One of his ears never stood up, and his eyes were filled with a kind of sadness that broke Daniel’s heart the moment he saw him. The shelter volunteer, a weary woman with graying hair, had sighed as they approached his kennel.
That was all Daniel needed to hear. He and Jake signed the adoption papers immediately.
Buddy wasn’t perfect—far from it. He whined in his sleep when nightmares overtook him. Thunderstorms made him bark and shake as though the sky itself was coming to get him.
He refused to walk near men wearing baseball caps, a quirk that remained a mystery. Yet, despite all his quirks, Buddy loved them fiercely.
Every night, he would curl up by their bedroom door, alert and watchful, as if guarding them from dangers they could never see.
“What do you think he’s protecting us from?” Daniel asked Jake one evening as they watched Buddy sleep.
“Maybe ghosts,” Jake said with a grin. “Or maybe just his own past.”
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