When we get to the vets office I walk in first without her. I walk up to the front desk with a younger woman, probably early 20's behind it.

"Hi, I called earlier for the appointment. I was wondering if I could just get a leash from you guys just for now. I didn't have time to stop."

"Yeah of course," She turns around in the swivel chair and goes into a cubby and brings out a leash. "Here this should work."

"Thank you."

I walk out and back to the bus to find the dog sitting at the door wagging her tail as I got closer. The action makes me smile. I open the door and she looks at the leash I am holding in my hands.

"I know this is probably going to be weird, but it will be okay. All dogs use them." I say as I slip the rope around her neck.

She doesn't like it I can tell because she just sits there staring at it instead of getting up and moving.

"I know it sucks, come on." We walk into the building and we're directed into a little room, I move to sit down on the bench as I wait and she sits down between my legs. I move down to scratch her ears and she lifts her head up to get closer to mine, it's a risk, but I lean down and kiss her nose. Instead of getting scared she licks my face and it makes me grin like a little kid.

A female doctor walks in with a clipboard and moves to deal with the preparation of the shots.

"Beautiful dog, can you lift up her lips so I can see her gums and teeth?"

"Uh, yeah I can try."

I lips up her lips with no resistance but the eyes that are silently questioning my actions.

"Alright great, she seems to be about 10 months old by the set of her hips and the condition of her mouth. When she's full grown, except for about 115lbs of dog, she's going to be big. We also need a name for her for the paperwork."

"Um, I haven't really thought about it."

"Well she's going to need one if you're keeping her, could you hold her so I can draw some blood." She says as she lifts up the needle into the air.

"Yeah for sure." I circle my arms around her chest. It all goes well until the doctor gets about 2 steps away from us.

It starts with a growl and then she starts barking, as the doctor gets closer she lunges.

"Okay, uh can I suggest something like Sniper."

"Feisty isn't she?" I say through a laugh.

"Yeah can you try something for me, maybe get up and go to the other side of the room, she might think I want to poke and prod at you."

"Yeah." I say as I walk across the room.

The doctor goes to get closer with the needle and she doesn't react the same. She starts drawing her blood and all the dog does is look at me while she's doing it. No growling, no snarling, nothing.

"See, she's just protective of you, this is going to take a while so you can go we'll call you when she's done."

"No. I don't really want to leave her here, alone."

"She'll be okay, just go out and buy some stuff she'll need. I suggest a high protein puppy food just to get the meat back on her bones. Simple ingredients only, alright?"

"Okay, what do you think about Mazikeen... for her name?"

"Like the daughter of Lilith?"

"Exactly."

"Then that's perfect."

"Cool, thank you for all your help."

"No problem."

I walk out and go on a shopping spree. I have to spoil her, who knows the last time she had it. I place a leather collar in the cart and pull out my phone.

"Hey sweetheart."

"Hey mom, how are you?"

"I'm good, I'm good. How's the trip going?"

"Oh, you know it's good."

"Where are you at right now?"

"Oh um I'm in mystic falls."

"Oh you are, so you'll be home really soon?"

"Not exactly."

"Why are you being so dodgy right now Rowan?"

"So I might have run into a predicament."

"What kind of predicament? Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine mom. Just a predicament of the dog category."

"Ro you didn't."

"Didn't what exactly?"

"Go buy a dog, I leave you alone for a few hours and this is what you do without my guidance."

"Mom, someone dumped her, I couldn't just leave her there."

"So, you could take her to a shelter."

"Or, I could pick her up from the vet's office and bring her home."

"Does she have a name?"

"Yes, it's Mazikeen."

"We'll then it doesn't seem like anyone can change your mind now, how do you think Josie's going to react to this?"

"Hopefully well." I say with a nervous chuckle.

"Okay Cy, well I'm going to go. Can't wait to meet her."

"Good because she looks like a rottie."

"Wait really?" My mom says with interest in her tone. Rottweilers are her favorite looking dog. 

"Yes mom."

"Okay, that might make it better. I'll see you soon."

"Alright, love you, bye."

"Love you too, bye."

I get all the things I need and probably a lot more. I sat in the bus for a while just listening to music as I put the name tag and vaccine tags on the collar, when my phone starts ringing.

"Hello I'm looking for Cypress Merrick."

"This is her."

"Great. So, Mazikeen is ready to be picked up. The doctor will give you the rundown when you get here."

"Okay, sounds perfect. I'll be there in 10."

"See you then, bye."

"Bye."

