Traveler Joe

By Mac Wilkey

After being killed because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, Alan finds himself trapped in the body of a German Shepherd. Given this one chance to warn his family, he takes off across country and is helped by a blind billionaire heiress, her aging granda, and a drunken private eye. However, in the end, he must go canine against human to save the day and settle the score with the man who had him killed

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Jun 5, 2015
• ISBN: 9781329195974

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Traveler Joe

Traveler Joe

By

Mac Wilkey

Sempine Publishing

Copyright Page

©2015 by Mac Wilkey

All Rights Reserved.

No part of this publication can be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher and/or author.

While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of information contained herein.

Cover Photo by Sempine Publishing

Photo taken by J. Deerman

Copyright: ©2015 by Mac Wilkey

Book One : The Hunting Lodge

Chapter 1

The German shepherd had additional streaks of black and gray layered along its flanks and haunches that didn’t match his original coloring.  Dried blood peppered his face and neck and coated the tan hairs on its front legs and underside.   Joe hadn’t taken the time to clean himself; he would do that when he rested or made it back to the kennel.

The scent of the large black cat was strong, but Joe no longer needed his nose to follow his prey.  He could sense the fear mixed with anger that emanated from the panther.  Joe had no fear while he was in pursuit of his prey.  If he failed—if the cat escaped—his fear of his handlers would come into play. 

He sensed that the cat was tiring and his own strength was renewed. Traveler Joe leaped over a large ravine and headed up a steep rugged slope.  Something was wrong.  Stopping to smell the cat’s scent, he realized that he had passed it.  How could that be?

Quickly turning to retrace his steps down the steep slope, he spotted the cat at eye level.  The cat had climbed one of the pines at the bottom of the slope near the ravine.  Although she was at least twenty feet up from the ground where the tree trunk began; she was separated only by about fifteen feet from the dog.  Some of that space was filled by a huge limb so that Joe could easily leap onto the branches to reach the cat.

As he had been trained, Joe yelped to alert his handlers that his prey had been cornered.  The men typically would be along in a few minutes; Joe’s job was to keep the cat up in the tree until they arrived.  However, Joe sensed that this particular cat was finished.  She had fought hard when cornered; her blood and Joe’s were mixed together on each of them.  Had Joe not been the stronger animal, he might have been the one cowering out of sight.

Joe sprang up onto the branch and used his momentum to reach the larger section of the limb.  Although the cat had not expected such an attack from a dog, she mustered all of the energy she possessed to defend herself one final time.  The black panther was actually larger than the dog, but she had already learned that the dog was more ferocious.  Still, she was prepared to fight—her claws dug into the limb’s bark, her sharp teeth visible, and her back arched ‘to the max.’

The dog was in a similar state.  A victory growl replaced his howling call to his handlers.  Disregarding his training and experience, he launched himself at the cat.  They met in midair, locked together, and fell to the ground twenty feet below.  The cat’s innate ability to land on her feet was still in force, but to do that, she had to release her grip on the dog.  Twisting in the air she managed to get her paws outstretched before hitting the dead leaves and sticks just below the limb.

The dog continued to fight as they fell.  When the cat began to twist, she exposed the back of her neck to the dog.  The dog clamped onto the cat’s neck and didn’t let go when they hit the ground although the impact should have separated the two animals.  With the major artery in her neck ripped open, the cat died within seconds.  The dog held on for a few seconds more.

Alan Morris had arrived at the scene in time to see the dog leap at the black panther.  When he heard the dog howl, he had been about a hundred yards away.  The dogs’s handlers were still eating breakfast at the lodge below.  For some reason, unknown to Alan, they had chosen a late start for the hunt today.

Alan hadn’t meant to start the hunt early.  In fact, he hadn’t meant to start the hunt at all.  He had simply opened the gate to Traveler Joe’s pen to feed him and pet him.  He and the dog had developed a bond during the few weeks they had spent together at this lodge in the Cumberland Mountains southeast of Nashville

After Alan pushed the gate closed and reached down to pour out some dog food into Traveler Joe’s bowl, the dog had pushed his nose into the gap between the gate and the pen, pushing the door open.  Then, before Alan could recover, the dog bolted out of the pen and sprinted along the road the hunters usually travelled.  Alan had no choice but to run after him.

