a girl and her dog-- (nat)

[Caitlyn Jordan Zimmerman]

When wasn't there a nice day in Coral Ridge? Ever since coming here, the weather was anything but nice. Of course, there was the occisonal rain, but otherwise, the weather was perfect Flordia weather. After getting dressed, and having something to eat, Caitlyn lounged around for a bit, working on a sketch that she had been working on for a while, but never had time to do it because she was either working at the Cafe De Flore, working on home-work for school, or volunteering at the humane society. As she was working, a whimper made her lose focus, and she looked down to see Baylor looking up at her with puppy-dog eyes.

Baylor (a husky-mix, with brown and black fur with blue eyes) and Chip (a brown mutt) were two of Caitlyn's dogs, and she was gratefully that her mom said that they could come with them when they moved. "What's wrong, Baylor? Did you want to go for a walk?"

[/color] she asked, laughing as Baylor got excited over the word "walk". She figured Baylor could use it, because she doubt with the heat, Chip would just be too hot. Besides, Chip was kind of old, and she was afraid that the heat would kill him. After getting Baylor ready, she left a note for her mom, and off they went.

When they got to the park, it wasn't extremely busy, so Caitlyn thought it would be nice if Baylor could run free whule she worked on her sketch. "Stay where I could see you: I don't want someone complaining that you chewed up something, or just being bad in general."[/color] Caitlyn told him as she unhooked his leash. As she watched him go, Caitlyn shook her head as she dug out her sketch-book and colored pencils, and started to work.


TAGGED;; NAT
OUFIT;; CAN BE FOUND HERE
WORDS;; THERE ARE 311 WORDS
LYRICS;; LOVE YOU LIKE A LOVE SONG - SELENA GOMEZ AND THE SCENE.
WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO?;; GOOD TIME BY CARLY RAE JEPSEN AND OWL CITY

THIS TEMPLATE WAS MADE BY LUPITA OF CAUTION 2.0. THE TEXT BANNERS WERE ALSO MADE BY HER. THE LYRICS, HOWEVER, GO TO SELENA GOMEZ AND THE SCENE. A LINK TO WHERE YOU ARE USING THIS IS GREATLY APPRECIATED AND PLEASE KEEP THE CREDITS IN TACT. IF NOT SHE WILL HUNT YOU DOWN AND UNLEASH THE FURY OF A THREE YEAR OLD ON YOU.[/size][/center][/blockquote]

[Natalie Makena]

NATALIE MAKENA

Natalie had been at the coffee shop all morning. Frankly, it was a lot quieter at 6 am than most people would expect in the city of this size—especially in a hole in the wall off of the outer edges of the city. Sure, it wasn’t the fanciest place, but the coffee was good, great even. Better than a lot of the crap from Starbucks anyways. Of course, at eight, people actually began waking up and facing the world and heading off to their jobs, and the normally quiet and quaint coffee shop she had had for herself had been flooded with noisy businessmen on phones and mothers of triplets on their way to work. After that, Natalie had perused her lips, snapped shut her book, and exited the shop in a hurry, leaving her payment on the counter under a napkin for the man who ran the shop to find when the crowds died down. She didn’t want to bother him, he looked swamped enough.

So, Natalie had made her way to the park. It wasn’t her favorite place in the city, she far preferred the beach, but it was still quaint if you found the right places to go. She wasn’t one for merely lingering around nature, enjoying life, but she was… bored, in reality. She needed something to focus on, to do, while she waited to hear from a friend she had emailed late last night, and, well, walking in the park and people watching was the thing to do. So, the redhead walked about the length of the park, hands in her pockets and earphones in her ears connected to an iPod that was turned off. People were so much more free with their words if they didn’t think you were listening.

Along the way, she noticed a girl with her dog—sitting down at a bench and sketching as the dog frisked around with another lady’s poodle. She only really paid them a second glance due to the dogs, the poodle a very pretty white and the other dog (some sort of husky?) a very pretty breed. Natalie was more of a cat-person herself, ha-ha, but she did enjoy most all animals and the do did catch her attention as she made her way about the park’s edges, half tempted to go up and ask the drawing lady the dog’s breed. She didn’t, quelling the urge with a short nod and faint smile at the dogs as she went past, circling around to the other side of the park.

