I am brought out of my thoughts as the taxi pulls up to what appears to be a humble two bedroomed house, the paint on the outside walls is badly in need of an overhaul and some of the window frames have obviously seen better days, but I have always been a firm believer in not judging things from the outside, for me it is what is inside that counts and that holds true for both property and people.

Baxter pays the taxi driver and we both step out of the cab, he then looks at me and gives out a slight giggle.

“Yeah I know the old place is in need of the touch of a Salvation Army worker, but I’m afraid it has to take second place to those in need who are still living.”

I say nothing for the moment as I follow my saviour towards the front door of his modest home, predictably the door is in need of assistance too and the beginnings of a plan to pay Baxter back for all of his help take root in my brain that thankfully is now pretty much back up to speed.

“Baxter, I don’t have any money to pay you back for the kindness that you have shown me.”

At this Baxter begins to protest but I silence him by raising my paw.

“Please Baxter, hear me out, I am pretty handy with my paws and so if you get everything that is needed such as paint and wood and stuff I will happily give the outside of your home the facelift that it is crying out for.”

A huge sigh escapes Baxter’s muzzle, but then he seems to admit defeat.

“Okay Karl, you win, what are you like with car engines?”

I playfully narrow my eyes to nothing more than slits.

“I fell right into that one, didn’t I? Okay, yes as long as it is nothing too technical I will see if I can fix your car too, but be careful, don’t think that you have your very own slave.”

Baxter opens the front door and we enter straight into the sitting room, he closes the door behind us and I begin to check out the interior of the house. It looks well lived in but it also looks well cared for and clean.

I see a couple of framed pictures on the wall, one, in particular, catches my attention, it is of two Rottweiler’s standing side by side, one slightly smaller than the other, Baxter sees me looking at the picture and a sad kind of smile appears on his muzzle.

“Happier times Karl, happier times, that is a picture of me with my brother Sam, he was just eighteen when he died last year thanks to a drunk driver ploughing into the driver’s side of his car, according to the emergency services he would have pretty much died at the scene, the thing is though that morning we had a bit of a row and I didn’t ever get chance.....”

His voice trailed off and I could see that he was getting more and more upset, I have no idea what came over me but seconds later I had my arms wrapped around him and he had his head laid on my right shoulder and was openly crying.

I started to gently rub his back and gradually his sobs began to subside, I needed a segue and I found one in the form of another framed picture, this one had what looked like two generations of Baxter’s family, he introduced me to them all.

“The youngster you know it is Sam, the wonderful woman is my mother, and the strapping brute next to her is my father, don’t let his looks fool you, Karl, he may look angry and mean but in truth, he is an absolute diamond. That picture was taken on Sam’s thirteenth birthday, his death hit us all pretty hard but it seems to have affected my dad, even more, he had to retire from his job through ill health, he still helps out at a local store but when you consider that he used to work on the docks you can see that some of his fire has been lost.”

A far off look appears in Baxter’s eyes for a few seconds before he jolts back into the here and now.

“Anyway, enough of that, you can’t go around the place in just the hospital gown and scrubs so we need to get you into something more acceptable.”

Baxter leads the way through the house, I follow him up the stairs and into one of the bedrooms.

“I kind of let myself go a little when Sam died and so I had to get some clothes that were a slightly bigger size, I kept some of my old stuff though because I had every intention to lose a little of my weight and hopefully be able to get back into them again, but for now you are close to my height and the weight that I was back then so you should be able to find something in here that will fit pretty good, while you get yourself dressed I will go back down stairs and order us a pizza.”

As he heads towards the door he looks back at me over his left shoulder.

“What kind of pizza do you like?”

To be truthful I haven’t eaten pizza in a kings age, but I was always quite partial to a Hawaiian Stuffed crust.

“The last time that I ate pizza I had a Hawaiian stuffed crust with extra cheese, but I’ll be happy with just an ordinary Hawaiian.”

Baxter nods his head and leaves the room, finally, I am alone and able to get myself dressed into proper clothes, oh sure the jeans that I found were a little short in the leg and maybe a smidge tighter than I was used to, and the white button down shirt that I chose was a maybe a little tight for my comfort, but recent events have taught me the valuable lesson of not looking a gift horse in the mouth.

Once I am dressed I feel ready to rejoin polite company and so I head back down to the sitting room. As I walk in I notice that Baxter is working on what looks to be a fairly ancient laptop, I take notice that none of the furniture matches but I guess when you are on a tight budget you take what you can get. I gently park my butt on the sofa cushion which gives a gentle hiss alerting Baxter to the fact that I am back, without turning his head from the screen he speaks.

