[Tame] Steak bites for Sombre

The weather today was beautiful, thought Holland as she stepped outside her small rented cabin. Her hounds dashed out from behind her one by one, ready to explore and to get into whatever trouble they could find, of that Holland had no doubt.

Of all her hounds, she decided to take a few of her newer hounds on this outing, the others would be fine running amok in the countryside while she was gone. Or at least, they'd been fine thus far...

She whistled and got Smokes attention, the young smooth coated hound bounded over in a few effortless leaps. Smoke was a gorgeous blue hound and Holland was more than pleased when she had shown up in Tea's litter. She didn't even have to call for Clay and he was by her side as soon as he'd gone and done his business out in the bushes.

Now where was DD? Holland looked around for the wire haired pup. DD, also known as Dame Dinnertime was also one of Hollands favorites, but the hound tended to not be the best behaved of her pack. She was oftentimes running amok and stealing food if she could get away with it. She really should be on a longline Holland thought... And with that in mind she went back inside and grabbed one of the long lines tangled on her in table, she worked at untangling it as she wandered the yard looking for DD, Smoke and Clay obediently at her heels.

By the time the line was detangled Holland had spotted her half dangling from a tree limb a crossed the yard. What? She quickly ran over and grabbed the struggling hound, she'd been going for a birds nest with eggs. She quickly clipped the leash onto her and sighed, "Those eggs are not for you DD."

With DD leashed and Clay and Smoke by her side, she gave everything another once over. Axis and Plum were digging more holes under the tree, she'd have to fill those in when she got home, Apricot was lounging on the porch. Who knew where the other hounds had gotten off too, but she hadn't gotten any complaints yet so she tried not to worry too hard about it. She patted her pocket once to make sure the berdir steak bites were still there that she had wrapped up earlier. She planned on seeing if she could find that stray that had been spotted a few weeks ago again. Holland was sure she hadn't heard of anyone else claiming or taming the wire coated hound and now that she was back in town she wanted to try and find him.

She turned and headed along the road into town, although "road" was stretching it a bit. It was really a narrow worn down path until you got close enough to town that effort had been made into paving it. Eventually she was sure as the town spread out more the roads would improve along with it. But by then Holland figured she would have to move even further out. Hopefully she'd be able to save enough for her own plot of land she could build a cabin on.

After fifteen minutes of walking they made it to town. Smoke and Clay stayed by her side with minimal prompting, occasionally she would have to call Smoke back but she was always quick to respond. Dame Dinnertime however was constantly straining at the end of her longline trying to reach anything and everything. She shortened the leash, this would need to be worked on in their next obedience class for sure....

Holland waved to a few people she knew but kept walking, determined to find the stray the townspeople had begun to call Sombre.

Clay seemed very interested in an alleyway with a tipped over trashcan. Holland wasn't sure if it was the trash that was interesting him or something else but she allowed him to check it out, DD seemed only interested in getting into Hollands pockets now having smelled the steak inside, and Smoke was dutifully following Clay like a good pup. There were some grumbles and whines, and Holland followed the two into the alley, sure enough there was Sombre, not looking pleased to have been spotted and cornered by Smoke and Clay. Now that DD saw the new hound she was straining to go see him. Holland sighed and held her leash a bit tighter. Now was not the time to overwhelm him...

Holland reached into her pocket, ignoring DD's pleading looks and tossed a steak bite to first Clay and Smoke, then to Sombre and lastly she held one in her fingers for DD, but didn't let it go so her attention would stay on Holland for a bit instead of Sombre.

Clay and Smoke had enough self control to know Sombres treat was not for them so they only watched as Sombre investigated the offering with suspicion before he finally took it. Holland walked forward a bit and sat on the ground, speaking encouraging words as she did so, hopefully there were no discarded nails hiding here... she pulled out some more treats, and this time Sombre didn't hesitate to eat the treat thrown his way. Now she turned away, her back to Sombre, and holding DD firmly on one side of her with a treat, -perhaps she should have left her home for this- she placed a few treats on the ground next to her on her other side, which prompted Clay and Smoke to come get some, then she dropped a few more and gestured to her hounds to leave them.

She sensed Sombre coming closer to the treat pile and smiled as she saw him in her peripheral eating the steak bites. She continued talking all the while. When Sombre only stood there waiting afterwards, Holland got up calmly and began walking away. Would the hound follow?

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