It there, nearly at the end of her walk, did it happen. Natalie was on the sidewalk, on the edge of the park and nearing the crossroad where she would leave back to her car, when she noticed a man—wearing a jacket, why would he be wearing a jacket in this weather?—casually, too casually, sitting on a park bench facing the gardens. He was fiddling with something in his teeth, a flash of silver, making the girl’s eyes narrow even as she kept walking forward, trying to get a better glance. It looked, very similar to—

The dog from before, the husky, came tearing out of the woods and off towards the man, even as he raised a hand to his lips to pull out the silver dog whistle from his teeth. Great. The man reached forward, pulling a leash from his coat’s pocket, reaching out and beckoning the far-too-friendly dog forward with another few silent and short bursts. Natalie’s ears were already ringing, the electronic tone of the whistle catching in her earphones silence, and she watched and continued walking as the dog evaded the man’s grasp momentarily, before the man’s gloved hand caught around the dog’s collar and clipped him tight.

Leather gloves. Crap,

Natalie sighed, hands curling and tightening around each other till they hurt deep inside her pockets. She wavered, crossing the street, before mentally smacking herself and sharply veering off back towards the man with the coat, and, now, a dog.

He was tightening the leash as she walked up, eyes narrowed, leather gloves thick and obviously not designed for a summer’s walk standing out against his features. He looked up, giving her a small glance as she approached, before looking down, obviously not thinking she was there for him. Finally, the girl stopped dead in front of the man, and he looked up.

“Can I help you?” he asked, voice smooth, and all Natalie could focus on was the gloves on his hand and the steadily growing irritation and suspicion. “Is there—”

“That’s not your dog,” Natalie interrupted flatly. “Please unleash him.”
The man gave her a look, a smile with too many teeth. “I’m afraid I don’t understand.”

“That’s not your dog,” the redhead hissed, voice an octave lower than before. “I saw him with a girl earlier, now please let him go.”

The man gave a look around, obviously searching the relatively empty park for the owner previous—who was still out of the picture—or law enforcement. Finally, after a moment, he turned back, giving her another distant smile that made her skin crawl. “I’m afraid you’ve made a mistake, miss,” the man said, voice equally as strained, even as the dog beneath him pawed at the collar around his neck. “So—”

Natalie stepped forward, and the man stepped forward to meet her, pulling his arm holding the leash back—leaving his other arm free for Natalie to grab, pull, and remove the heavy glove whose lingering teethmarks of past dogs she could still make out. Both their eyes flickered down to the man’s hand, scared with past bites and scars, before back up to meet each other.

“Oops,” Natalie said.

The man wrenched his arm back. “Return my glove, please,” he said
firmly, voice icy cold.

“Return the dog, please,” Natalie shot back, equally as vicious.

“Return my glove.”

“Or what?” Natalie snarled.

[/blockquote]

[Caitlyn Jordan Zimmerman]

Sensing that something was wrong, she glanced up to not see Baylor at all. She put back her sketch-pad and colored pencils in her bag, and turned her head towards the older lady, who had the white poodle that Baylor was playing with earlier. "Excuse me, have you seen my dog?"

[/color] she asked, and the lady smiled. "Oh, that sweet dog that was playing with Polly? I think he went into the woods..something was making him go crazy, and so was Polly! Oh my gosh, she was shaking so hard.." the lady trailed off, and Caitlyn got up. "Okay, thank you so much![/color] she replied. "No problem, dear! I hope you find your dog! Poor thing..." the lady called after Caitlyn.

As she headed towards the woods, she started to get scared. Baylor was usually good at sticking near her, but maybe he heard something that Caitlyn couldn't, and just went crazy, like the lady said. She hoped he was okay, and wasn't hurt. People bring him back to her because on his tags, she wrote his name, her name, address, and phone number on it, so that if he got lost, they could bring him to her mom's house, or call her.

