looking for working dogs, not adorable puffballs. Having been one of the humans who had freed the trapped dogs and set up the feeding stations, he knew most of the dogs wouldn’t suit his needs or the needs of the people on the other ranches. And his mother, who had agreed to take a dog on a trial basis—the trial being that the dog could get along with Rachel Wolfgard and vice versa—wasn’t interested in a puffball either. Jesse Walker was not a puffball kind of woman.
“Well, I’m going to take a look, anyway,” he said. “Looking for barn cats mostly, and dogs that can earn their keep on a ranch, one way or another.”
“Then let’s look at the cats first.” Barb led them to the single-story house next door.
As Tobias held the door open to let the women go in first, he noticed the deputy eyeing his revolver. “Sheriff Wolfgard and Tolya Sanguinati gave me special permission to wear a weapon in town.”
She nodded as she entered the house ahead of him, but he wasn’t sure if that was acknowledgment of information she already had or that she’d be checking with the sheriff to confirm his statement. In her place, he sure would.
The cats had the run of the living room, and despite living around animals, he wasn’t sure he’d want to take over this house after the animals were relocated.
“I’m doing most of the sorting in the rooms that weren’t cleared out before we turned the place into a pet hotel,” Barb said. “Turns out some people are allergic enough to cats that handling something like books from a house that had cats is enough to cause a reaction. So everything that’s left in this house that can’t be washed has to be boxed and labeled and stored in a separate location from the rest of the goods. The birds are in a house across the street.” She looked at Ed. “Would you like a bird?”
“Ed is a ranch hand. She won’t be at the ranch house every day to look after a bird,” Tobias said. But he turned the thought over in his mind and wondered if Ellen Garcia would enjoy the chirp and chatter. He’d mention it to her and take a look next time he was in town if she didn’t want to come up to Bennett herself.
He had a good feeling about four of the cats, that they would be happy being barn cats and partially fending for themselves by hunting mice. Barb Debany found carriers for each of them. The cats weren’t pleased about the confinement, but they didn’t cause too much fuss after Barb gave each of them a catnip toy as a distraction.
The cats he could take or leave. At the Prairie Gold ranch, Ellen Garcia was the one who had a soft spot for the barn cats. But the dogs crowding around him when they returned to the house next door made him sad. They were good dogs that just wanted to be loved.
Or wanted a job.
Spotting two border collies, Tobias raised a hand and watched the dogs snap to attention, ready to follow his command. When he lowered his hand and started to turn toward Barb, he could feel them accusing him of dashing their hopes.
“You have any leashes handy?” he asked.
Barb nodded. “I’ll get them.” She returned a minute later with a handful of leashes.
Talk about hopeful.
He let out a sharp whistle, then said, “Sit!” and watched half the dogs obey the command. Taking four of the leashes, he said, “Stay!” before walking over to the border collies and clipping leashes to their collars. These two would go with Truman Skye, who had experience working with the cattle dogs on the Prairie Gold ranch.
He eyed the rest of the dogs and decided, with regret, that he couldn’t see them with the Simple Life women who would be keeping house on the other three ranches. Jesse’s vehemence about which Simple Life woman would be working for Truman meant he couldn’t assume the other women would provide a good home for a dog. Didn’t mean they weren’t good people; they just weren’t the right people for these dogs.
He almost gave the release command when he noticed one young female—white with rust-colored ears and saddle—who had obeyed his command to sit but wasn’t focused on him. She was focused on Jana Paniccia and was struggling to obey the stay command when she clearly wanted to rush over and make friends.
Giving the