate brown tail back and forth, waiting as if he deserved another for standing up. Quickly, I walked over and clipped on a long leash. “Let’s go mutt,” I muttered under my breath, while pulling him down the hallway to the back door.
    “Good luck !” Gloria called down the hallway after us.
    Yep , luck was something that we needed desperately. In the few short months since we had been paired up and ‘graduated’ from training he had only ever been on one search and rescue call. Waylon tracked like a seasoned pro, but the search had been called off a couple hours in, when old mister Johnson was found taking a nap in the hayloft of his barn. Yep, I needed a ton of luck to get through the next couple hours with the board and county commissioners or maybe just a dog who would listen for more than thirty seconds. Either way, I knew this morning was going to be a long one. Hopefully, I had enough little sausages to keep this creature engaged with the task at hand.
     
     
    Pulling up to the training facility, which a couple counties shared, I noticed Sheriff Ramsey and a couple of the city’s commissioners were already waiting next to a staging area.
    “Waylon , listen buddy, we need to make it work today. The county pays for your meals, mutt, so we need to make sure they are getting their money’s worth,” I warned the critter sitting in the back seat of the patrol car. Waylon didn’t even sit up in his seat as I turned the car off. “Please, just make it work today,” I mumbled, while climbing out of the car and opening the back door to get the mutt. Clipping the long line on his collar, I gave a gentle tug on the lead to pull the beast out of the car. He met it with little resistance,