Relief flooded through her when she found a girl, a man, and Baylor. "Oh my gosh, you found him! Thank you so much!"[/color] Caitlyn said, but then she saw that the man wasn't handing over Baylor so easily. "What's going on? Why aren't you letting Baylor go?"[/color] she asked, relief leaving her voice. In it's place was fear, and she feared she wasn't getting Baylor back without a fight.


TAGGED;; NAT
OUFIT;; CAN BE FOUND HERE
WORDS;; THERE ARE 298 WORDS
LYRICS;; LOVE YOU LIKE A LOVE SONG - SELENA GOMEZ AND THE SCENE.
WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO?;; KISSIN YOU BY MIRANDA COSGROVE

THIS TEMPLATE WAS MADE BY LUPITA OF CAUTION 2.0. THE TEXT BANNERS WERE ALSO MADE BY HER. THE LYRICS, HOWEVER, GO TO SELENA GOMEZ AND THE SCENE. A LINK TO WHERE YOU ARE USING THIS IS GREATLY APPRECIATED AND PLEASE KEEP THE CREDITS IN TACT. IF NOT SHE WILL HUNT YOU DOWN AND UNLEASH THE FURY OF A THREE YEAR OLD ON YOU.[/size][/center][/blockquote]

[Natalie Makena]

NATALIE MAKENA

The man opened his mouth to reply, anger flashing in his eyes at a ferocity that actually made Natalie slightly worried, when, thankfully, suddenly, the dog's owner walked up. Natalie stepped back as the girl moved forward, obviously thankful that someone had found her dog, and the dog seemed pleased as well, tail wagging and straining against the leash to reach his owner, making the man's hand tighten about the leather leash.

"What's going on? Why aren't you letting Baylor go?" The girl was obviously quickly figuring out that something was amiss, and, arms crossed a few steps behind her, Natalie arched her eyebrow at the man, asking a silent question of how much he really wanted this dog for his show.

Baylor, or so she figured the dog's name was, was a fair sized dog--pretty too. Well muscled, obviously in good health, and the glimpse of the teeth she had seen looked wicked. Based on the scars and the glove the man bore, it wasn't difficult to put two and two together to come up with five and a half.

Natalie reached forward, one hand grabbing around the man's hand still holding the leash, hiding it by reaching forward with her other to wrap around the leash itself. Her nails dug into the man's hand, before he suddenly released his grip as his wrist made a popping sound when the girl dug her fingers in just the right places. She tugged the leash back, keeping her eyes locked on the man above her, giving him a sweet smile. "Thank you," she said simply, turning and giving back the leash to the owner with a tight smile.

She turned her head back towards the man, who obviously was angry and reluctant to let a good dog go--such a pretty and strong breed would do so well in the ring. "He's too nice of a dog to do well anyways," she told him, trying to make him back off and think the idea was his own. "He was fine enough to go with you, he'd be flashing his neck at any dog in your show and it really, really wouldn't be worth it."


The man scowled at her, and Natalie added a bit more steel into her faze, a little more teeth into her smile. "Really, really not worth it," she repeated.

Her words seemed to convince the man, and he turned, pulling up the collar of his coat and wordlessly pulling away down the street. Natalie watched him go, smile dead and gone, eyes narrowed and watching the man walk away until he was a pinprick of a silhouette in the distance, like a cat watching a particularly annoying and loud dog scurry away. He wouldn't come back.

[Caitlyn Jordan Zimmerman]

When the man released Baylor, Baylor came bounding over to Caitlyn, and Caitlyn keeled down to hug Baylor as Baylor gave her doggy kisses. "Don't ever run away like that again, Baylor! You had me worried and scared!"

[/color] she said, burying her face in his fur. She sighed, and got up to face the girl. "Thank you for saving Baylor. That guy looked pretty scary.."[/color] she trailed off, looking in the direction that the man went.

