Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 68937 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 345(@200wpm)___ 276(@250wpm)___ 230(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68937 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 345(@200wpm)___ 276(@250wpm)___ 230(@300wpm)
I laughed. “It was my grandmother’s newest car. When she died, my grandad kept it in tip-top shape. Still keeps it in tip-top shape, really. Or my brothers do. I don’t think I’ve had to do anything but fill it up with gas in my entire life.”
“What is it about guys and cars? Dima, Shasha, and my husband all know how to keep them running. How is it that you can talk to almost any guy, and they know exactly what needs to be done? Even if it’s only a cursory knowledge of it? If something went wrong besides the battery on my car, I wouldn’t have a single clue what it was.” She shook her head. “I was driving my car the other day when I went to pick up Haze from work, and felt nothing wrong with it the entire drive. When Haze started driving home, he immediately noticed something was wrong. When he got back home, he fixed it. Meanwhile, I was still trying to figure out what it was that he was feeling that I wasn’t.”
We chatted for another fifteen minutes as we drove to the parking lot that would lead to the trail that would then lead to the field that Dima had found our four hellion cats.
When we got there, Milena, Maven, and two of Maven’s sisters-in-law, Athena and Bindi, were already waiting on us.
“Hey!” we all chirped as we waved and caught up.
“So are we thinking they’re gonna be here?” Maven asked as she carried a package of cat treats under her arm.
We walked and chatted, all of us having a great time catching up and making new friends.
Bindi, who was blind, walked slowly, her K9 companion at her side guiding her way.
Though she couldn’t actually look for the cats, she was here as moral support.
I absolutely adored Bindi and Athena, and only then realized that maybe if I met friends outside of work every once in a while, I might find that I have more women friends.
We made it to the field and started looking around.
“Oh, hey, Officer Assman!” Athena called. “What are you doing here?”
This Officer Assman smiled at Athena and said, “Looking for the congresswoman’s shooter’s location.”
I kept my mouth shut, smiling faintly while simultaneously trying not to freak out.
“What are you doing here?” Officer Assman asked.
“Oh, we heard a kitten when we were walking by here last, and we came with reinforcements,” Maven said, talking to the officer like she knew him just as well as Athena. “We want to catch the kitty.”
Officer Assman nodded and said, “What kind of cat?”
“The kind that is skittish and I only saw the tail end of.” Maven shrugged. “We’re gonna try to catch him. The thought of him being out here without food and water is breaking my heart.”
Officer Assman nodded and said, “Good luck to you all. I have to keep looking around.”
Then he was gone, leaving me with a racing heart and a nervous belly.
“Shew,” Maven said. “I didn’t want to have to return these cats to that woman that was breeding them. I would’ve had to had he been here when we found the kitties.” She looked around. “That’s probably why none of the cats have been found yet. This trail is deserted.”
It was.
Which was super sad.
The man that’d dropped the kittens off knew what he was doing when he dumped those cats here. He knew they wouldn’t be found.
“Shake your treat box,” I suggested.
Maven did, and we all started walking out into the field, calling “here kitty, kitty” in an upbeat voice.
The first one popped up near Brecken.
The second and third popped up near Maven.
“Whoa,” Maven cried when more and more poured out of the tall grass. “They’re everywhere.”
Three of us went back to the cars for the cat carriers.
When we got back, we stuffed them all into eight cat carriers.
They weren’t happy, but they would all find a better home than the fields they were found in.
As we all went back to the cars, I asked, “Do you think we found them all?”
“Probably not,” Brecken admitted. “But we can keep coming back with food and water. Eventually we might get them all.”
Luckily, being in the middle of Dallas, there really weren’t many predators that would take any of the cats out.
After parting in the parking lot and handing off my keys to Nastya, Milena and I climbed into her mom-mobile, a brand new Ford Expedition with huge tires and all sorts of fun features, and headed to the clubhouse.
The cats sang to us the entire way.
“This place still gives me butterflies,” Milena said as we pulled into the closest parking spot we could find.
I smiled at my new sister-in-law. “They love you. They’ve all told me so plenty of times.”
She smiled, and a little bit of the nervousness slid out of her shoulders.