Dangdang-i
"Hmm..."
In theory it was simple. Examine them, take the sick ones to Mongmong Animal Hospital, and that would be the end of it. If a great many of them turned out to be ill, he could always sort them by severity.
Even with that plan in mind, Lee Jun was still turning it over. The real question was where to take more than ninety dogs to examine them in the first place.
Blood? A blood panel? That part was easy. All he needed were collection tubes and syringes, then a rush courier to the lab. But bloodwork alone would never uncover everything that was wrong with them.
Auscultation he could do right here, so that was an exception—but they would still need X-rays at the very least, and ultrasounds besides.
Do I just take all of them with me?
Load every last one of the ninety-odd dogs into Mongmong Animal Hospital, then thin the numbers from there? They would be traveling in cages on a large truck anyway, so they could simply stay in those cages while the exams were underway.
But then they'd be stuck inside a vehicle for more than a day.
Put romantically, it would be "car camping." These were dogs who had spent their whole lives in a place like this, though, and Lee Jun had no desire to give them a first memory of sleep outside the raised wire cages that consisted of a cage in the back of a truck.
There's got to be a simpler way to decide where they go...!
He stood looking at the raised wire cages, turning one idea after another through his mind, when Go Gi-jin spoke up.
"Don't you worry, Hyungnim. I give Pa a call and we'll have a few box trucks here in no time."
"Box trucks?"
"That's right. So you don't gotta fret over how we're gonna move these kids."
Go Gi-jin was smiling as brightly as ever. Lee Jun looked at him.
"Must be nice, having nothing to worry about."
"Who says I don't? I'm standin' here right now wonderin' how to split the food among 'em."
Go Gi-jin shot a look at the dented basin heaped with food scraps and kept going.
"I don't wanna feed 'em out of somethin' filthy like that."
Ten oversized sacks of kibble they had packed just in case were taking up the back of the van. They had brought them so that, if the day's negotiations fell through, they could at least send the dogs to bed with full stomachs.
"You're right."
Getting them out of here mattered. So did putting an end to their hunger.
For these kids, a full meal right now is going to matter more than wherever we take them.
With that thought, Lee Jun glanced around for anything that might serve as a food bowl. Nothing suitable presented itself.
"We'll just have to go buy some. PD, do you happen to know if there's a market nearby?"
"Well, if we head out toward the commercial strip we passed on the way in, there ought to be something. I'll take a look."
Park PD pulled out his phone. Writer Yeom, who had been standing in front of the raised wire cages stroking the puppies that shoved their paws and muzzles through the bars and wagged their tails, spoke up.
"What if we just spread the kibble bags out flat and used those? We could use the treat boxes, too."
"Ah, that's not a bad idea at all. If we've got scissors or packing tape, it could actually work."
"We have those."
The Junior Writer answered Lee Jun, then asked,
"What were you going to do with them, though?"
"Kibble bags are thick, and they're coated. They're pretty sturdy, so if we fold the edges over and make them into something like a box, they should hold up well enough."
"Ah! That would work. But... they won't fight, will they?"
Food scraps had no taste worth fighting over, so a single big tub had been fine. Pour fragrant kibble into one pile, though, and wouldn't they go at each other for it?
"You saw them lining up nicely for treats. They won't fight."
Lee Jun said it with real confidence. Then he muttered to himself again.
"Ah, that's not even the problem... Hmm. How do I sort them for the move?"
"Eutta, was that what you were worryin' about? Splittin' which kids go to Uriteul and which ones come to our hospital?"
"Yeah. It'd be better if we took the sick ones ourselves."
"That's right."
Watching Go Gi-jin nod, Lee Jun went on as if the thought had just settled.
"We'd have to take them to a hospital to run proper tests anyway... What if we just do simple kit tests? Heartworm and the infectious diseases. That's it. The ones who come back positive for heartworm, we take to our hospital."
He had made up his mind.
"That'll work just fine. Immiticide's expensive, after all."
There were several ways to treat a heartworm infection. If there were no adult worms and only larvae, the approach was to give a monthly heartworm preventive without interruption for ten months or more, and let that kill the larvae off.
Once those larvae had matured into adults, though, the treatment required a drug stronger than anything in a preventive, or else a surgical extraction.
The Immiticide Go Gi-jin had mentioned was the adulticide. It was extremely expensive, and it could not be given like an ordinary injection. It had to be administered into the muscle around lumbar vertebrae three through five, and it hurt a great deal. The pretreatment required before the injection was lengthy as well. In other words, the cost was high, and the aftercare had to be sustained.
Lee Jun did not want to offload an expensive course of treatment onto Wooriddle Animal Hospital. He could supply the drug himself, of course. Even so, he had no wish to hand them a protocol that demanded that much ongoing attention.
