Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
Raven waved goodbye to Simon when he was leaving the store.
“You’ll hear from me soon,” she assured his daughter, who was watching her with eyes filled with hope.
She had almost decided to give the twins to Sarah and Simon.
They had stable homes and jobs, daughters who seemed to understand the responsibility, and she was confident the cats would be happy with them.
Though they were a bonded pair, they were also young and could probably learn to have time apart without too many repercussions—especially if the separation was made slowly over time.
Lance appeared beside her with a latte from Whisking Love. “I thought we were in the business of matching cats and humans,” he said, “but I think there’s a bit more going on there.”
“Thank you! I needed this,” Raven said, taking the latte from Lance. “Now, tell me. What are you talking about?”
“Simon and that woman.” He took a sip of his own coffee and led her to the side of the room where they could speak more privately.
“You mean Sarah? What about them?”
“I’ve known Simon for a few months now. He’s often in here for books. I’ve never seen him quite so… hmmm…” His brows furrowed. “Animated?”
“He did seem excited about adopting the kittens, and it would be a solution. Though I must admit it doesn’t always work for bonded pairs to be split. So I hope they follow through.”
“I think if it’s up to Simon, they’ll be spending a lot of time together.”
“He did seem more enthusiastic than Sarah,” she admitted. “I’m not sure if she really wants a cat.”
“Are you being deliberately obtuse?” Lance’s voice held amusement.
“Obtuse?”
“I’m not talking about the cats. I think Simon is interested in Sarah. And, if I’m not mistaken, she isn’t indifferent to him either.”
“You mean…?”
“Yes. While your main objective may be matching cats to owners, I think you may be playing matchmaker too.”
“Huh,” said Raven, smiling as she took another drink. “Whatever works to make sure my cats have happy homes.”
Lance chuckled and shook his head at her. “You really do have a one-track mind.”
She grinned. “I find it helps to have focus.”
“I see Mal on her way over. I’m going to go and relieve Ahmed so he can grab some lunch. Zoey’s happy to take a break from restocking shelves and help out at the back table if the others want to take a break.” He pecked her on the cheek and jostled himself through the crowd toward a grateful Ahmed.
Mal came over, and excitement seemed to hang around her like perfume. “We’ve got twelve applications, Raven. In just over two hours.”
“Make that fourteen,” said Raven, handing her Simon and Sarah’s applications. “Did you get any for the twins?”
“No. But I got one for Charlotte and a few for the older cats. And did you see how many of the books are moving? I had to go to the back and open another box.”
“That’s great news.”
“Yes, this partnership is off to a great start.” Mal’s eyes were shining. “I was a bit skeptical at first, but I’ve got to hand it to you, Raven. You have some great ideas.”
“Thank you. Now why don’t you or Daisy take a break and get some lunch? I’ll watch the front while you’re away.”
She watched Mal bob in between people to escape for a few minutes, then turned back to the table where people had gathered so she could answer questions.
Two hours later she looked up and surveyed the room.
Children of all sizes were sporting cat paws on their cheeks or whiskers on their flushed, happy faces.
Daisy and Mal had begun to disassemble the displays and move the cats to the back room to give them time out of the spotlight.
Lance was at the cash register, ringing up sales, and Pinky had been pleased to give out dozens of brochures about the store’s weekly children’s book reading.
The day could not have gone much better.
“Are you ready for dinner?” asked Lance, after he’d locked the door and turned the sign to closed half an hour later.
“Yes,” said Raven. “Give me a hand with this last table, please.” It was folded up and ready to be slid into the back of the van.
“Let’s just leave it in the hall. We’ll get it later when we load the cats. We’re all famished, and Betty has agreed to meet us at the restaurant.”
She looked over at the group ready to leave through the rear exit.
“Yes, let’s go.” They carried the table as far as the back hallway then followed Mal, Daisy, Zoey, Ahmed, and Pinky outside and down the street.
The Whisk had already closed, so they met at the Indian restaurant—Lance’s personal favorite—and settled into an oversized booth by the window overlooking the bay.
After ordering several dishes, Lance went outside to meet his Aunt Betty, who was coming in by care transit, and help her inside.
Her wheelchair, though a little narrower than the ordinary, was still hard to navigate in several of the places in Sunshine Bay.
The old buildings hadn’t all been converted yet.