—

When I get there the desk lady who introduced herself as Morgan leads me to the room. When I walk in the room Maz runs up to me, with her tail whipping, and jumps on me. I use this time so slip the collar on her and attach a matching leash to it. She repositions herself to stand in between my legs and the vet makes sure to keep her distance.

"Looks like someone's happy to see you."

"Yeah, how was she?"

"Really good, she did well. We had to put a muzzle on her for the nail clippers though."

"Doesn't surprise me." I say through a chuckle.

"So she's heartworm positive but we're going to give you medication for that and she should be fine in two weeks. We're going to set up an appointment for then, just for the check in. Other than that she's got a clean bill of health. She's already been fixed though, my guess is that she was bred to be a fighter, but she's not really reactive unless there's a man or there's someone to protect. It probably made her useless which is why she got dumped."

"Wow, aren't people just the most amazing creatures on this planet?" I say with complete sarcasm taking over my tone.

"In this profession, I question humanity everyday. We put a microchip in her and connected it to your name while you were on your way over. Oh! and we put Rottweiler/Mastiff mix on her papers. I am almost positive she's a pit mix but that will just cause trouble for you." 

"Cool, thank you for everything, again."

"No problem, Morgan will give you the expenses."

I walk out to the counter and lean on it a bit.

"So, with the employee discount I'm extending to you, your total comes out to $280.34"

"That's not needed, really you don't have to."

"Hey, saving a dog and giving her a home gets you major brownie points in my book, plus we both know if you let her go to a shelter it would take her forever to get adopted. A good deed for a good deed."

"Okay thank you." I say as I hand over my card. She lightly brushed my hand as she took it from my hand.

"You know, it'd be nice to see her again, is there any chance I could get your number?"

"I have a girlfriend, and I'm 18." I watch her eyes widen a bit. "But I'd be more than willing to stop by sometimes to let you see her progress."

"Yup, cool, that uh, that sounds good." She says awkwardly and I take that as my cue to leave.

I walk out of the door and out to the bus and open the door for her and Maze jumps right in. I go on and open up the windows for her before we start driving. I put the bed I bought her on top of the bed as I give her a bone. She seems grateful and immediately gets to work. I get to the front of the bus and drive home.

I pull up to the back of my house and open the door for Maz. She runs outside and goes to the bathroom and sniffs around the surrounding trees.

"Hey Cy. Where's the pup?" My dad asks with a tennis ball in his hand.

"She's not a big fan of men, and I don't know how close you should get."

"Oh alright." He looks a little disappointed.

"Let me try something." I call her over and she comes to me. "Go say hi." I say as I shoo her away. The idea is that hopefully if she has nothing to protect she won't be reactive.

She walks up tentatively to him and I hear him say "Hey beautiful." and he leans down.

She seems to take this as a clear invite as she lowers her head and let's my dad reach out to pet her. I see a change in her demeanor as soon as he scratches under her collar.

"I have big plans for tomorrow and since you're good with animals, can you make sure mom meets her okay?"

"Yeah where are you going, you just got back."

"Maz and I have a plan to make a big gesture tomorrow, and since she seems fine approaching people not the other way around, I'm gonna do something cute in hopes Josie will be okay with an extra furry traveler."

"Ahhhhh gotcha, alright I'll see you in a bit. Love you."

"Love you too." I say as I get in my car.

I drive to the nearest shop that has flowers, hoping I can find something that could survive more than a couple days. I find a rose bush that was the same shade of Josie's skirt the night that we danced and immediately put it in the cart. I also get a huge bag of sour patch watermelons, and a cardboard sign that's not horribly big, and drive back to my house.

I walk into the front door to see my dog in my mom's lap in front of the fireplace. As soon as she gets a whiff of me though, she's up and is running towards me. Maz jumps on me with full force and just about knocks me over.

"Woah good to see you too. I see you two got acquainted."

"Yes, she is quite the cuddler when she warms up." My mom says with a big smile on her face.

"Traitor." I whisper in Maz's ear, she doesn't care though because she licks a big line across my face. "So, did she pass the mom test?"

"With flying colors, you should have seen your father. He was in 7th heaven throwing that ball for her."

"Great, now all you have to do is win over my girlfriend." I say as I ruffle the fur on her head and gently push her off of me.

"Something tells me that wont be a problem." My mom says through a laugh.

"I hope so, I am really tired so I am going to go work on this poster and then I am going to turn in. I love you mom." 

"I love you too Ro, let me know if you need any help."

"I will."

I walk to my room and open the door, and Maz immediately goes and jumps on my bed and looks at me with her tongue hanging out of the side of her mouth happily.

"You're lucky you're cute." I sit down at my desk and start working. It only takes about half an hour to finish and then I go to bed with the new family member at my legs.