Wooriddle Animal Hospital was staffed by rotating volunteer veterinarians from Woori Hamkke. There was only one resident veterinarian on site.
"The ones with caval syndrome will need surgery, so for all those reasons it's better if we take them to our hospital."
Caval syndrome was stage four of a heartworm infection, the result of so many adult worms crowding the vessels that they began to obstruct them. If a drug was introduced in that state and the adults died all at once, the side effects from the dead worm bodies could send the host into fatal shock.
The adults had to be pulled out by hand. And of course, by the time a dog had reached that point, the host's condition was already so poor that the surgery itself was no small thing. For all of those reasons, Lee Jun intended to take those patients himself.
"Then I'll run back to our hospital and grab the kits. Ah, wait—no. Better to have 'em sent by courier. That'll be faster."
Go Gi-jin had been about to bolt for the car. He stopped where he stood and pulled his phone from his pocket.
Lee Jun spoke before he could dial.
"That's a good idea, but Gi-jin—while we're at it, let's draw blood."
"A blood draw?"
"Yeah. We'll have to draw blood for the kit tests anyway. If we're drawing it, we might as well do a proper full draw. Hold on. If we go through them, we won't even need to call our hospital."
"A place like that... ah! You mean over there?"
Go Gi-jin asked it as if he already knew, and Lee Jun nodded as he put a call through. The line rang, and the other end picked up.
"Director Kim, hello."
He had called Kim Jiyu, the director of Wooriddle Animal Hospital.
"Hello, Director Lee."
"Yes. You've been well, I hope?"
"Of course. The kids are all doing fine. A few have been coughing now and then—probably the cold—but that's all."
"That's a relief. Director, I was wondering if I could borrow a generous supply of blood collection tubes. And heartworm test kits, if you have those as well."
"Ah, yes. How many do you need?"
"About a hundred and twenty sets should do it. We just shut down a dog farm."
A booming water-deer bellow erupted from the phone. Lee Jun pulled the receiver away from his ear and smiled with quiet, fond satisfaction. He knew exactly why Director Kim Jiyu made a sound like that.
The rest of the party had heard it too. They all huffed out little laughs, wearing expressions that said they could hardly blame her.
"Wh-where are you? Give me the address. I'll send a courier right now. You don't have syringes either, do you, Director? No alcohol, either. You'll need parvo and distemper kits too, right? What else, what else? Ah, that's right. I should pack a centrifuge too."
Infectious-disease kits, of course—and the sense to throw in a centrifuge for separating plasma from whole blood. Kim Jiyu poured it all out in a rapid-fire stream, and Lee Jun answered, smiling.
"That's right. We have nothing. And you don't need to send a courier. We're in Namyangju."
"W-wait, is that true? I'll come myself. Pin me the address."
"It's all right. We'll come to you. If you could just gather the supplies. You shouldn't leave the hospital empty, after all."
"Ah! That's right. I'm here by myself right now, aren't I?"
Kim Jiyu murmured it in a voice full of regret, then pressed on.
"Then I'll have everything packed. And is there anything else you might need?"
"No... actually, do you have any spare food bowls for the kids? A basin would be fine, too..."
"We have them. And if we didn't, I'd make them. Director, how long will it take you to get here?"
Go Gi-jin, who had already pulled up a map beside him, spoke.
"We'll be there in about thirty minutes."
"About thirty minutes, I think."
"All right. I'll have every last thing packed by then. Oh, Director—what about the kibble?"
"We brought that with us."
Kim Jiyu said she would have it all ready and hung up.
"We'll swing by Uriteul, then?"
Maknae PD asked.
"Yes. I'll leave it to you."
"Hyungnim, I'll go fetch 'em then."
"Do that."
Go Gi-jin nodded to Lee Jun, then turned to the dogs.
"Sorry, kids. You're gonna have to wait a bit for dinner. We gotta draw blood first, then you can eat. But when you do, you eat plenty, hear?"
Writer Yeom heard him talking to the dogs as he headed for the car, and she turned to Lee Jun.
"Director, what about the treats they already ate? For a blood draw they're supposed to be fasted..."
"We can account for that when we read the results. We'll be running comprehensive tests anyway."
At the mention of more tests, the corner of Writer Yeom's mouth lifted.
"Ah. Then that's fine."
"What do we do in the meantime? We can't even feed them yet... PD, what should we be doing?"
A writer with scissors and packing tape in her hands opened her mouth and asked Park PD for an assignment.
"What do you mean, what. You said you were going to make food bowls."
"Come on, that won't work. To make bowls out of the kibble bags we'd have to open the kibble. They're not even allowed to eat yet—you want to send the smell of kibble rolling through here? You think these kids are going to sit still?"
"Ah. That's true. Writer Yeom! Writer Song! Sharp."
"The strange one is the PD who didn't think of that!"