Whatever the man wanted with Baylor was beyond her. Sure, Baylor was ultra-friendly, but he was no attack dog, unless she, her mom, Chip, or anyone else was in danger, and could really do some damage. If that's what he wanted with Baylor, then he had another thing coming. But, anyone could have just picked him up, if the girl hadn't came and tell him to release Baylor.

Caitlyn bit her lower lip, and glanced at the girl again. "It sounded like you knew what he was going to do. What did he want with Baylor?"[/color] she asked, glancing down at Baylor, who was leashed again, and was wagging his tail, obviously happy to be re-united with Caitlyn again.


TAGGED;; NAT
OUFIT;; CAN BE FOUND HERE
WORDS;; THERE ARE 210 WORDS
LYRICS;; LOVE YOU LIKE A LOVE SONG - SELENA GOMEZ AND THE SCENE.
WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO?;; EENIE MEANIE BY JUSTIN BIEBER FEATURING SEAN KINGSTON

THIS TEMPLATE WAS MADE BY LUPITA OF CAUTION 2.0. THE TEXT BANNERS WERE ALSO MADE BY HER. THE LYRICS, HOWEVER, GO TO SELENA GOMEZ AND THE SCENE. A LINK TO WHERE YOU ARE USING THIS IS GREATLY APPRECIATED AND PLEASE KEEP THE CREDITS IN TACT. IF NOT SHE WILL HUNT YOU DOWN AND UNLEASH THE FURY OF A THREE YEAR OLD ON YOU.[/size][/center][/blockquote]

[Natalie Makena]

NATALIE MAKENA

Natalie watched the man until he winked out of sight behind the corner and waited a few seconds more for good measure before relaxing, shoulders softening in their rigidity. The girl was currently hugging and patting the dog, making the corners of Natalie’s mouth quirk up slightly as she watched in the corner of her eye, slightly uncomfortable as if she was intruding on a private moment.

Instead, while they were reunited, and the girl thanked her—which Natalie nodded absently too—she thought. Seeing the man with Baylor had upset her. She’d always like animals, found them a bit more agreeable than humans to tell you the truth. She’d practically grown up with them, even tigers and elephants and horses were more exotic than your typical dog or cat as a pet, and she’d always had a special fondness reserved for them. She’d visited the less than safe areas of the world in the past, the shady parts of the cities—it was what she did—and she knew the signs of someone looking for additions to their private… business. A business that she’d witnessed once, in a place she’d been told to meet a mark for an exchange, and she’d watched in a horrified sort of way as the huge dogs tore the smaller ones apart, desperate for food and high on bloodshed. She’d weeded the city out with a few calls, but not before losing her stomach and a small part of her dwindling faith in humanity.

Seeing it again—seeing the promises of it again—infuriated her.

“A fight ring,” she said simply, turning her head towards the girl. “A dog fighting ring. He was wearing the gloves that all the handlers wear—too big, leather, scarred—so that the dogs they catch can’t bite their hands off.” The girl’s eyes flickered down towards the husky, the flashing anger that had been evident before softening. “I guess he thought your Baylor would do well.”

But he had tried to grab the wrong dog at the wrong time in front of the wrong, ticked off, girl.

“Make sure to keep your dog in your sight at all times,” she told the girl next, fingers already itching in her pockets, mind already planning a map to try and follow the man that had walked off just a minute before. If she cut across the coffee-shop, she might be able to cut him off and follow him undetected for a while. “The ring’s probably not in town, so you should be safe most of the time, but if you take him off the leash, make sure there’s no one suspicious looking nearby.” She was already edging towards the sidewalk, eyeing the coffee-shop she planned to cut through, giving the girl a terse smile at her and towards her dog. “He’s a cute one. Take care of him.”

And she turned and began to in the direction after the man, pace determined.

[/blockquote]

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you can have caitlyn follow/come along if you wish. or they can meet up sometime in the future again. or we can end if here, if you'd really like. sorry for the late reply, btw. xD school.