were you doing Buck?” my father moaned.

Buck didn’t respond but looked at his new family. He studied Mindy and my aunt smiled at him. How could she like him?! He was just another common wild animal! Balto introduced us all but a few questions burned in my head. Everyone started to talk at once but Balto quieted us down.

            “Hold it! Hold it! One question at a time! He’s been through a lot”

“What happened to Nero?” I heard myself ask coldly.

Buck looked down at the floor. When he opened his mouth again, all he did was stammer for excuses. His final excuse was that he died in the line of duty. That was weak.

“Then why are you here?” I asked quietly.

            “Mya!” My father and mother said in unison.

Buck narrowed his eyes and stood up.

            “Your guess is as good as mine” he shot back, not breaking eye contact. “If it were up to me I’d be long gone”

Without another word, Buck slipped out of the boiler room. I didn’t feel an ounce bad for him. He deserved whatever had come to him and from my point of view, he got off lucky. My brother, sister, aunt and Triton exited after a while too. My father waited until they had all left then turned to me angrily.

            “What on earth has gotten into you Mya?!” my father asked angrily.

                        “We raised you to be polite and respectful!” Jenna added.

“Mom, you don’t even like him either!”

Jenna’s eyes widened in surprise.

                        “That’s not true!” she stammered. “I just don’t know him yet”

            “That’s no excuse Mya” Balto said. “The next time you see him, you better apologize. Not many things would make Buck act like this… something really bad must have happened to him”

“Fine” I mumbled. “But he probably deserved it” I added under my breath.

I stepped out into the cold and to my delight, Triton was waiting there to escort me home.

            “Hey” he smiled sympathetically. “I know that was hard for you”

“It’s okay now… I guess I just… I just needed to get that out of my system”

As we walked back to my house, the wind whipped and tugged at my bandana, making me shiver. I picked up the pace and when we reached the porch, I tuned to say goodbye to Triton.

“I’ll see you tomorrow morning… are you going to be at your owner’s house again?                     

Triton shook his head.

            “I stay outside in a crate since my musher’s going to sell me”

“Oh Triton…” I started sympathetically. “Why don’t you stay here tonight? My owners know you anyway”

Triton graciously followed me and after almost getting stuck in the doggy door, he went over to the fire place and laid down there. After making sure he was comfortable, I went to my own bed and plopped down.

“Goodnight Triton”

            “Goodnight Mya”

            The next morning, I woke up early as I usually did. Triton was still asleep in front of the fireplace, so I decided to leave him alone. Suddenly, I heard someone scratching at the door.

            “Mya?”

Aleu popped her head in the door and smiled when she saw me.

            “Mya! I have good news! Come on out!”

Curiously, I slipped out the doggy door.

            “I got Triton another chance to talk to Klondike!” She explained happily. “Klondike used to hate me because I looked like a wolf but this morning when we were practicing, my musher switched me and Dash and I’m a better lead dog then he is! He’s in kind of a bad mood now, but Klondike was watching and all of a sudden he’s being really nice to me… so I asked him if he could give Triton another shot and he said yes!”

I could barely contain my joy!

“Oh, Aleu you’re the best! Let’s go tell him!”

I dived through the doggie door and raced over to Triton. When I shook him awake, his eyes popped open and he scrambled to his feet, looking around for whatever was attacking him.

                        “What happened?! What’s going on?!”

“Aleu got you another chance to try being a search and rescue dog!”

A huge grin spread across his face.

                        “Then let’s go!”

“Now?”

Triton grinned.

                        “The sooner the better!”

I think my happiness was starting to rub off on him…

Triton squeezed through the door once more with a little difficulty and took off down the street at a speed walk. Aleu and I hung back to talk.

            “So are you guys mates or something?” Aleu asked.

“No!” I snorted. “I don’t like him that way! We’re just friends!”

            “Then why are you trying so hard to keep him here?”

“He’s my friend!”

Aleu shook her head.

            “Well he likes you”

“How do you know?!”

            “The way he looks at you… everyone knows! It’s a surprise you don’t!”

The shock came a little slow, but I can’t believe I’d never realized it before…

            “Why don’t you like him? He’s not really bad looking…”

“He’s too soft… if it didn’t snow so much up here, I think he’d be afraid of snowflakes. And he has never stood up for himself or anyone else… how could I like anyone who can’t protect their own mate?!”

Aleu rolled her eyes.

            “Well if anyone liked me like that, I wouldn’t waste my time just being friends”

When we arrived at the Sheriff’s office, Triton had already been there and was being examined by Klondike. As I watched Triton demonstrate how he could get to a buried victim by digging, I thought over what Aleu had just told me. I only wanted to be friends! Nothing more then that… and if he thought that, I was going to have to tell him sooner or later that it would never work.

Meanwhile, Klondike observed Triton’s sense of smell by making him track down whatever Klondikecould think of that wasn’t too far away. Finally, Klondikewas satisfied.

                        “Very impressive Triton… maybe that wild maniac clouded my judgment. We could definitely use someone like you as a search and rescue dog!”

Aleu and I cheered and Triton bashfully smiled. While Klondike brought Triton inside to tell him how to get noticed by the Sheriff, Aleu and I waited across the street.

“I’m going to need to tell him”

            “Tell him what?!” Aleu asked suspiciously.

“I don’t love him”

            “Are you crazy?!” Aleu barked. “He’s shy enough as it is! Just think how he’ll feel now!”

“Well-.”

Someone cleared their throat. I did not have time for this….

Dash stood their, ignoring Aleu and smiling sweetly at me.

                        “So Mya” he said smoothly “How are you?”

I couldn’t believe he actually cared about someone else for a change!

“Fine…” I said caught off guard.

Maybe not being leader was giving him some humility…

                        “Did you finally dump that low-life screw up?”

I furrowed my brow. Guess I was wrong.

“He’s not a screw up!” I