Chapter XIX: The first take
Jennifer made quick work of changing her charge. She then announced that it was time for dinner. Back in a fresh diaper, Aran braced himself to be put in the highchair. Fortunately, the antidote was doing its job and it did not even hurt when the collie lifted him. With a bib around Aran's neck and the wooden tray in place, the wolf was ready for his meal.
"Let me guess, you're going to make me eat that green stuff again?"
"I'm afraid so, Aran. Puppies need their vegetables, and especially the green ones."
"Can we make a deal?" the wolf tried.
Jennifer sighed.
"You'll try anything to talk yourself out of it, won't you?"
"No, no, that's not what I was aiming at. I'll take the green stuff and I'll even start with it."
"Something tells me there is a condition," Jennifer replied in anticipation as she put a few jars of puppy food on the dining table.
"Yush. I promise that I'll be good and eat everything you feed me, but I want you to tell me something in return."
"I'm listening," she beckoned, as she put the first jar in the microwave.
"I figure that you're not going to tell me why I am here, but can you tell me more about Wesley? I'd like to know what kind of dog he is and why he ended up in this place."
She considered the offer for a few seconds, opening the jar of the dreaded green vegetable mush she had retrieved.
"All right, but you're not going to fuss in any way today, got it?" she said sternly.
"I promise."
"Good, now open up," Jennifer replied, scooping up some of the vegetable blend.
Aran proved himself to be a wolf of his word. He ate everything Jennifer fed him, without hesitation or fussing. His dessert was not strawberry yogurt this time, but a different flavor, although he could not discern exactly what fruit it was.
When the wolf had eaten the contents of all the jars on the table, Jennifer took him out of the highchair and put him down on the couch. She then went to the kitchen, only to return with a puppy bottle in hand. The bottle contained only a small amount of liquid, and Aran recognized the color.
"The antidote is doing just fine, I see. Let's keep it up, little one. I don't want to see you suffer like that again."
The wolf eagerly accepted the nipple in his muzzle and drained the bottle. Jennifer got up again and prepared another bottle of formula. When she came back to the couch and offered the drink to her charge, Aran hesitated for a second, but quickly remembered his promise.
"You're being really good today, pup," she praised after the wolf had drank all of the formula.
"I don't really have the energy to annoy you properly," he replied with a hint of twit.
Jennifer smiled.
"Fine, since you kept your promise, I'll give you my end of the deal, but I'm missing something."
"What is it?" Aran asked as he cocked his head.
"Go get your plushie from the playroom, he's getting lonely all by himself," she urged.
Aran decided to be obedient and got up from the couch. The collie followed suit and went to the kitchen to put the bottles in the dishwasher. When she returned, her charge had already taken his place on the couch again, holding the stuffed husky under his arm.
Jennifer joined him on the couch and pulled him a little closer to her. Idly petting his plushie, the wolf waited for his caregiver to tell him what he wanted to hear.
"Wesley was my first charge. I had taken care of other charges for shorter periods as a part of my training, but I never had the full responsibility for anyone before. Of course, Kaiser was my colleague on that case as well. At first, I didn't really like the Retriever. Kaiser said to me that Wesley would be 'a piece of work'."
"He said that about me as well. Is that good or bad?"
"You need a different kind of attention," Jennifer answered, dodging the actual question. "Wesley was here because his parents had requested it. Not directly, but they eventually ended up with us. They were desperate for help."
"What was his problem? He looks like a happy dog to me."
"Don't forget that the picture was taken when he graduated, pup. Wesley was what some would call a 'problem child'. He was disrespectful to his parents, swore a lot and he had issues with losing his temper. The dog resorted to physical violence when his words did not have the desired effect. His parents could no longer control him, and when he turned sixteen, they contacted a counselor. It took the parents a few months to figure out that they were part of the problem, but the most visual part of their unhealthy home situation was their son."
"How did they find out?"
"That's not important for you, pup. Anyway, the counselor advised them to seek professional help to analyze their way of raising children and to help them become better at it. In the meantime, Wesley would be enrolled in 'a special program to help him deal with his issues', as the counselor put it."
"Did the parents know anything about the kind of treatment their son would get?"
Jennifer shook her head.
"We try to keep that out of the public as much as we can. Besides, they didn't really care, all they wanted was for their son to change, and they couldn't do it without help. Even Wesley's younger sister begged her parents to do something about her brother."
"I can imagine that he wasn't too happy when he woke up here, in the crib."
"That would be a big understatement," Jennifer laughed. "When he asked me about why I treated him like a toddler, I only answered that he behaved himself like one on social and emotional levels. This, of course, was not what the Retriever wanted to hear, so he started to swear and wanted to hit me. Since we knew that he was violent, Kaiser had been staying with me for the first few days, so we were easily able to subdue him."
