"Wake up, Sam!" I hear Timothy call from the doorway. He knows I'm awake. It's a game he likes to play. I humor him and roll over on my back and huff. The car and his keys make enough noise to wake up the entire neighborhood. "I brought chicken! We're cheating on our diet tonight." He laughs as he comes into the living room to find me. The more ridiculous I look, the happier he is. And when he's happy, I'm happy.

He rolls me back and forth a couple of times and I finally roll off the couch and to my feet. A good shake later and I look ecstatically up at him and push my head at him. I'm hard to ignore. And why would he want to? Tim rubs my face and ears and continues talking about the chicken and how we can't keep cheating when we feel too lazy to cook. I bounce off his leg and into the kitchen to investigate the prize he's brought home.

"Just a bit for you. Give me a chance to take the skin off and I'll add some to your bowl." Tim always talks to me when he's home. I sit in a silent house most of the day, so I sit and soak up the company. The squirrels outside are terrible company and never make any sense when I try to sit in the yard with them. "The new receptionist started today. She came with a great resume though and has worked with the same system before, so I hope she gets settled sooner than later," he's tearing the fried chicken into a small pile. The office seems to always have something going on. If I miss even a single day of Tim's news then I have to catch up the next time.

He tosses me a couple of pieces that I snatch out of the air. He always smiles when I catch them. "Her name is Becky. She's got a little dog herself. I think she said a terrier." He puts my bowl down at his feet and washes his hands before digging out a piece of chicken for himself. "We ought to set up a play date sometime and maybe show her around the area. She's from the west end of the state and just moved." He spooned up some potatoes and I nudged his knee. He forgot to give me potatoes. He dropped a dollop into my bowl and continued about some of the things he should tell the new receptionist to check out.

"It's a shame that Lauren didn't work out. She was a whizz with the scheduling part and knew just when to screen the sales calls," he tosses another piece of chicken. Score! It was skin! "Just a little of the that. You know that stuff goes straight to your hips." It did no such thing but Tim was just looking out for me. "Becky did find Lauren's notes on changes she made to the systems and what vendors to watch for and customers that take extra handling. The girl's a quick study. I'm excited to see what she can do."

He began putting the leftovers into bowls. "You know, Sam, if more people would just take their work seriously, the world would spin smoother." This was a frequent complaint. I'm not sure what made people not work seriously but as often as Tim brought it up, it must be a big problem to getting The Job done. Tim took pride in his work. He loved The Job and wanted to be the best at it. Other people kept that from happening sometimes. He always made sure those people didn't stay around very long. They must go on to new Jobs that didn't care if they weren't taking it seriously.

Food back in the fridge, Tim grabbed our ball and headed for the back door. I had some time before dark to make sure he got his exercise. We couldn't cheat on the diet and not exercise. Tim could get lazy if I didn't keep him moving and I was sure that wasn't good for him. He was frowning as he went down the back steps. "Lauren wasn't a bad sort. She really did try to keep everything running smoothly. But she overthought things. Sometimes it's the simplest way that really does work best. You can work yourself in circles if you spend too much time trying to solve a problem. And that certainly wasn't efficient." He had stopped but wasn't throwing the ball.

I bounced in the grass trying to get his attention. Tim had a lot on his mind somedays and got distracted in his own thoughts. It's my Job to make sure he didn't overthink things like the people that he complained about did. He wasn't like them. Bouncing wasn't working so I pawed his leg. It was like this a lot lately. The Job could be stressful for Tim. He finally threw the ball. "Sam, we might need to drop in on Lauren now that I'm thinking about it. I may have to check a couple of things." I dropped the ball at his feet and waited for the next throw. "The freezer should be secure but if anyone goes poking around the cellar they may start to look closer." I shut my mouth. Lauren had a freezer in her cellar?

"I should probably also take a look at Lauren's old notes before Becky gets into the office in the morning and make sure there's nothing strange in them either." He picked the ball up. "I may need to move some of those freezers soon. The old hiding place is full up, so we'll need to start scouting for a new one as long as employees keep not meeting expectations." I perked my ears up. Hiding place? Why would we move freezers? "If Becky works half as well as she seems, I may have some time before I need to make the system run more efficiently. But we need a plan." Something was wrong. Tim had never talked about freezers at his Job before. And he kept forgetting to throw the ball. Freezers made the Job more efficient? I might just be a dog but I don't think that the two things went together.

"Lauren may be ready to move soon anyway. The longer she stays in that freezer, the harder it will be to get her back out of it. I don't want to have to defrost the freezer to get another one out. It was a mess last time that happened." I stared at Tim. This wasn't my Tim. Tim would never put someone in a freezer! Tim rubbed my belly and ears. Made sure he threw chicken so I could catch it. Let me lounge on the couch and sleep in the bed. I sat and watched him in shock as he threw the ball.

"What's wrong, big guy? Allready worn out? We can head in and call it an early night." He started back up the steps into the house. I got up and followed him in. What else could I do?