The Dog Who Healed a Family by Jo Coudert

Author:Jo Coudert
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2010-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

A Deer Asks for Help

The dog saw the deer first. Dropping into a crouch, he gathered himself to spring and run. This alerted Alison Millard, and she tightened her grip on the leash, pulling it taut to signal Topper that he was not to chase the deer.

She looked up, expecting to spot the white tail of the deer as it bounded off through the woods. To her surprise, the doe was standing perfectly still at the edge of the path about twenty yards ahead. It was half concealed in underbrush, but its forequarters were in the open and its head was turned toward Alison and the dog. It was staring fixedly in their direction.

It’s hurt, Alison thought. It’s dazed. She had seen that same stare on a deer grazed by a car on a nearby mountain road. For minute after minute the deer had stood unmoving in the middle of the road until an impatient motorist honked. Then, with a sudden shake of its head, the deer had come to its senses and leaped away into a field.

Alison clapped her hands sharply, expecting the same thing to happen now. Instead, the deer turned to look toward the path ahead, then back at Alison. The deer’s eyes, Alison realized, were not blank, unseeing. They were focused, and there was something in them of a question. Or was it an appeal? Again, the deer turned its head just enough to indicate the path ahead before its steady gaze went back to Alison.

Alison had the clear impression the deer was asking her to follow it. How strange, she thought. That sort of thing only happens in fairy tales. The doe signaled again with a turn of its head to look along the path, then took a long look back at Alison. Alison hesitated. Should she follow? What can happen? she asked herself. This isn’t a bear or coyote. The deer isn’t going to hurt me. She tied Topper’s leash to a tree and said, “Stay,” quietly but firmly.

She started down the path toward the deer. When she was a dozen steps away, the deer moved off the path into the woods. Staying a bit ahead, it moved through the woods parallel to the path, turning its head every few steps to check that Alison was following. Alison, because she and Topper often walked this way, knew the path and knew that it passed a cottage tucked into the woods at the end of a long lane.

They were coming to it now. Alison could see the white picket fence in front of it. The doe stopped at the edge of the woods where the trees thinned out and waited until Alison drew even. When their eyes met, the doe shifted her gaze to the picket fence. Back to Alison. Back to the fence.

The fence was not high, only three feet or so. A deer could easily vault over it. Why was the doe staring at it and seeming to will Alison to look at it, too?

Alison stepped free of the woods.

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