I unlocked the door. "I'll be fine. He's supposed to be at a work function or golfing. I forgot the details."

He hit the lock button twice. "It's safer if I go."

"No. We've gone over this. You'll go in there all... macho SEAL. Plus, if she sees NB, she might say no. I'll be right back." I hit the unlock button, and he let me.

I jumped out of the car quickly in case he changed his mind and walked toward the coastal blue-sided home. A woman met me at the front door before I knocked. In her hand she had two long leashes, making it hard for me to see the dogs behind her.

"Are you Vonnie?" she asked.

I nodded and held my hand out to shake hers. "That's me."

She handed me the dog leashes. "If anyone asks, I hired you as a dog walker because I'm out to dinner with friends. Bacon is the golden and Bits is his brother."

"Okay, but..." I started, but two giant beasts of dogs ran out the door, and she promptly closed it in my face.

The dogs took off, jerking the leashes and me with them. "Holy shit. Stop!"

Both dogs stopped at the sidewalk. Broadrick opened the driver's door and let NB out of the car with his leash. The smaller of the two dogs, a beautiful Golden Retriever with rust-colored fur, stopped first. Beside him a fluffy white Great Pyrenees came to a halt as well. These weren't dogs. They were horses.

Little NB, who weighed just over twelve pounds-because of all the treats Broadrick fed him-came up to the edge of the sidewalk and sniffed the dogs. They sniffed back.

No one barked.

"They seem nice," Broadrick said as he eyed them.

I wrapped the ends of the leashes around my hands an extra time for safety. "They're giant. Who needs a dog this big?"

Sensing we were ready to go, both dogs turned to their left and started on the walk. I checked my phone as we went and agreed with their path.

"This is the way Janet said they normally take."

The sun inched lower in the sky, and as we turned right to take another street, it hit me in the side of my left eye. Had I known the route, I would have brought sunglasses.

Half a block away, a squirrel with a big brown bushy tail ran across the road. I tensed, waiting for all three dogs to take off, but none of them noticed. A few seconds later, a tall man walking a standard-sized white poodle turned the corner onto our street going the opposite direction.

He slowed as we crossed one another, and the dogs' tails wagged as if they'd met a new best friend.

We jerked our heads in greeting to one another and carried on after only a few excited seconds of butt sniffing.

"Do you want me to walk the big ones?" Broadrick asked, offering me NB's leash.

I shook my head. "No, they're actually doing great. No tugging at all. NB could learn a thing or two from them."

We came to another street, and the dogs took us left. I followed. Another squirrel darted across the road in front of us. Not a single canine noticed.

"Aren't Goldens known for being friendly?" Broadrick asked as they stopped to rub noses with a Pitbull mix in the neighbor's fenced yard. NB hung back until both the larger dogs had said hello. They were a friendly duo. I snapped a photo of the greeting.

At the end of the street, a couple approached, pushing a baby stroller and walking another poodle mix beside them. The dogs stopped and sniffed one another with a friendly tail wag before continuing.

"These dogs aren't friendly. They're hussies," I said, using my phone to take a picture at another yard we stopped at to get our sniffs in.

All three of the dogs took turns peeing on various bushes and then trotting their way along the path. A third squirrel, or the same as the first two, stopped at the edge of the sidewalk across the road and chirped at us. No one but Broadrick and me noticed.

"You saw that squirrel. Right?" Broadrick asked.

"Yeah." I watched the brown little guy run up a tree beside him and ruffle the leaves. "I keep waiting for the dogs to take off, but they haven't noticed."

In that instance, a new squirrel, this one gray, sped out in front of us. NB caught the movement and jerked on his leash, tugging Broadrick's arm forward. NB rammed on the leash, trying to get free while barking at the rodent until it made it up a tree on the opposite side of the road.

The golden and great Pyrenees stood still, waiting for him to finish.

"Your dog is a menace," I said to Broadrick once we started walking again.

Broadrick glanced at me with his lips in a straight line. "At least he's normal. Are these even dogs?"

We walked another two blocks, and when our route should have taken us right, the dogs pulled right. "No, guys, we're headed home now."

I tugged on their leashes, but they didn't budge in my direction. Instead, both dogs tugged harder to the right.

"Let's see where they go," Broadrick said, turning and letting NB follow.

The dogs jumped forward when I moved left, giving them room to go. "Whatever."

Something at the bottom of my stomach grew heavy, and I pulled out my cell phone again. The word weird barely described the entire walk, but something told me it was going to get weirder yet.

"Where do you think we're going?" I asked when we made it half a block. "And how long do we let them go?"

They'd definitely had a routine memorized before, so it seemed unusual for them to be rerouting us on their own whim, especially when they both had the same whim. I lifted my phone with my free hand, opened the camera app, and started a video.

We made it past another three houses before the dogs' excitement grew. Their tails wagged harder, and their steps came faster. They were almost prancing by the time we made it to the home on the corner of the block. A small yellow cape cod with a picket-fenced yard.

The dogs bypassed the picket fence and trotted their way up the driveway to a side door.

"Do I let them keep going?" I asked Broadrick as I continued to film the dogs' butts on their journey.

The Great Pyrenees pawed at the back door, and I turned to Broadrick, helpless about what to do. A huge doggie door took up the bottom of the side door. The Pyrenees whined as he pawed it again.

"This is so weird," I whispered to myself more than anyone, but Broadrick gave me a quick agreement.

A green light beeped on the top of the doggie door and a mechanically unlocking sound brought the dogs to peak excitement level. The golden lunged for the now open door and I jerked on the leash, putting my entire body into stopping him.

"Help," I squeaked out.

Brodrick charged forward, grabbing the middle of the leashes, and jerked them backward, stopping the golden from getting in the house. Together, we backed away from the door with Broadrick's hands still holding the leash until we made it to the sidewalk.

"Holy shit," I said when I had the dogs under control again, even as they continued to pull toward the house. "You saw that. Right?"

He nodded. "You got it all on camera?"

"Yup." I stopped the video and lowered the phone, sticking it in my back pocket. "Janet is going to find that very interesting."

Someone-not their owner-had the dogs' microchips set to let them in their home. That was some crazy shit. Too friendly shit.

Broadrick stopped to give the house one last look before I finally got the dogs back on task, and we turned around, heading toward their actual home. I had enough evidence on camera to thrill Janet until Christmas. Originally, I thought she and her client were off their rockers, but sometimes women just knew when things weren't adding up properly.

"I guess they're not the craziest cases, after all," he said with an index finger on his chin.

"No," I shook my head, happy the further we got from the yellow home. "They're definitely crazy."

"What now?" he asked, keeping his eye on another squirrel stopped half-way up a tree.

My dreams of pasta dinner were quickly fading. "I have to tell Janet and comb the park for drugs."