Chapter 34
34
Snowy followed Dee home, so she fed the little cat who then curled up on one of the chairs. Dee glanced at the litter tray, it was clean as Snowy had been at the café all day. She put fresh water in the bowl and a bit of dried cat food in another bowl, in case Snowy got peckish. Then she went up for a quick shower and changed into jeans and a top. She’d phoned the local solicitor’s office at lunchtime and booked an appointment for Thursday to start the divorce rolling. The sooner she sorted it, the sooner she could get on with her life.
She went over to Snowy, who was still curled up on the sofa, and stroked him. ‘I have to go out again, are you going to be okay here by yourself?’ Edna had told her that she often left Snowy in when she went shopping and he always used the litter tray.
Snowy lifted up his head and miaowed as if he understood, then laid his head back down on his paws again. He seemed perfectly comfortable.
‘I won’t be long,’ Dee told him, grabbing her handbag. It was warm so she didn’t need a jacket. She wondered briefly how Snowy would be with a dog, but then, at the moment, she would only be borrowing one to take for walks, so that shouldn’t affect the little cat.
Flic, Stu and Cath were at The Pirate’s Head with Kenny when Dee arrived. Stu waved and called her over.
‘Kenny’s been telling us that you’re thinking of signing up to the “Local Dog Walkers” app?’ he said when Dee had got herself a wine spritzer and sat down to join them.
She noticed to her surprise that Toffee was lying by his feet. The little dog waved his tail at her and she bent down and stroked his head then replied, ‘Yes, I’d love a dog to take for a walk, it’s better than walking alone, and if it helps someone else then that’s great.’
‘Do you have an iPhone or Android?’ Kenny asked her.
‘Android,’ she told him, taking it out of her handbag. Nigel always insisted that Androids were more flexible and had better cameras.
‘This is the app. You’ll find it in the Playstore,’ Kenny told her, showing her the icon – a white dog in a dark blue circle with Local Dog Walkers written around it.
She installed the app and signed up – which was so easy she could have done it by herself but it was good of Kenny to offer to help. She took out her credit card to pay the small fee of ￡10 a year, but to her dismay it was declined. Nigel had kept his threat of cancelling her cards. Thank goodness she’d moved that money into her own account.
‘Problem?’ Kenny asked.
‘Nigel has cut off my access to the joint account.’ She took out her personal account card. ‘It’s okay I have my own account.’
To her surprise there were quite a few dog owners looking for people to share their dogs – people who worked, young mums who didn’t have time, elderly people who no longer had the energy.
‘What sort of dog are you looking for?’ Cath asked.
Dee considered this. ‘I don’t really mind. I think it’s more important to me who I help by looking after it,’ she said after a moment’s thought. ‘I think I’d like to help out an older person, it must be really difficult for them to walk their pets and often they’re the only “family” they have.’ She thought of some of the elderly people in the village she lived in – or should that be, used to live in – they often didn’t see anyone from one week to the next, especially if they were housebound. It would be good to help someone like that look after their dog, and also probably provide a bit of much needed company. She remembered the elderly lady who had spent a couple of hours in the café that afternoon, making a pot of tea last, and stroking Snowy, wondering if she had a pet. If she didn’t, was it because she couldn’t look after it by herself.
Finally Dee selected a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel called Betsy, owned by an elderly couple, Stan and Brenda Slater. Their daughter had signed them up for the app, concerned that no one had time to exercise the dog. They lived a few minutes’ drive away. Dee sent them a message offering to walk the dog for them, then settled back to join in the conversation which had now turned to the Artists’ Studios.
‘We raised loads on Saturday, which is great, but we’re still a few grand short of what we need before we can open,’ Kenny said. ‘It would be good if we could get all the funds we need by September, to give the artists time to move in and establish themselves for Christmas. Being in a large, bespoke studio space should increase their customer reach and sales.’
‘We get a lot of visitors in the summer, maybe we can hold more fairs, or raffles even, to raise the money,’ Cath suggested.
‘I could ask Andi if we could have a collection tin in the café,’ Dee said. ‘People might put in their odd bits of change, it will all add up.’ Another idea occurred to her. ‘Maybe we could even have some displays of the artists’ work? A photo board perhaps? People might be willing to support it if they can see where the money is going.’
‘That’s a good idea,’ Kenny agreed. ‘I knew that you would be useful to have on the committee.’
Dee felt her cheeks glow at Kenny’s praise. ‘We should run it past Moira too, although I’m sure she won’t mind. It’s all for a good cause after all.’ She picked up her glass. ‘I’ll mention it to Andi tomorrow and ask her to talk to Moira about it when she calls for her daily update.’
They discussed other ideas to raise funds, with Dee writing them all down. She seemed to have become the unofficial PA. She hoped no one thought she was taking over, but the others didn’t seem to mind. Then, about halfway through the evening a message came in from the Local Dog Walkers saying that Mr and Mrs Slater wanted to meet her to discuss sharing the care of Betsy. Dee arranged to pop round the next day after work.
‘I hope they like me,’ she said to Kenny as she patted Toffee, ‘and that Betsy is as friendly as your dog.’
‘Of course they will, you’ll be a godsend to them,’ Kenny told her. ‘We’ll be able to take both dogs for a walk along the beach at the weekend.’ He grinned. ‘That’ll be fun.’
Dee smiled. She and Kenny had fallen into an easy friendship, which she enjoyed, and she liked the idea of them both walking the dogs together.
Kenny insisted on walking her home. ‘I’d ask you in for a coffee but Snowy is in and I’m not sure how he’ll be with Toffee,’ Dee said.
‘No problem, we don’t want to unsettle Snowy, he’s got enough to deal with as Edna is away. Anyway, it’s time I was off too.’ He nodded at her. ‘Bye, Dee.’
‘Bye.’
She watched as he turned around and walked down the hill. Memories of him with Margot all those years ago flashing across her mind. Margot had been so full of life, she bet that Kenny missed her so much. At least Nigel was still alive, and it was her choice to leave him. She was glad that she had met Kenny again, it seemed that right now they both needed a friend.
Snowy came to the door to greet her when she opened it, running out into the front garden to do his business and then coming straight back in.
‘You’re missing Edna, aren’t you?’ Dee asked as she stroked the little cat, who miaowed softly as if he understood what she’d said.
Dee made herself a mug of warm milk and honey and sat down to watch TV for a while, stroking Snowy. Then she scooped him up and took him up to bed with her. The cat snuggled down on the duvet beside her and was soon asleep while Dee lay for a while, her mind buzzing. She was about to finally drop off when a text came in. She groaned. Not Nigel again. She was tempted to ignore it but curiosity got the better of her and she grabbed her phone from the bedside cabinet. It was from Babs. She opened it, anxious to hear how her friend had got on. Babs had written:
Not seen anything I like so far, and still don’t want to live here. Can’t wait to get back to the UK. How are things with you?
She’d attached a couple more photos of the houses they’d viewed recently and Dee was surprised when she saw that one of them was almost at the top of a mountain, and the other looked like it was in the middle of a forest. There was no way her friend would live anywhere like that, she wouldn’t have thought that Geoff would want to either. He was a people person, he’d loved working in the shop, so had Babs. They were the sort of people who were the centre of the community. Surely, they should be looking at smaller properties in villages where there was a bit of life going on? These houses were all old, huge and remote. What was he thinking of, taking Babs to see houses like this? It was almost as if he wanted her to refuse to move.