“Wow, Tor! He’s so white! And fluffy! He almost looks like a different dog!”

“Tell me about it. Who knew under that wet muddy dog was a cloud with paws.”

“He’s gorgeous!” The dog is beautiful, like a show dog you’d see on television, and he’s obviously very happy with an immense love for people. He’s prancing around the room, going from me to Toren to get patted, and he almost looks like he’s smiling.

“I love him! How has he been since you brought him home?”

“He’s been really good. He’s house trained and except for gnawing on the legs of the coffee table, he hasn’t done anything bad. The vet thinks he’s about two years old. His back leg is healing up nice.”

I look up at him as I hug the dogs neck. “And nobody came for him? No postings about a lost dog matching his description?”

He shakes his head. “Nope, nothing. Ty checked all the databases, going back three years and there’s nothing within a hundred-mile radius listing an all-white dog. I can’t believe his owners aren’t missing him. It’s fucked up.”

“It is.” I don’t know how someone could have such a great dog and not even report him missing. I hope nothing horrible happened to his owner.

“You’ll have to do a lot more vacuuming now,” he jokes. “The fur that comes off him on a daily basis is crazy. And it sucks for me since almost all my shirts are black. I can’t get out of the house without having white fur on me.”

I stand up and smooth down my t-shirt, which is also covered in fur now, too. “I’ll get you one of those lint roller things if you don’t have one.”

“I’ve been using masking tape and went through a roll already. Pick me up a bunch of those lint things,” he reaches into his wallet and hands me a fifty-dollar bill. “You’re still going to clean and stuff, right?”

I nod, taking the bill from him. “Yes, and make you dinner.”

“Wicked cool. That’s the best news I’ve heard in a long time.” We watch as Diogee grabs a big white bone off the floor and carts it over to a dog bed in the corner of the living room to chew on.

“He seems really happy, Tor. I’m so glad you kept him. I’m looking forward to seeing him now when I come over. I could brush him for you, too, if you want.”

“That would be awesome, and he obviously loves you. He’s a little high maintenance so I’ll take all the help you want to give.”

“I don’t mind at all. I asked Dad for a dog again but he said no, and I can basically come over here and hang out with yours.”

“I’m good with that. Anytime you want to come over is fine. You know that by now. Since he’s all settled on his bed, you want to see what I’ve done to the back yard?”

“Of course.” A few weeks ago he told me he wanted to do some landscaping in his yard and plant some new flowers and shrubs because he was sick of looking at nothing but grass and rocks. When we step outside the sliding glass doors to his patio, I’m completely unprepared to see what he’s done. He fenced in the entire yard with white fencing and planted different shaped shrubs, a myriad of colorful flowers that I can’t even name, a bird bath, and a hummingbird feeder along with various birdhouses nailed into the trees. But the part that blows me away is a stone walkway that leads to a tiny pond with an old wrought iron bench nearby. He’s watching me with a grin on his face, waiting for my reaction.

“A pond?” I exclaim. “You did this?”

We walk over to it and I’m shocked again when I see three koi swimming in the clear water that’s being circulated by a small waterfall.

“Yeah, Tanner helped, though. We watched about fifty YouTube videos. It took a few days just to do the pond but it came out pretty cool. We used rock from the river down in the woods. Tanner power washed everything, then we arranged it all in here. It’s almost three feet deep.”

“Are you kidding? This is amazing.”

“Thanks. The dog keeps trying to stick his head in it, but I think he’ll get bored of it. Tristan gave me some training tips to work with him.”

“Tor, it’s all beautiful. My Dad’s going to be jealous of this, though,” I tease. “This is kinda better than his water fountain. I mean, there’s fish.”

He winks at me. “We won’t tell him.”

“Can we sit?” I ask. “I want to watch the fish swim around. They’re so pretty and peaceful looking.”

“Sure. I haven’t sat back here at all, actually. Just been busy working on it but not really enjoying it yet.”