The Paris Review - Fall 2016

Protectors
AMIE BARRODALE
She cut three slashes into a piece of chorizo,
started wedging Valiums into it, and
worried in a vague way that something
unusual would be required of her. She thought she
remembered David saying that he gave the dog nine
of his Valiums before the groomer. It seemed like
a lot, so she put the chorizo down on the counter
and checked on her phone. According to PetPlace,
a dog should take ten milligrams of Valium for
every ten pounds of body weight. Simha weighed
fifty-five pounds, so that would be five and a half
pills, but Simha had tremendous anxiety. She
had been banned from her first groomer, and the
new groomer was already complaining. “Highenergy
breeds may require a double dose.” Was a
Labradoodle a high-energy breed? Emily put two
or three more Valiums into the chorizo and gave
Simha the sausage.
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