[for Karen]

[daretodo]

I'm not what you would call a natural pet owner. Part of it's just I'm too busy, but that's more by design than actual circumstances here than it was at home. Here I make myself too busy, always searching for the next distraction -- anything to keep my mind off the disaster that is my personal life.

The thing is, these days, I am a pet owner. And because I'm not a complete jerk, I know that a part of every day has to be dedicated to making sure the beast that is Martha gets to stretch all four of her furry legs.

Size aside, she's actually pretty mellow -- so when she lets loose with a loud woof that reverberates in my chest, tugging hard at her leash, I'm immediately at attention, looking for the source of the alarm.

Ah, right. The pack of dogs coming towards us. That… would be a cause of alarm.

"Woah, doggies!"

Comments

[callofkaren]

The thing was, Karen knew how crazy it looked to have a pack of dogs running around her, or at someone, but sometimes, they just needed to get out of the Estates and down the beach. All seven of them, Karen included, and if she had to look like the crazy dog lady, so be it. Nick being at the lab and Sam being at school left Karen along to wrangle the dogs, but once they hit the beach, it was easy to sit in the shade where Karen had a towel, and spend some quality time with a few of Brodie's old comics.

Utica stayed next to her, and it was her half warning, half excited growl that made Karen look up.

"Oh, for the -- goddamit, hey!" Karen got up to her feet, and brought her fingers to her lips to let out a piercing whistle. It was nowhere near as loud or adamant as she wanted, but it was enough to get every single dog's attention and stop them before they bowled poor Peter over to get at the new dog.

[daretodo]

I get Martha to sit down with a coaxing hand to her back, but I can't help but be impressed by Karen's wrangling.

"...you're gonna have to teach me how to do that."

[callofkaren]

Karen walked over, glad the dogs weren't barking anymore, even if they were insanely curious about Martha. They were stupidly curious about everything, which usually came back to bite them in the ass when they tried going after monkeys and always failed.

"Ah, it was nothing. Just months of practice and sheer desperation at suddenly being a pack mom."

[daretodo]

"Did all these come from one person?" I ask, counting under my breath. Here I thought I was unlucky, having just the one pooch thrown at me, but here Karen is with a practical army.

[callofkaren]

"Only half of them," Karen said cheerfully. King took her tone for an excuse to try to get some attention, and sat down in front of her, tail wagging in the sand.

She gave King a scratch behind his ears. "This is King," she said, and pointed out the other dogs, "Halifax, Taser and Rembrandt. They all came with Sam when Mathias disappeared, and had previous owners before that. Utica, Styles, and Matthews were already with me. Just call me the resident island crazy dog lady."

[daretodo]

I think there are probably more dogs than owners on the Island at this point, but Karen's been here longer than I have, so pointing out as much just seems like a jerk move.

"Jeez. Do they all sleep in the house?"

[callofkaren]

"Only Remy. He and Sam are pretty much joined at the hip." She asked for a doggy door to be added and they had a fenced in backyard for the dogs now, but the house was mostly off limits for the dogs.

It was just a pain trying to keep it that way, and Karen was slowly losing the will to do so.

"How are you and Martha getting along?" She knew Martha mainly from Pepper's time with her, and as bad as it felt to admit it, she was glad she didn't get stuck with yet another dog to take care of.

[daretodo]

"The closest thing to a pet I've owned are lab mice," I explain, eying Martha a little. She's settled down, now, slumped down onto the beach to nose at something buried in the sand.

"It could be going worse. Mostly I'm just glad she was already house-trained."

[callofkaren]

Losing their interest in Martha, the dogs began to disperse, most going back to the beach to search for crabs. Remy stayed behind, sitting beside Karen in what she had long since decided was his 'just the bodyguard, nothing to see here' posture.

"Martha's always been a good one," Karen said. "What have you been up to, lately? I feel like I never see anyone anymore."

[daretodo]

"School. Council stuff. Science. Working on my sun tan," I reply, conveniently leaving out less conversation-friendly items like be depressed, worry about Tony, and pretending to be a functioning human being.

"The usual, I guess. What about you?"

Hey, look, I can still do small talk. Go figure.

[callofkaren]

"Where do I even start?" Karen asked with a brief laugh. "Surprise motherhood, the boutique, the radio...that actually sounds less than it really is. Sam and the dog pack take up most of my time now."

That still surprised Karen when she thought about it long enough. Though she'd always known she and Nick would have a child some day, she'd never imagined it would come so soon, and in the circumstances it had.

[daretodo]

"I dunno, that sounds like a lot to me," I reply, managing a quick smile. I almost feel bad for complaining about Martha, now. At least I didn't end up with a surprise kid at my doorstep. I don't even know how I'd cope with that. Her and Nick are pretty brave, taking on that kind of responsibility.

[callofkaren]

"When it's all laid out like that, I guess so, yeah."

It did sound like it when Karen stopped to think it through, but thinking about her life was something she'd kinda stopped doing. As full as it was, she didn't have time for navel gazing or wondering what she was doing with her life. She had Nick and she had Sam and she loved them both, and that was more than enough.

"And to think, a few years ago I was comfortable about being a beach bum for the rest of my life."