“Well, tell me how it went,” demanded Betty, once her chair was pushed up to the head of the table. “Did you get a lot of interest?” she asked Raven. “And sales?” she asked Lance.
Raven exchanged a glance with Lance, who smiled widely.
Though Betty had sold the bookstore to Lance a few months earlier, she had been the owner when Raven had approached her with the idea of having cats displayed there.
And now, as the president of the Cat’s Meow board, she still liked to take charge.
Raven turned to Mal. “How many applications did we end up getting?”
“Twenty,” said Mal. “And that doesn’t include the nine we got from your school talks in the past couple of weeks.”
“We’ll be sans cats soon,” said Daisy.
“Unfortunately, there are always more where they came from,” said Raven, thinking of the emaciated cats she’d seen at Rosalyn’s vet practice. “But even if half of these work out, we’ll be way ahead of where we were this time last year.”
“And you?” asked Betty, turning her sharp eyes to her nephew.
Lance swallowed and looked a little like a young boy being called out for trouble rather than a man with grown children and several successful businesses in his past. “Well, we haven’t taken final stock yet, obviously, but the takings today were far more than I’ve seen since I’ve been here.
Double what you took in last year on this weekend,” he added ,with a little note of triumph.
“The mugs are almost all gone,” piped in Zoey.
“I had to restock that shelf twice today, and we’re on the last box, and…
” She cast her gaze above her as though trying to remember something.
“Oh, yeah. The cat care books are nearly gone—two left, I think—and we sold a lot of bookmarks with cats, and cat-themed cozy mysteries, and cat-themed kid’s books. ”
“It sounds like you chose the stock well,” Lance said to Pinky, who nodded sagely, pleased he had noticed.
“And the coupons for the cookies went quickly,” added Ahmed. “As well as most of our copies of that sci-fi book you brought in about the planet run by cats.”
“You’re kidding,” said Lance. “I haven’t read it yet. Now, maybe I should.”
“It is pedestrian,” said Ahmed. “I read the first in the series. But some will find it amusing.”
“I’ll put it at the bottom of my Tbr pile, then,” said Lance. “Thanks.”
Ahmed tilted his head in acknowledgement, and Betty turned her gaze toward Zoey.
“And the websites?” she asked.
Zoey sat up straighter—Betty seemed to have that effect on everyone—and said, “We’ve had a lot of traffic.
The kitty cam is almost constantly being viewed, and not just by people locally.
We’re definitely going to have to find new kittens for that, though I have some footage of the twins we can add to our channel. ”
“And we’ll have to update the list of adoptees in the next few days,” added Daisy, who had been sitting silently in the corner. “Do you think we could use the mom and kittens that just came in for the kitty cam?” she asked Raven.
Raven considered the idea. “Yes, I think that would work well. We don’t have any kittens that need to be hand-fed at the moment, so why not?”
“Well, it sounds like a very positive start to our collective endeavor,” pronounced Betty, just as the food arrived.
A few moments later, after filling their plates with dal, biryani, tandoori chicken, and vegetable curry, Mal cleared her throat to get Raven’s attention. Raven raised her eyebrow.
“Did you want to discuss the other idea now?” Mal asked.
“Good idea,” said Raven. She turned toward Betty. “Mal and Daisy have been doing some research, and”—she nodded toward Lance—“I’ve had an offer of assistance with managing a new project that we hope you and the board would consider.”
“Go on,” said Betty, putting down her fork.
“We’d like to propose we raise the money to add a rehabilitation wing to the rescue center. It would fit on the land I have leased to the center, and it would allow us to expand… take in cats and maybe even some dogs that need extra support to transition from their situations to new homes.”
“Like the one I read about recently, down-island?”
“Exactly,” said Raven, hopeful that Betty would like the idea.
“Do we know how much we would need to raise?”
“Initially we would need about ten thousand,” said Lance, “to engage an architect, come up with the plans, do research, get permits, that kind of thing. Then we would see from there—though I am willing to donate my time as project manager.”
Betty nodded, taking in all their information, and Raven waited, hoping they could get her on side. If Betty agreed, the board would agree, because Betty was that kind of person. If she wanted something, she usually got it.
“What kind of research have you done?” she asked Mal and Daisy.
“We looked at the stats from the area. The number of hoarding incidents has been increasing as our population grows, and we want to be able to reduce the number of cats that need to be put down,” began Mal.