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Puppies were stupid expensive.The night prior after trying to shoo the dog out the door so she could find her way home, I realized it was a lost cause. For whatever reason, she wanted to stay with me. I tried one more time on the way to the pet store. I stopped right in front of the massive building for the Deadication Dating Agency and opened thedoor.

“You’re home!” I said, making it sound way better than it actually was. The building didn’t look much fun at all. Stark, white, and with very few windows, the place didn’t look like it would be much fun for a puppy with as much energy as she had. She gave me a side-eyed stare and plopped her oversized head right onto herpaws.

“Fine,” I grumbled. “But I’m super boring. You’re going to be very bored with me. I promise. And the first time you poop on my rug, you’regone.”

She yawned. Super concerned, shewas.

I reached over and scratched her behind her neck. She huffed atme.

“You’re emotional,” I said. “I’m not sure we’re going to work out.” I whipped my small truck into the parking lot of the local pet store,Raise the Woof, and told her to stay. Right after I got out and walked around the car, she promptly stood, started scratching on the glass, andhowling.

“Shut it,” Ihissed.

She looked at me, stopped, waited for me to take a couple of steps and started howling again. “I don’t have a leash!” Iyelled.

Sheyawned.

With an annoyed growl, I opened the door. She jumped out and started walking right beside me. “It’s illegal for you to be off theleash.”

She inched a little closer tome.

I rolled my eyes, marveling at the weirdness of my dog, and walked into thestore.

At first, the employees kept giving the dog the eyeball as if she was suddenly going to go full on Cujo. When one of them approached us, the puppy promptly sat, lolled her tongue out, dropped and rolled to expose her belly. This, of course, resulted in googly eyes and a chorus ofawwwsfrom everyone in thestore.

This dog was wicked smart. I rolled my eyes but couldn’t help the grin that crossed my face. When the employee finished giving her a good belly rub, the puppy stood and led me right to the food she apparently wanted. She sat down and stuck a paw right on top of thebag.

Another lady in the aisle saw her and made an appropriate cute noise. When she asked me her name, I stopped, tilted my head and grinned. “Margo.”

The puppy whined for a moment as if thinking about it. “From theMagicians.”

Margobarked.

“Well,” the woman said, “I’d say she likesit.”

“I would too,” I murmured. “Have you seen Margo? She’s totallybadass.”

Margo impatiently nudged my leg. I lifted up the enormous bag of food and put it in a basket I snagged at the end of the aisle. I let her trot around the store checking things out and by the time we made it to the register, I had a massive bag of digestible rawhide, a huge bag of food, one squeaky t-rex toy, and a ball with a bottle of what appeared to be cheese whiz. That was gross, but Margo got so excited, I went ahead and put it in thecart.

I swallowed down a shocked noise when the total came up on the register, but as we were walking out, I muttered to Margo, “You better be worthit.”

Margo growled atme.

“Relax, mutt.” I opened the door and she jumped right in and onto the passengerseat.

I loaded everything up and we made the short drive back to the house. Once everything was unloaded and Margo promptly tried to destroy her t-rex, I decided to head over to Hank’s nursery to try and apologize again. Under the guise of needing potting soil, of course. I was hoping I could work it insomehow.

Margo boltedout the door in front of me. I yelled at her to come back, cursing my lack of foresight in forgetting to grab her a crate. She sat in front of the passengerdoor.

“I’m going to seeHank.”

Margobarked.

“You likehim?”

She barkedagain.