"He didn't just give up after that, did he?"
"On the contrary. He tried to use my phone on the second day. Unfortunately for him, the phone is password protected. There is a 'distress call'-function, but that'll only make the phone connect to my superiors. I can tell you that he wasn't too happy when I found out about his attempt."
"What did you do to him?"
"Well, he threw a volley of verbal insults at me. Kaiser picked up on his yelling and intervened before the situation got out of hand. It ended with Wesley in the timeout corner, after we had 'cleaned' the inside of his mouth with a bar of soap."
Aran tried not to laugh, but he could not resist doing so.
"Did he ever try to escape?"
"Once," the collie replied dryly.
"What happened?"
"Kaiser caught him as he tried to leave through the back door. It didn't end pretty for the Retriever. Of course, he wanted to swear again and started to thrash when Kaiser put him in a headlock."
"Let me guess, more soap and timeout?"
"Yush. After his timeout, Kaiser and I put him in a harness with a leash. I really didn't want to do that, but it was for his own good. Believe it or not, but I felt compassionate about Wesley."
"How? He was insulting you and he wanted to beat you up. Sounds just like my dad to me," Aran replied.
"That's where it gets interesting. Wesley used to be nice and polite when he was a young child. He wasn't born violent, but he became like that and his parents proved themselves unable revert that change. After three days of wearing a harness and being limited to wherever Kaiser or I would lock his leash to, he finally gave up. Even though I didn't believe him at first, he seemed to understand that there were two of us and only one of him, and that I was in charge."
"Did he still submit to you when Kaiser left? Or was he with you all the time?"
"Oh goodness, no. After a week or two, Kaiser trusted the situation enough to leave me with Wesley. During those two weeks, the Retriever had spent quite some time in the corner with suds in his muzzle. I lost track of how many times I've had to wash his mouth during his time here."
"What changed? I mean, how did he change?"
"Eventually, through various methods I've learned, and through conversations with another colleague of mine, who is a psychologist, he started to see what his treatment was all about. I had to be stern with him, basically raising him again by disciplining him and explaining that I constitute rules and boundaries because I cared for him. It was all for his own good, but it took him a while to understand that."
"So this is for my own good as well, even though I don't see how?" Aran queried.
Jennifer nodded.
"Like I said before, all will be revealed in time. You're a different person than Wesley and you're here for a different problem, but in the end, it's only to help you."
"I see. But tell me, did you find out how or why Wesley became so violent?"
"Eventually, yush. It appeared that his parents had not set boundaries or enforced them. Wesley had made a habit out of not keeping his side of an agreement, since there were no negative consequences."
"So basically, his folks had been too liberal?"
"All three of them needed help. In the end, the parents were glad that they had learned to take better care of their pups and they were very grateful to receive their changed son back."
"And Wesley? What about him? What did he think of his treatment?"
The collie stared at the picture on the mantelshelf for a few second.
"Look at him, Aran," she urged. "Do you see that smile?"
"Yush," he replied without emotion.
"That's real, little one. His parents weren't the only people happy to see that their son had changed."
There was a short silence.
"Will my parents be like that as well? I can't imagine my dad being content about me. He rarely ever was."
"It's not all about your father, pup. This is about you in the first place. I don't care how long it'll take, but one day, there will be a picture of you on my mantelshelf, and you'll be smiling just like Wesley did."
The wolf did not reply to Jennifer's musing, mostly because he did not know what to say. The collie then broke the silence again.
"Come, pup. It's past your bedtime. You have a big day ahead of you."
Being able to climb the stairs again, Aran slowly ascended the steps, carrying Damian with one hand and holding onto Jennifer's hand with the other. This time, he was not even mad that he had to take them one at a time. He felt like his undergarment was thicker than the one he had worn during the day, and concluded that Jennifer had put him in a nighttime diaper.
Once upstairs, he felt the effect of the antidote kicking in again, and he was glad that he would get some sleep. However, as Jennifer lowered the side of the crib, Aran grew restless, despite his weariness. Being an experienced caregiver, the collie picked up the subconscious signal her charge was sending out.
"What's up, Aran? Are you afraid to go to sleep?"
He nodded, with his tail tucked between his legs.
"Is it because of the nightmares?" she asked as her charge sat down on the mattress.
The wolf shook his head.
"Kaiser."
She smiled and reassuringly petted his back.
"Don't worry, little one. He won't bother you tonight."
"Promise?"
"I promise," Jennifer replied, handing Aran his pacifier. "Now be a good puppy and go to Dreamland, okay?"
Aran laid down and cuddled up to his plushie, hiding his body under the covers as if the cloth could shield him from any harm. The collie gave him a quick lick on his forehead before sliding the side back up and latching it. She turned the baby monitor on and left the nursery, but the wolf did not notice any of that. He was already fast asleep.