Chapter 5 #2
“I haven’t seen them myself, but we already have llamas at Timber’s place. You can talk to Keisha about that,” he suggested, with a smile. “I guess she’s the one who brought them out and is overseeing their care. Plus, we have a donkey. I’ve heard him braying but haven’t seen him yet either.”
The old guy nodded. “Huh. That’s good news.” Then he headed back inside without saying anything else.
Sterling left in the truck, and, just as he was heading through town, he got a call from Toby. “Yeah, I’m just hitting town again,” he greeted him. “I’ve been out to the horse-boarding center. The old boy wants to come take a look at the Haven.”
“Oh, he’s more than welcome to do that. Hey, Lindsey was out here this morning, and she has been delivering cats and more dogs. So I have some supplies sitting at Tiffany’s vet clinic. Can you stop by there and load up? Her vehicle won’t carry it all.”
“Sure,” Sterling said. “I’ve just got to get twisted around, so I know where I am.”
“Ha, as soon as you do that, you let me know,” he quipped, with a snort. But he quickly helped Sterling with a couple directions, and, before long, he pulled up to the clinic. As he hopped out of his truck and walked inside, he found Lindsey standing there, talking to Tiffany.
She looked over at him in surprise.
“Happy to see both of you ladies again,” Sterling greeted them, with a gentle smile. “Toby asked me to come pick up some stuff that apparently won’t fit in your truck.”
“Some of it’s here,” Tiffany stated, “but most of it is still down at the feed center.”
“Okay, I’ll start by loading up what you’ve got here.”
She shook her head. “I would suggest you go there first and get that loaded, since it’s bulk packaging over there. Then come back here, and we’ll fit the rest of it in and around that load, at least as much as we can.”
He laughed. “There’s that much?”
“Oh yeah, there’s that much,” she declared, with a chuckle.
“Will do.” He smiled at Lindsey. “Hey, thanks for the tip on the boarding center. I was just out there talking to the old man.”
“Ah, he’s a sweetheart. How did you make out?”
“He wants to look at the Haven and meet Timber and made it clear he wouldn’t make any recommendations without seeing it for himself,” he noted. “Yet he seemed open to it. He knows Kat apparently, not sure about Badger.”
“That’s interesting,” Tiffany said, “but it makes sense, as they’ve been here for a long time.”
“And they’ve also developed relationships locally, and it can only help that Timber has them in his corner.”
“True enough,” Tiffany agreed.
When Tiffany disappeared for a moment, he looked over at Lindsey. “Problems with an animal?” he asked.
“An amputee,” she said, with half a smile.
“I came to see how he was doing. I brought him in earlier. He’d had a bad encounter with a dog and needed to have the leg removed.
We’d had trouble scheduling our regular vet, and it was getting problematic.
So thankfully Tiffany agreed to do the surgery today, and apparently she’s done.
I was just checking on him and bringing another cat over that we’re a little worried about. ”
When Tiffany returned a few minutes later, with a cat carrier in tow, she nodded.
“I’m giving this latest one a dose of antibiotics.
I think it’s just a bacterial infection and should clear up in the next few days.
” She handed over a vial and the cat carrier, adding, “Twice a day until they’re gone, starting tomorrow. ”
Lindsey smiled. “That sounds great. Thank you. And how is Tom?”
“He’s doing much better, just barely starting to wake up. I’ll keep him here for a couple days. Then, depending on the situation with the other cats now at the Haven, I figured I would take Tom out there to recover, if you’re okay with that.”
“That’s absolutely fine with us,” Lindsey agreed. “I just want to keep the paperwork up so everybody is clear on what’s happening and where the animals currently are.”
“Yes, I’ve opened a file on Tom, as I always do when I have an animal here that needs surgery,” she shared. “So, if you want to send me what you have, we’ll keep it all together.”
“Will do.”
With that, Tiffany smiled at Sterling and added, “I’ll see you when you get back.”
“Will do.” He walked Lindsey outside and said, “Looks as if you’re becoming a regular visitor.”
She laughed. “When it comes to animals, it’s rain or shine. Things can be really good, and we’ve touched wood every day to ensure that we’re not jinxing it, and then all hell breaks loose,” she noted, with a smile. “And we just do the best we can.”
“That’s all any of us can do.”
She studied him and frowned. “I have no reason why I need to say this, but maybe you need to listen to that wisdom yourself.” Leaving him with an astonished look on his face, she hopped into her vehicle and waved as she drove away.
He thought about her a lot as he went to the feed store and grabbed the load Tiffany had asked him to pick up, then returned to the clinic. With her help, they loaded the rest of the stuff that needed to go out to the Haven.
She shook her head as she surveyed it all. “Sometimes you just don’t realize how much material we’re moving for these animals.”
“No, you don’t,” he agreed, thinking about what it must cost to buy all this, plus all the food for the human crew. Yet it was all necessary, and it would help them out a lot.
She added, “Many people don’t understand about helping the animals in the first place, and some think it’s much easier and less expensive to just pop them one instead.”
He nodded. “I’ve heard that many times.”
“You’re not from around here, are you?” she asked.
“Not exactly. A long time ago my family was. My aunt still is. She helped herself to the family farm way back when, even though it technically was my mother’s.
I’m not sure what I should do about it, if anything,” he admitted, with a sigh, “but when Timber offered me the opportunity to come to the Haven, I couldn’t say no. ”
“Your mom has a place here?” she asked.
“My mom had a place, and then I was sent to foster care, and I lost touch with all of it. When I was eighteen, I found out that my aunt supposedly owns it, even though, per my understanding from way back when, it was supposed to be mine.”
She stared at him in surprise and then winced. “The messed-up things people do—to their own families to boot,” she muttered, shaking her head, “are pretty horrific.”
“I’m not sure I have any leg to stand on over it all, so I guess it just is what it is. Pretty ugly if that’s how it went down, but I probably can’t do anything about it.”
“Depends if your mother had a will and if your aunt tried to cheat you out of something you should have inherited.”
“I don’t know if I’m really up for dealing with all the ugliness that is sure to go along with any research into it.”
“Even to stop and just say hi?”
He hesitated.
She shrugged. “I would suggest you get your facts straight before you decide, and then maybe you’ll have a better leg to stand on.”
“Maybe, I’ll see. Anyway, gotta get this all back to the Haven.”
“Good enough.”
And, with that, he climbed into the vehicle and quickly drove home.