Officer Pamela Gómez has big dreams. And a tiny apartment. She hopes to win a rare promotion as one of an elite corps of XK9 "super dog" handlers on the Orangeboro Police Department's forensic team, but the odds are stacked against her. Pam's never had a dog, never left her home space station, and never thought of herself as an "elite" anything. Plus the dogs are huge! Her apartment's really small. Her boyfriend secretly hopes she'll wash out, and her mother advises she abandon all hope. But she took the courses. She passed the tests, and she made the cut. Now she's a partner-candidate bound for Planet Chayko. Pam knows she'll feel awkward. She's braced to be the oddball. She never expected to fall in love. All her inner voices scream "loser!" and "fail!" Can big dreams and a giant dog take her to the other side of fear?