Dr Fran Holloway, Earls vet, walked across the yard past Rickys brand-new bass boat, knelt to scratch old Dukes ears, and then said to Ricky, You came into my office in June. You told my receptionist your father wanted to put Duke down, and you asked her to issue the refund for his deposit to you.
Earl had put four thousand dollars aside for Duke, his fourteen year old black lab, the only company he has had since his wife passed in 2020. When Duke tore a ligament, Earl had the money ready. Then Ricky took it, with a story about a big medical bill and a promise to pay it back by July.
What Earl did not know, and what Dr Fran came to the Fourth of July cookout to say, was that Ricky had gone to the vets office himself and tried to redirect Earls surgery deposit into his own pocket, by claiming Earl wanted the old dog put down instead of healed.
Ricky said you do not put four grand into a fourteen year old dog, you put him down, and called it doing Dad a favor. He was not doing Earl a favor. He was trying to cash out his fathers dog.
Telling a vet to put down a mans dog so you can pocket the refund is about the coldest thing I have heard, and it is fraud besides. Dr Fran had refused to issue that refund to Ricky, which is the only reason any of the deposit survived.
Faced with the vet standing in the yard with the whole family listening, Ricky paid Earl back. The bass boat, I noticed, went up for sale the following week.
Dr Fran did Dukes surgery that month. Duke walks again now, stiff but happy, and follows Earl from room to room the way he has for fourteen years.
Earl sits on the porch every evening with his hand on that dogs head. He does not say much about Ricky. He just says, loud enough for Duke to hear, that some things are worth four thousand dollars and some people never will understand which ones.