"S-sorry. Anyway, there's plenty to do. We need to look into containers, find vehicles to move them, and cages—right, we need to track down cages!"
"What about rescue workers?"
"That's right. At the last farm, even HSI—Humane Society International—showed up."
They meant they had borrowed the hands of an international animal rescue organization.
"Do we really need to go that far?"
Park PD answered while looking at Lee Jun, then asked him directly.
"Will we need them?"
"I don't think we need to ask those people for help. But these kids are so heavy that we will need a rescue team."
"Understood. I'll put in a request. We need the cages anyway."
"Then I'll take a look at them."
He meant to explain the blood draw to the dogs before Go Gi-jin and the Junior Writer made it back. And why they would be going into cages. And why they would be getting into something called a car and traveling a long way.
Lee Jun opened the door of the raised wire cage directly in front of him and stepped inside. The dogs hesitated for a beat, then pressed their faces in close, sniffing at him in quick little huffs, grinning as they did.
He was the man who had given them treats, and who somehow seemed to understand what they said. That made him a good person.
There was a Boston Terrier among them.
The Tosas, at least, were large enough that their paws ran on the big side. The Boston Terrier was not. Living on a floor punched through with holes, on such small feet, his paws had naturally splayed wide. The toes looked as if they had been shaved bald. The coat on a Boston Terrier was short, but it was not supposed to be gone like that. It had fallen out. And so the gaps between those splayed toes were vividly, unmistakably red.
The pododermatitis is bad. His pads look swollen, too.
At some point the Boston Terrier had leaned his head against Lee Jun's leg as Lee Jun sat inside the cage, his expression utterly at ease.
Lee Jun stroked him and asked,
"What's your name?"
He half-expected the answer to be Brave, or Hero.
That was when the Tosa beside them spoke.
"Oh!"
It suited him. Dangdang-i, who had stepped forward so proudly, so dangdang.
"That's a wonderful name."
Heh... heh heh heh.
The Boston Terrier, Dangdang-i, laughed in a very strange way. It was all right, though.
He'll get more natural at it, little by little.
From here on, there would only be reasons to smile.
With that thought, Lee Jun asked each of the dogs their names. They told him their friends' names and beamed, bright and open—and, of course, as strangely and awkwardly as Dangdang-i the Boston Terrier.
Lee Jun was in the middle of explaining the blood draw and the cages to them when Writer Yeom's voice carried over.
"What? Not for another three days?"
The flustered tone pulled Lee Jun's gaze that way on its own.
"They're looking into vibration-free trucks, but it seems they're hard to rent on the spot."
Park PD relayed the contents of the call, then went on.
"Once a closure is decided, it usually takes quite a while before the dogs actually move. You have to settle on a destination, request help from rescue workers, all of that. So this is the first time we've ever tried to rent one immediately."
"That would be the case, yes."
Lee Jun nodded, remembering the long stretch of preparation it had taken to transport the Somang-is. If the problem here had gone unresolved, it might have been different—but it had been settled with almost startling ease. He wanted the dogs in front of him out of this place as soon as possible.
Out of this impossible environment.
Lee Jun looked down at Dangdang-i, the Boston Terrier who was lying with his head in Lee Jun's lap, smiling. Around them, the other dogs were grinning hugely, as if they were practicing the shape of a smile.
Hmm. No other way, then?
Lee Jun drew his phone from his coat and placed a call. The name glowing on the screen was Secretary Kang—Namgoong Hyun's secretary.
Namgoong Hyun had told Lee Jun to call whenever he needed help, any time at all. When Lee Jun had found it difficult to pick up the phone himself, Namgoong Hyun had passed that seat to his secretary. For that reason, the secretary had been helping Lee Jun with everything from material support to personal favors. They had grown rather close, besides.
"Yes, Director Lee."
"Hello. I'm calling because I was hoping to borrow some vibration-free vehicles."
Lee Jun explained the situation. The answer came back almost at once.
"We should be able to have them ready by tomorrow morning."
"Tomorrow?"
At that, Park PD and the writers all put up their thumbs. The corner of Lee Jun's mouth lifted as well.
"Thank you."
"How many units will you need?"
"Ah—um—I'll call you back on that."
"If you simply provide the headcount, we will handle the preparations on our end."
"There are about ninety Tosas—ah, a little smaller than Tosas. They'll run about fifty to sixty kilograms."
"Ah. Dogs from a meat farm, then. In that case, you will need cages as well, will you not? We shall prepare those too."
"Thank you."
Lee Jun, who had done little more than answer Secretary Kang's rapid assessments, hung up in high spirits. Then an exclamation slipped out of him.
"Ah, damn. I forgot to mention we're splitting them between two places."
He lifted the phone to call back—and that was when it rang.
It was Namgoong Hyun.