Pet King

Zhang Zian kept his hand in the air in embarrassment. He had trained the mini poodle himself. Even if it barked occasionally, it would stop as soon as he raised his hand. But the hand command wasn’t working for some reason.

In fact, small dogs were better watchdogs than medium-sized dogs or large dogs, such as stupid sled dogs and golden retrievers. Breeds like those would wag their tails and greet strangers happily, even if the stranger was a burglar.

If the mini poodle barked because it spotted a thief and wanted to alert Zhang Zian, he would surely reward it happily––but the girl next to him was a customer. She didn’t look like a thief or a dangerous criminal. The poodle had no reason to bark.

“Stop barking!” Fina was taking a nap and became annoyed. It stood up immediately from the cat tree, then stared at it in anger from its spot on higher ground. Unfortunately, its power of deterrence only worked on cats; it wasn’t so useful on the mini poodle.

“Keep barking and I’ll castrate you!” Snowy Lionet said while it licked it paws and stared at Zhang Zian.

“It better shut up now! Or else I’ll shut it up myself!” Fina stared at Zhang Zian furiously, since the mini poodle was clearly ignoring it.

Zhang Zian didn’t know what to say.

Old Time Tea could not watch television anymore, as the mini poodle’s volume totally outran the television. It was just like the old commercial line: No voice, no acting––no matter how good your acting is.

Famous had been busy taking pictures with movie fans in the morning, and it was finally enjoying a free moment. It dozed to recall the dream it had the night before, but the barking annoyed it.

“Quack quack! Quack quack!” Richard vocalized, as it thought someone wanted to compete with it. Soon, the entire shop was noisy and chaotic.

It didn’t bother Galaxy at all. Galaxy chased after the American shorthair cat and passed by the poodle quickly. After stopping briefly to watch, it continued to chase the cat.

As for the two elfins upstairs, they might have heard the commotion, too, but Zhang Zian didn’t know if it bothered them.

Even the puppies in the display cabinets were aroused by the mini poodle; they started barking with it. They were not as loud, of course.

The mini poodle not only barked; it was approaching the customer step-by-step.

“Will this dog… bite?” She stepped back in fear.

“No, don’t worry,” Zhang Zian said immediately.

Clearly, she didn’t believe him. “Really? I heard that all dog owners claim that their dogs don’t bite, but in fact…”

Zhang Zian grew even more embarrassed.

He knew that some people walked their dogs without the leash. If the dog barked at others and terrified them, the owner would claim confidently that their dogs would never bite. All people believed that their dogs didn’t bite, but in fact, the only person dogs didn’t bite was the owner.

Normally, he would be certain that the mini poodle would not bite anyone, but he wasn’t so sure how it would act that day. Heaven only knew if it would dash forward and bite the girl the next moment… Biting a customer would be a disaster. The only thing worse than apologizing and compensating them would be the bad name it would bring to him.

Wang Qian came close and whispered, “Well… Master, the other day, could this dog have been…?”

As he spoke, he made a scratching gesture. What he meant was that mini poodle could have been scratched by the rabid Siamese cat while they were not watching and have contracted rabies. Why else would it bark so horrendously? However, as there were customers present, he didn’t say it out loud to preserve his shop’s reputation.

Zhang Zian shook his head, asking him not to take such wild guesses.

The Siamese cat had no physical contact with the poodle that day. How could it have possibly infected it? Besides, the poodle wasn’t showing any rabies symptoms. Such guesses were completely far-fetched.

“Sorry. This dog always behaves well… I don’t know why it’s doing this,” Zhang Zian said honestly. He moved his body between the poodle and the female customer in case it suddenly jumped and tried to bite her.

Yet, as he moved, it moved as well, and continued barking at her.

“It looks like this dog doesn’t like me…” She laughed. “I can’t believe even dogs hate me these days…”

Troubled by the barking poodle, Zhang Zian kept thinking about the reason it was barking. He ignored her words and said casually, “Sorry, really. I’m so sorry… I’ll bring this dog upstairs right away. Please wait for a moment…”

“It’s okay; you don’t have to. I’ll leave first. Store owner, you are right. I didn’t think twice before coming here. I should think carefully about what kind of pet I really want…” She said with a gentle sigh. “I’m leaving. I will come back after I make up my mind…”

Zhang Zian did want to send her away so soon, but he felt bad for letting her go.

“My guest, you…” Before he could persuade her to stay, she turned around to leave, but she fell down as if she suddenly lost strength.

Zhang Zian’s body moved before his mind. He dashed forward, stretched one arm behind her back to catch her, and grabbed her arm with the other hand.

Luckily, he was close by and reacted promptly. Otherwise, she would have fallen hard on the floor. She might have even hit her forehead on the doorsteps.

