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"Jesus," Ewan says, dumbfounded, "there's so many of them."
In reality, there are only about eight puppies, but when they're all piled together in a mass of Golden Retriever like some sort of dog-based Voltron-style robot, it's easy to imagine there are really hundreds of them with more lurking where you'd least expect it.
He elbows Jude. "I said a puppy, right? He's not going to try to bring four of them home?"
"This was your idea," Jude reminds him, rolling his eyes.
Andy's with the breeder, Cathy, now, who picks a pup out of the litter and sets it down in front of Andy. "What do you think?" she asks. Andy reaches out carefully and strokes the puppy's fur, all the way down its back, until the puppy's wriggling and wagging its tail and Andy's grinning ear-to-ear.
"Is that the one?" Ewan says, eyeing the rest of the puppies suspiciously. Oh, yes, I know your game. You're going to act all puppylike and try to convince him he needs to bring home all your brothers and sisters, too...
"I think I want to name him Grover," Andy says. "Is that a good name for a dog?"
"It's a great name," Ewan says, a little too quickly; Jude arches an eyebrow at him. "So that's the one, right? When do you want us to come back for him?"
"Oh, you can visit anytime," Cathy says. "But he won't be ready to leave until he's seven weeks at least."
"Seven weeks!" Andy says, looking crestfallen.
"It's all right, Andy," Jude tells him. "You can always come back and visit. Let him get used to you."
Andy's face lights up again, and Ewan leans over to Cathy. "Promise me you'll know which one is Grover when we come back?" he murmurs. "Because we really do just want the one."
Cathy laughs. "No worries," she assures Ewan. "The others should all be spoken for by the time you next come back to visit. Just wanted Andy to have first choice."
"Good, right," Ewan says, nodding and standing back up. "So wave goodbye to Grover, now, and we'll see him again next week."
Andy's cheerful all the way home, babbling about what dish he'll need to get for Grover, what kind of leash, what sort of food Grover's going to like. Ewan looks over at Jude with his eyebrows raised and mouths What did we just get ourselves into?
Jude shakes his head, grinning, and looks back at Andy. "He's also going to need a tag," he says.
"Are you sure this was my idea?" Ewan mutters under his breath. Jude reaches over and pats him on the leg.
"Don't worry," he says. "One dog can't be too much trouble, right?"
"Right," Ewan agrees, but he's not entirely sure about that anymore.
-end-