Animal Volunteering's Supposed to be Fun, Right?

[Levi Alexander Wolfe]

“True.” He said with a nod. Pawesome was a big dog, who probably needed a lot of exercise. She was right, he’d need to be with a person or family that could provide him just that. He thought of his two dogs. Having them cooped up in the apartment all the time wasn’t good for them. He wished he had a yard, but at the same time he didn’t want a house. Levi was good though, he took them out any chance he got to, but a yard. That would be wonderful.

“I can tell you many stories.” Levi said with a laugh. He wasn’t the worst kid out there, but he was probably up there. Hoping that she wouldn’t actually want to hear the stories he repeated what she said. “Your dad’s footsteps?” He asked, curious as to what lead to that decision. For Levi being like his father would be the absolute last thing he would want. But for somebody to want to be like their father. That was fascinating. “Your dad was a teacher too?” He asked, not wanting to push too much, but he was genuinely interested. If roles were reversed, he would avoid the topic of his father, yet again, he always wouldn’t have been the one to bring him up in the first place, and because she did, he assumed it wasn’t a sore subject.

When Charity confirmed that she too was ready, he went to reach for the hose with his foamy hands. He was mindful of where the dog was and where Charity was now standing. He couldn’t help but laugh at her comment. He squinted at her scolding finger. Damn. She was one step ahead of him. He turned on the hose, and began rinsing the dog, running his hands over each part to make sure all of the shampoo was completely gone. He occasionally would pet him on his head or give him a scratch behind the ears to reassure him that he was behaving well. When he felt confident that all of the shampoo was removed from the dog he took a step back, unsure if he was going to shake the water off. Levi looked at Charity, “Would you like me to rinse your hands off?” He asked, gesturing to her soapy hands. He smirked. “I promise it’ll be just your hands…”

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Tag: Charity Croft

[Charity Croft]

Her dad's footsteps: Charity had to nod at that. It almost felt weird to be talking about him with someone who hadn't actually met the man. But Levi wasn't exactly a mutant, hadn't gone to the school, didn't know about Guy Legrange and the messy legacy he'd left his daughter. "My dad was, ah, well, he was sort of a big deal at the school I'm at now," Charity offered, gesturing a little as if she could somehow just encompass all that mess with one little hand flail. She couldn't exactly do much, what with the excitable Dane right there. Charity almost immediately slapped her hand back down on the dog, who let out a slight bark.

Then it was a matter of adjusting while Levi got the hose and got ready. She adjusted so that the man could get to the dog fairly easily. Thankfully this didn't prove to be too much of an issue. The only real problem was making sure that Pawesome didn't end up turning circles or something like that. Charity reached up and made certain to knock bits and pieces off the dog, rubbing him till it was all gone.

Up to her feet now, nose wrinkled. "Yes please," she said, holding her hands out, fingers spread. She gave him a look, wrinkling her nose for a moment. "You'd better not: then I'd start squealing and we'd have to get Pawesome all calmed down again before we could get him back in his cage." At least they'd then thankfully be done after that: something they could both probably breathe sigh of relief about.

[Levi Alexander Wolfe]

Levi was quiet. His ears listened intently to Charity as she spoke about her father. Her voice seemed free of resent or hate. He was oddly fascinated by it all. He worked at the academy, even more interesting. Levi’s hazel eyes shifted to the dog when it barked, but instantly went back to Charity. “Was?” He asked, with a slight tilt of the head. He wasn’t sure if she had said that intentionally or not. He couldn’t help but want to know more. He was curious. He knew that most people got along with their parents, but he had distanced himself so far from that concept that now it was so foreign to him. If only he could have had another father.

As he rinsed the Great Dane he was careful to not splash Charity. He watched the water flow out of the hose onto the dog as she moved her hands around to rid the Lord Pawesome of any dirt and suds that remained. He was impressed with how well the dog was behaving, considering how moments ago he had knocked Charity onto the floor. Unintentionally of course.

He smiled as she answered his question, her wrinkled nose was cute. He let out a laugh, holding back an inappropriate comment. “I promised didn’t I?” He reassured with raised eyebrows and a shrug. “And I never break a promise.” He said giving her a tern look with a slight nod. That was one thing he was proud of, he was a man of his word. He would never dare go back on a promise he made, but then again, he very rarely made a promise. He moved the hose towards her hands, and carefully moved it about, watching until the last drop of soap was washed away to the grey floor.

“Alright, cage cleaned, dog cleaned. Check and check. Now we just need to get him back in the cage.” He said with a smile.

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Tag: Charity Croft

[Charity Croft]

"Was," Charity repeated, nodding. "He died last year, sort of,' Charity rolled her hand for a bit, clearly trying to work the words out somehow, "well not sort of, he's dead," she bobbed her head, "it's just... it wasn't... great? And I didn't find out he was my father until really late into the whole thing, so, yeah," Charity shrugged. She could go on and say more, but at times it almost felt as if she just repeated things. She just wanted to move forward with the whole thing, put it behind her, live her life and all.

The dog kept enjoying himself, though Charity had to wonder if they were in the eye of the storm or something along those lines. Levi was at least behaving himself: he cleaned off Charity's hands without getting water anywhere else. She shook her hands out a bit to dry them. She'd barely started when she realized something:

"You might wanna---" she started. Only it was too late: Paweesome had finally had enough. He shook mightily, spraying them both with water and anything else that happened to be on him at the time. Charity squealed and tried to duck behind Levi, more than ready to use him as a shield. Because she knew that once a dog started, he had to do this at least a few times to get it out of his system.

[Levi Alexander Wolfe]

“Oh. I’m so sorry to hear that.” He said slightly uncomfortable, he was never good at consoling people. Not that she needed that at the moment. He was never good with other people’s emotions. He tended to distance himself from those situations. Only the good times, that’s all he wanted. How could he help someone else with their problems when he can’t even help himself?

He decided not to ask anymore, the situation seemed…complicated to say the very least. Levi was in no mood to deal with that, and he assumed she didn’t really want to talk about it either. Thank God.

After rinsing her hands, Levi was about to turn off the hose and place it back on the floor when Charity started to talk to him again. Only she was cut off when Lord Pawesome decided to dry himself off by violently shaking himself. Spraying the water from his fur in all directions like shrapnel after a bomb explodes. There was no hiding from it. He heard Charity squeal and duck behind him. Levi while covering his face with one arm he moved closer to Charity in order to block her from most of the wet debris. He was not going to let her get wet or playfully attacked again. No. He grabbed her arms gently and place her behind him, and he slowly turned to face her so his wet back was getting most of the impact.

The dog didn’t move much after he shook himself. He just stood there with this dumbfounded look on his face, like he hadn’t realized what he just did. Levi turned his head to look at the Great Dane. As soon as he made eye contact, Lord Pawesome let out a couple of barks, and then started shaking again. Levi immediately faced Charity again. “Well then. At least this view is better.” He said with a smirk as he wiped water from his face and then proceeded to wipe off a few drops on her cheek. “Imagine if this was how we dried off after a shower?” He said with a laugh, the image in his head was quite humorous.

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Tag: Charity Croft