“Nixie has been with us almost as long as you have. He’s been around, poking his cold nose into things, longer than any of the tenderfeet, and longer even than some of the second class. So we decided he ought to have his own letter of withdrawal, so that the troop you join on Venus will know that Nixie is a Scout in good standing. Give it to him, Kenny.”
The scribe passed over the letter. It was phrased like Charlie’s letter, save that it named “Nixie Vaughn, Tenderfoot Scout” and diplomatically omitted the subject of merit badges. It was signed by the scribe, the scoutmaster, and the patrol leaders and countersigned by every member of the troop. Charlie showed it to Nixie, who sniffed it. Everybody applauded, so Nixie joined happily in applauding himself.
“One more thing,” added Rip. “Now that Nixie is officially a Scout, he has to have his badge. So send him front and center.”
Charlie did so. They had worked their way through the Dog Care merit badge together while Nixie was a pup, all feet and floppy ears; it had made Nixie a much more acceptable member of the Vaughn family. But the rudimentary dog training required for the merit badge had stirred Charlie’s interest; they had gone on to Dog Obedience School together and Nixie had progressed from easy spoken commands to more difficult silent hand signals.
Charlie used them now. At his signal Nixie trotted forward, sat stiffly at attention, front paws neatly drooped in front of his chest, while Rip fastened the tenderfoot badge to his collar, then Nixie raised his right paw in salute and gave one short bark, all to hand signals.
The applause was loud and Nixie trembled with eagerness to join it. But Charlie signalled “hold & quiet,” so Ni-xie remained silently poised in salute until the clapping died away. He returned to heel just as silently, though quivering with excitement. The purpose of the ceremony may not have been clear to him — if so, he was not the first tenderfoot Scout to be a little confused. But it was perfectly clear that he was the center of attention and was being approved of by his friends; it was a high point in his life.
But all in all there had been too much excitement for a dog in one week; the trip to White Sands, shut up in a travel case and away from Charlie, was the last straw. When Charlie came to claim him at the baggage room of White Sands Airport, his relief was so great that he had a puppyish accident, and was bitterly ashamed.
He quieted down on the drive from airport to spaceport, then was disquieted again when he was taken into a room which reminded him of his unpleasant trips to the veterinary — the smells, the white-coated figure, the bare table where a dog had to hold still and be hurt. He stopped dead.
“Come, Nixie!” Charlie said firmly. “None of that, boy. Up!”
Nixie gave a little sigh, advanced and jumped onto the examination table, stood docile but trembling.
“Have him lie down,” the man in the white smock said. “I’ve got to get the needle into the large vein in his foreleg.”
Nixie did so on Charlie’s command, then lay tremblingly quiet while his left foreleg was shaved in a patch and sterilized. Charlie put a hand on Nixie’s shoulder blades and soothed him while the veterinary surgeon probed for the vein. Nixie bared his teeth once but did not growl, even though the fear in the boy’s mind was beating on him, making him just as afraid.
Suddenly the drug reached his brain and he slumped limp.
Charlie’s fear surged to a peak but Nixie did not feel it. Nixie’s tough little spirit had gone somewhere else, out of touch with his friend, out of space and time — wherever it is that the “I” within a man or a dog goes when the body wrapping it is unconscious.
Charlie said shrilly, “Is he all right?”
“Eh? Of course.”
“Uh…I thought he had died.”
“Want to listen to his heart beat?”
“Uh, no — if you say he’s all right. Then he’s going to be okay? He’ll live through it?”