“Oh hey, sorry I was just catching up with a couple of friends, did you manage to find something to wear?”

I nod as I make my reply.

“Yes, I did, and thank you, though what I am going to do for my own clothes I have no idea, I have no money and no chance of finding a job.”

Baxter finally spins round in his chair to face me.

“Actually about that I might be able to help you out there too.”

My ears perk up at this and I give him my full attention.

“A good friend of mine owns and runs a company that employs guys to go out to homes of folks that are either down on their luck or just plain too broke to make general repairs on their homes, now I will tell you right now, the pay won’t be great but it will at least get you back into a job, and if the money you get from the jobs that you do isn’t enough to cover your basic needs, stuff like food and clothes I will gladly help you out.”

I give the job some thought as Baxter continues to speak.

“Obviously you will not need to pay housing costs because if you take this job on you can stay here with me.”

I cannot deny that I would prefer to be working for enough money that I can support myself, but taking this job on would mean two things, first, it will as Baxter said get me back into earning a living and second, it would mean that I get to spend more time with the gorgeous Rottweiler, and so the way that I see it I can’t really afford to turn the job down.

“Okay Baxter, I will take the job on, but how would I be getting to and from the jobs?”

A sweet smile breaks out on Baxter’s muzzle.

“Already got that one covered chief, Daniel, that is the guy you will be working for, has said that as long as you have a driving licence he will let you use one of the company vehicles as your means of transport both in works time and outside of it too.”

A gentle sigh passes through my muzzle.

“Well Baxter yes I do have a driving licence but it was stolen from my wallet in the attack.”

Even this spanner in the works isn’t enough to wipe the smile from Baxter’s muzzle.

“Well Karl, if you are staying here with me you would need to change the address on your licence anyway, so we can kill two birds with one stone, we can tell the licencing people about your licence being stolen and we can change the address at the same time.”

I cannot deny that Baxter’s enthusiasm is totally infectious, and so I hold up my paws in defeat, if I’m being truthful it will be good to feel as though I am once again earning a regular pay cheque.

Baxter turns back to his laptop and tells his friend that I will take the job, he also tells him that I will need a few days to get my new licence and things, but the way that I see it I can brush up on my handyman skills by doing some of the work to Baxter’s place.

Once Baxter signs off from his friend he logs into the licencing website and then vacates his seat to allow me to update my details, using the face camera in the lid of the laptop I update my licence photograph and then I submit my details.

After closing down the laptop I go in search of Baxter, I finally find him in the garage with his head under the bonnet of his truck.

“Hey Baxter, help me push the truck out onto the drive and I will take a look and see if I can’t breathe some life back into it.”

After much cursing and heavy breathing, we manage to get the truck onto the driveway, I lift the bonnet again and ask Baxter to try turning the motor over. After a couple of tries, I finally pinpoint the problem, a loose HT lead on the distributor cap, once I have replaced the lead I ask him to try it again, this time there is a triumphant roar as the trucks engine fires up.

Baxter launches an old rag at me so that I can wipe my dirty paws on it.

“Okay Baxter, that should be good for a little while but if I were you I would get the leads and distributor cap changed as soon as possible.”

Baxter thanks me for the advice and then we both get into the truck so that we can visit the local hardware store. With three huge tins of masonry paint and a few large paint brushes bought we both head back to Baxter’s place, I am after all keen to start repaying Baxter’s generosity and his caring as soon as I possibly can.

We arrive back at Baxter’s home just as the sun begins to appear from behind the clouds, I waste no time in getting a set of ladders from Baxter’s garage and making a start on painting the front wall of his house.

While I am painting I notice that Baxter has made a start on sanding down some of the wooden frames of his windows. I have been hard at work for about an hour and a half when I hear a slight groan from below me, at first I pay it no mind putting it down to maybe a stubborn part of the frame that Baxter is having trouble with.

A few seconds later and I hear a low whimper and so I look down to see if Baxter has hurt himself in some way. As I look down I catch sight of Baxter’s head as he quickly looks away from me and gets back into sanding the window frames down, trying to make it look as though nothing had happened.

I may be still recovering from my attack but I am no fool, I know the signs of someone being caught staring, I should do because I have been caught doing the exact same thing myself a time or two, to save any embarrassment on Baxter’s part I say nothing and continue on with my work.

I just have to wonder how much longer we can both continue to fool ourselves into thinking that there is nothing between us because damn Baxter is a prime specimen of the Rottweiler breed and without sounding like I am blowing my own trumpet, I have been told that I am not exactly hard on the eyes either.

This is going to be a very challenging change of life style for both of us, I just hope that I don’t do something to completely ruin it.