During his jog up the mountain road, Alan had listened for Traveler Joe, but he didn’t hear him distinctly until he reached the clearing where the hunters normally parked their trucks.  The route to the dog was pretty much a straight line from there, although he realized the dog was moving away from him; Traveler Joe was on the scent of some animal, probably the black panther.  From the cover of a nearby tree, Alan watched the dog and cat fight to the finish.

When the Traveler Joe was satisfied that the panther was dead, he let go of her neck and allowed the cat to crumple to the ground.  Only then did he take his eyes off the cat.  After a quick look around in all directions, he dropped to the ground beside the cat and began to clean his forepaws and the other parts that he could reach with his tongue.

Alan walked closer.  When he started down into the ravine and was within ten feet of the two animals, the dog started a low growl although he didn’t appear to look directly at Alan.  Alan stopped; the growling stopped.  Alan sat down in the shade of the ravine to wait for the hunters and wondered how he would explain what had happened.  He suspected they wouldn’t be happy that they had missed seeing the panther taken down.

Chapter 2

Where’s the boy? asked Paul Kelley as he approached Mutt Smith and the other handler.

The dogs that were still in their pens were barking loudly and constantly.  Mutt pointed to the fresh dog food on the ground near Traveler Joe’s bowl.  "I’d say that the boy was trying to feed the dog and just let him get away.  Something must have spooked the dog.  Maybe he heard the four-wheeler leave out and went after it.

Kelley looked around in all directions before returning his attention to his lead dog handler.  I hope you’re wrong this time, Mutt.  He could be anywhere if he followed Joe, but if he gets too close to . . .  Kelley didn’t finish, but he knew that Mutt Smith could have finished the sentence for him. 

Smith answered with no hesitation.  I just don’t want to lose Traveler Joe.

Kelley was satisfied.  Alan’s unexpected dash into the woods had definitely not been part of the script.  The script called for Kelley, his dogs, and their handlers to serve as a cover for a special operation.  Even Kelley had not been ‘read in’ to the details of the operation.  His instructions were to let his dogs roam, but only after Anthony Kingman had the two hours he needed to set up some kind of contraption somewhere in the forest. Even then, he had been cautioned to keep the humans in his party away from the northeast quadrant of the property.

Kelley had watched Kingman leave the lodge very early that morning with several bags mounted on the back of his four-wheeler.  At that time, Kelley had called his own boss to let him know that everything was going according to plan.  Now, he hesitated to make a second call because he wasn’t sure his boss would approve of what needed to be done.  The boss was fond of Alan Morrison and had been the one who insisted on Alan coming to the lodge and becoming a hunter.  That plan had certainly backfired.

Kelley decided to make that phone call when they knew more.  Perhaps, Mutt had actually been wrong.  The dog and the boy might be playing in the water near the docks on the lake.  Kingman might not have to kill the boy.  Hopefully, it wouldn’t be left to him, the fiancé of Alan’s mother, to finish off the boy

Chapter 3

Anthony Kingman had finished his assignment and was packing up his gear when he heard the sounds of the dog’s fight with the panther.  They couldn’t have been more than fifty yards away.

After checking out the large oak tree that he had just descended, he was satisfied that there were no obvious signs that a ladder and an improvised tree stand had once been attached to the tree.  Looking up through the branches, he could see no sign of the tripod, the automatic rifle, the telescope, or the electronic control unit.  All of them were camouflaged.  His ‘assassination station’ couldn’t be seen from the ground or from the air and being hidden during a fly-over was, by far, more important.

Kingman put his Honda ATV into forward gear and rolled forward through the forest, headed back to the clearing at the head of the utility road he had used for access.  When he spotted Alan Morrison, he speeded up to close the distance between them as fast as he could.

Traveler Joe had heard the engine noise from the ATV long before Alan did, but he had stayed by the panther, sensing no danger.  When Kingman increased his speed, all that changed.  It was as if Traveler Joe finally realized why he had left the lodge in the first place.  He had been tracking the ATV and had been sidetracked by the panther.

Alan became wary when he noticed the change in the dog’s attitude.  For sure, this ATV was a stranger to Traveler Joe and thus a potential enemy.  The gun in Kingman’s shoulder holster was also an indication of danger.  Before realizing he had done so, Alan moved to a position that put Traveler Joe between him and the approaching ATV.

