Chapter 11- The Choice

I took the kids out of the seats and walked into the shelter. It smelled of- well, dogs- and dirt. I looked around, and I saw such cute little puppies. Daisy was pulling on my shirt. "Mommy, look! A Crogi dog," She said, trying to pronounce Corgi. "Yeah, I can see him," I replied, pushing her hand away from the glass bowls on the shelves. I spotted a Yorkie. I walked over to the dog. An employee probably saw me looking at the dog and came to talk to me about her. "Hello miss, my name is Lia, and this here is Bella. She's a newborn, 20 days old today." Lia cooed. I caught sight of Asher and the kids. "Hang on, let me get the others" I walked away. Asher looked up. "Hey, baby, I think we found one." He said, moving aside so I could take a look. "Oh my god! He's gorgeous. I found one too. But is he a Bichon Frise?” I said, still drooling over the puppy. "Yeah, he is. Let's see what you found." Asher replied, walking over to Bella. At one look, Asher already knew. "She's a keeper. End of story." He said, petting her from the top of her cage. Bella played around with his hands, and I walked over to the other dog. His name tag said "Cody" on it. I petted him through the cage, and he relaxed under my feelings. Stephanie, Daisy, and Dylan were completely quiet. Both stared at the dogs. I walked over to them. "What do you say? Keppers?" I asked, not knowing that Asher had made them shut their mouths with their invisible zipper. I dug through my pockets when the kids didn't say anything and pulled out nothing. In their eyes, it was a magical golden key. I sighed. I put the non-existent key by the side of Dylan's mouth, unbuckled his fake zipper, and unzipped it. I did the same with the girls. They all said, "Yes, mommy! They're keepers!" You could hear their voices for miles. I saw Lia give us a worried look as she rushed over. "Everything okay?" She asked. "Nothing at all. We have decided to get Bella and Cody," Asher said, nodding at both dogs. Lia nodded and walked over to Cody's cage, unlocking it. She took him out along with a few other toys. "These are Cody's favorite toys. I'll put him in a cage." She came out of the employee room with a blue-colored cage. "Hey, you wanna get some food treats and toys for the puppies?" Asher asked the kids, already itching to start going. They all said yes, besides Daisy. "No. I wanna stay here with mommy," She said, staring at Cody in his cage. Lia took Bella out and let us pet her. She was agitated but, after a little while, calmed down. Asher came back with at least $300 worth of items for both Dogg, which he immediately put in the car. We adopted the dogs and signed the slips. We were all set. "Hey, Mom, can I carry Cody?" Stephanie asked, looking as if she was about to pull the dog out of the cage with all her excitement. "Um, can you wait 30 seconds? We are about to get in the car." I said, carrying Cody in his cage to the car. He barked as if to say bye to the animal shelter.