The Dog Park

Sebastian held his hand up for me to high-five.

The news segment ended with a shot of Clara and Baxter, as she kissed his head. Then the screen flashed to that moment when Baxy tackled her, when the truck swerved around the corner.

“Well,” the newscaster said. “That’s something you don’t see every day.”

“Although we wish we did,” his co-anchor said.

Sebastian patted my leg as the news rolled into a segment about taxes. I muted the TV and almost immediately a series of low ding, ding, ding sounds came from my phone. I picked it up.

“I have thirty-four new emails,” I said. Ding, ding, ding. “And fifteen texts.”

“Really?” Sebastian moved closer to me. “Since when?”

In my in-box, there was a bevy of emails with similar subject lines—Want to buy a Collar. How can I place order? Saw your dog on the news. Want Superdog collar. Need Superdog Leash.

“A few minutes ago.”

Then it kept going—ding, ding, ding.

“There’s more,” I said, holding out the phone to show Sebastian. “A lot more.”

11 (#ulink_51dac531-0140-50bf-8d68-ffd2e6de4ac6)

It was Victory, the politician, who really kicked my business of dog styling into gear. She’d seen the news, too. She texted me the next morning, saying that she was being photographed that very afternoon for a women’s magazine. Because the magazine hired a stylist, she hadn’t needed to call me.

What’s the angle of the article? I wrote.

The piece dealt with fashionable, powerful women in state government. They wanted to shoot her in her office.

But since I saw your dog on the news, she wrote, I’m thinking we need a shot w/me and dog.

Projects authority, I wrote.

Right.

If you can master dog, you can master the country.

Exactly!

But also shows warmth.

I need warmth! Victory wrote. We’ve pushed ballbuster image pretty far.

A few minutes went by, then Victory texted, The magazine loves the idea of the dog in the shoot! Calling you...

“You know, it’s hard being a black politician,” Victory said when I answered. She rarely made use of hellos, something I liked about her, and she nearly always said something random without explanation. “Do you think DeeDee needs a bath?” she asked.

“Everyone needs a blow out,” I said. “When was the last time she was groomed?”

“Two months.”

“Then for a photo shoot? It’s time.”

“Any chance I can hire you to style her?” Victory asked.

I thought about the work in the office, much of it buried under boxes of materials that had arrived just an hour before. Still, this was exactly the kind of thing I wanted to stay open to. It was, I realized, the exact kind of work I wanted to expand into. Dog styling—probably not much work out there but even less competition.

“Absolutely,” I said to Victory. “I’ll find a grooming appointment. And I’ll pick her up.”

“God love you. And however you want her fur to look is good for me,” Victory said. “I’ll pay you your usual.”

“Sounds good,” I said. “What is Dee wearing?”

“Wearing? Like her collar? It’s the same one you saw last year.”

“The olive green one?”

“Yeah. It’s cute, right?”

“I think you want her to show a little sass.”

“Good point,” Victory said. “What’s your thought?”

I’d been sitting at the kitchen table, but I stood and headed for the office. “Do you see her in a baby-pink?”

“No,” Victory said. “I can’t look like a socialite with a purse dog.”

“One that’s already called DeeDee.”

“Precisely,” she said.

“Got it.” I picked up a few more things. “I’ll have options.”

We hung up, and I lifted a purple canvas strap with lime-green trim.

By the time I got to the photo shoot that afternoon, I’d made a few other collars and harnesses. As they were styling Victory’s office, I showed her the various collars I’d made or brought.

Melody, Victory’s thirteen-year-old, came home from school and helped us narrow the collars down further to the preppy purple-and-green one and a playful lavender one with white suns. We put both of them on DeeDee.

“Notice what you’re wearing?” I pointed to Victory’s own wrist, where she wore a watch and a bracelet. “The two at once?”

Victory looked down. “They look good together.”

“Right,” I said. “So do hers. Let’s leave her in both collars.”

“Yeah!” Victory’s daughter said, and snapped a photo. “I’m posting this.”

“You know she has more followers than I do?” Victory said as we walked DeeDee to the set.