Letting the boy live was not an option for Kingman.  Although the boy probably knew nothing about the apparatus mounted at the top of the oak tree, he couldn’t be allowed to report later that he had seen a man on an ATV in the forest.  When the assassination became reality, the boy would undoubtedly provide a description to the authorities. 

Kingman kept his ATV moving as he drew his weapon and aimed it at the boy.  Alan wanted to dodge the bullet that would be headed his way, but he didn’t know how to do that.  If he jumped to either side too quickly, the man would simply wait for him to roll to a stop and then shoot him where he lay.

For some reason, he moved in front of Traveler Joe.  Perhaps he realized that he had no chance to survive and wanted to keep the dog from being killed while trying to protect him.  In any case, the bond between them had grown very strong. Traveler Joe moved to a position to Alan’s right.

You’re the governor’s nephew aren’t you? asked Kingman.

Everything that happened next seemed to blend into one amazing event that seemed to last a lifetime although it could only have taken seconds to occur.

Just as Kingman pulled the trigger with his gun leveled at Alan, Traveler Joe sprang into the air with his jaws open and his claws bared.  There was no way the shot could have missed the dog, but Alan felt the bullet himself as it struck him in the chest and knocked him back several feet.

Traveler Joe’s teeth sank into Kingman’s wrist, and his right front paw scratched for the man’s neck.  Kingman wasn’t knocked off the ATV, but he was spun around in the seat.  The dog’s hind legs found support on parts of the ATV, and the newly found leverage allowed him to shift his point of attack.  The teeth that had shredded Kingman’s wrist, now sank deeply into his esophagus, ripping it apart as the dog jerked violently from side to side.

Alan wished that he could see the terror in the man’s eyes.  Then, suddenly, he could.  By some miracle, he was no longer watching the dog finish off the gunman, but he was in the man’s face, seeing the fear in his eyes, and feeling the warm blood flowing into the his mouth.  He and the dog were one.

Nothing in his life of sixteen years had prepared Alan Morrison for this moment.  Looking around through the dog’s eyes and taking in his surroundings with the dog’s senses was both wonderful and terrifying.  Viewing his own dead body through the dog’s eyes caused him extreme sadness, but that sadness seemed to stay outside the dog’s awareness.

Alan had never understood the concepts of spirit and soul.  Now, he wished that he had paid more attention during Bible study at his mother’s church.  It seemed to him that his spirit and soul had been transferred to Traveler Joe at the moment his own body died.  As far as he knew, that had never happened before to anyone.  If it had happened to someone else, that person would not have been able to communicate.

That thought overwhelmed him.  He would be unable to communicate.  Alan Morrison would be dead as far as everyone else would know.  If this were some kind of instant reincarnation, Alan wasn’t sure that it was a good thing, especially if his spirit or soul or whatever had no control over the dog’s body.

He wondered if he were to concentrate harder on what he wanted Traveler Joe to do, he would gain the control he needed.  It worked.  He wanted to howl for joy. Traveler Joe was pulling the gunman’s body off the ATV just as he willed for him to do.  Now, he thought, get back on this machine and ride it out of here.

Traveler Joe didn’t respond as Alan had wanted him to respond.  Perhaps, some part of the dog’s mind still functione,d and that part wouldn’t allow him to do something completely unreasonable.  Undoubtedly, Traveler Joe had never driven an ATV before, but that was about to change.

Alan kept his thoughts simple.  First he envisioned the dog jumping up onto the seat of the ATV.  Sure enough, the dog responded.  Then, he pictured Traveler Joe using his teeth to turn the key to the START position.  Task accomplished.

When the ATV’s engine didn’t crank, Alan realized that it was still in gear.  It needed to be in NEUTRAL to start.  Getting the gear shift lever to NEUTRAL wouldn’t be too hard, but getting it back into one of the forward gears would be a little tricky.  If he climbed down to grab the lever with his teeth, the ATV would start moving before he could jump back into the seat and try to steer it with his paws.

Maybe using the ATV was not such a good idea after all.  Okay, he thought, "I’ll just give it another try.  If it doesn’t work out, then I’ll just ride these four dog legs of mine back to the lodge.

After pulling the gear shift lever into NEUTRAL with his teeth, Joe climbed back into the seat and used his teeth again to turn the key to the start position.  The engine started and then idled. When Joe slid down from the seat again to face the gear shift lever, he used his right front paw to pull the gear shift down into THIRD gear.  The engine labored and almost stalled before Joe made it back into the