“Hey! What’s wrong? Wake up!” Zhang Zian supported her body with his arm, not knowing what to do. All he could was call to her in vain, like a television drama. He wondered silently why she just fell down like that. She seemed incredibly weak.

Wang Qian and Lu Yiyun paused, then dropped the work in their hands and ran over.

“Master, you didn’t touch her. How did she fall down like that? I’d say you should put her on the floor. This might be a scam…” Wang Qian was both imaginative and vigilant.

“Mr. Store Manager, shall I call the ambulance?” Lu Yiyun asked anxiously.

Clearly, she was not faking––she was completely unconscious. Her eyes were tightly closed; her face was as pale as a ghost; her body was full of sweat. If she was acting, then she could surely win the Best Actress Award at the Berlin Film Festival the next year.

Old Time Tea and Famous were concerned and came over too.

Zhang Zian hit Snowy Lionet’s paws that were stretched out toward her chest. His hand felt a hard object on her waist by accident, which didn’t seem to be a purse.

He lifted her shirt around the waist slightly. To his surprise, he found a plastic device with an LED screen on her waist. It was attached to a thin, transparent, plastic tube that was inserted into her skin next to her belly button. There was gauze and medical tape around the skin attached to the tube.

The LED screen was blinking, but nobody knew what it was showing.

“What’s this? Looks like a pager from the last century,” Wang Qian said, as if he was an expert. “Is she a time traveler from the past?”

Zhang Zian didn’t know what kind of device it was either, but he was sure that it was not a pager, and she was surely not a time traveler.

Lu Yiyun pinched her philtrum, but it didn’t work.

“Let’s call an ambulance then,” Zhang Zian said. It was such bad luck to encounter such things early in the morning.

Lu Yiyun picked up her phone and dialed, informing the Emergency Center of the situation and giving the address of the pet shop.

The mini poodle was still barking, but not as loudly.

Another dog started barking; the sound came from outside. Apparently, it started after hearing the poodle’s bark.

Zhang Zian didn’t pay attention; he thought that there was an elderly man or woman walking their dog in the area.

“Snoopy, stop barking! Good morning, Store Manager… Ouch! What’s this? What happened?” A silhouette as swift as a deer passed by in front the shop. After seeing what was going on inside, it turned around and ran inside quickly.

Zhang Zian lifted his head. It was Masanori Suzuhara, out for her morning exercise.

She was wearing a bright-colored athletic outfit. The reflective strips on her running shoes were shining brightly under the sun. She had a small pack behind her back with a set of poop scooping tools in it. She had Snoopy the beagle’s leash in her hand, as usual.

Snoopy used to bark a lot. After it was trained by Masanori Suzuhara according Zhang Zian’s methods, it became quiet and stopped barking. But now, it barked after it heard the poodle’s noise.

Masanori Suzuhara was tall and athletic. She reached them quickly in long steps and stopped next to them. She bent down to check on the collapsed girl. As she saw the device on her waist, she exclaimed in low voice, “Oh! An insulin pump? She’s diabetic? Crap! She’s hypoglycemic!”

Zhang Zian was clueless. He was not diabetic, nor he had any diabetic family members. He had distant relatives and old friends who had diabetes, but the word remained unfamiliar to him.

However, he knew that Masanori Suzuhara had a medical or pharmacological background––she had even participated in pharmacological experiments carried out in beagles. If she recognized the strange device as an insulin pump right away, it should be so, indeed.

“She’s a customer that just walked into the shop, then suddenly collapsed. What should we do?” he asked anxiously.

“Hypoglycemia in diabetic patients is very dangerous. You’d better call an ambulance!” Masanori Suzuhara checked her condition briefly and examined under her eyelids.

“We already called for one,” he said. “Now all we can do is wait?”

Masanori Suzuhara thought for a while, then took out a piece of chocolate candy from her purse. “Do you have warm water? I need to dissolve the candy and make her drink it… A spoon would be even better.”

Without waiting for Zhang Zian’s instructions, Wang Qian poured some hot water from Old Time Tea’s thermos, then mixed some cold water and gave it to Masanori Suzuhara.

She broke the chocolate candy into the cup and stirred quickly with a spoon. She said, “I don’t have diabetes, but I’m afraid of getting low blood sugar while I’m running. I always carry candy with me. It turns out that it’s useful today…”

Soon, the candy dissolved completely in the warm water.

Masanori Suzuhara lifted the female customer’s head, opened her mouth, and made her drink the cup of sugar water.

Lu Yiyun wiped off the water dripping out of her mouth.

The sugar water worked immediately. Within less than a minute, the customer slowly opened her eyes and woke up from the coma.

Everybody breathed in a sigh of relief at the same time.