Chapter 5
CHAPTER FIVE
Noah’s head was spinning by the time Cassie finished her instructions for Huckleberry’s rehabilitation.
While he was no stranger to the importance of protein, her documents were a mess of percentages and words like digestibility coefficients and taurine.
At least she’d provided a sample meal plan… and brought muffins from Lyra’s café.
“So you’ll want to watch his stool because that’s the best way to tell you if the new diet is well-tolerated.” Cassie seemed to be addressing Gloria exclusively.
His mother was taking notes, holding the pad as far away as she could reach.
“I know you mentioned money is a bit tight,” Cassie said gently. “And I’m sure many of your expenses are food-related.”
Noah grunted and glanced at his phone. He still hadn’t heard back from his real estate agent about the offer on the house next door. Not knowing was starting to really piss him off. He’d been mowing her grass for free since she inherited all that money, moved out, and started a horse-racing empire.
Cassie glanced at him before turning back to Gloria. “If you’re in touch with the local game commission, they may be willing to provide road-killed deer. Same with local farmers who have animals die from natural causes.”
Noah grimaced. They primarily relied on ground meats and partial carcasses from local butchers.
Willow Bend had never had a policy of begging people for donations.
The entrance fee they charged patrons used to cover everything from food to maintenance, but things were getting tighter.
And he couldn’t overextend himself anymore.
“I know,” she said. “It’s kind of gross, but it’s a really valuable enrichment opportunity for the big cats and a great way to cut costs.”
Huh. Some actual useful advice that didn’t involve manually calculating the percentage of crude protein in ground beef.
“Thank you, Doctor,” Gloria said. She stifled a yawn. “You’ve given us a lot to think about. Noah, how about you take her on the tour? I better go collect the dinner bowls before the macaques learn how to use them as weapons again.”
Cassie pressed her lips together, then straightened up and suddenly adopted a smile that looked forced.
It seemed she was just as pleased as he was about a private tour.
He had a million things to do, hours of sleep to catch up on, and “show pretentious vet around the shelter” should have been dead last.
“Sounds great,” she said.
He sighed and shuffled the papers she’d brought into a pile. “Let’s go.”
They started with the primates at a pace he normally would’ve reserved for a family with a screaming toddler.
“Macaques. Spider monkeys. Capuchins.” He pointed at the enclosures as he named each animal.
Cassie apparently didn’t notice that he was in a hurry because she stopped and leaned close to the wire wall. Was she judging their conditions? His hackles went up immediately.
“The capuchins are still adjusting,” he said defensively. “They were confiscated from a penthouse in Manhattan in February.”
“Poor things,” Cassie cooed.
Several of the primates approached the front of the enclosures to inspect her.
Her gaze softened. “They don’t seem too stressed.”
“They’ve come a long way. They didn’t come out of their night room for the first three weeks. We have some lemurs too. About half were seized from another zoo. The rest were also pets,” he said darkly.
There were idiots all over the world who were determined to keep exotic animals as pets. It almost always ended badly, and the animals were the ones who suffered the most.
With a long last look at the primates, she followed him down the gravel trail.
“I love lemurs,” she confessed. “At the zoo, one stole my stethoscope and managed to scramble up the wall and hide in the rafters of the medical building.”
He considered this in silence. She was irritatingly chatty.
“They love cat toys, you know. They’re a great low-cost way to add some enrichment.”
“We’re aware.”
She nodded and turned back to the enclosure. “Once my zoo had a ‘Lemur Olympics.’ PVC pipes for balance beams, water polo in a kiddie pool. It drew quite a crowd and was tons of fun for the lemurs.”
“We have plenty of crowds without stressing the animals out with cheap gimmicks,” he said. It wasn’t necessarily true, but he didn’t need some big-city vet coming in here and making him feel inadequate. His family all but bled for these animals every day.
Her posture became more rigid, and once again, it looked like she was biting her tongue. It was kind of fun to piss her off.
“Why did you leave your zoo?” he pressed. “Isn’t it hard to get a job working in zoo medicine?” That was what all their visiting vets had said, anyway.
“It’s…a long story.” She folded her arms over her chest.
A nonanswer was fine. He didn’t really care anyway.
They walked past a dozen other pens—emus, black bears, lynxes, foxes, and raccoons. Most were lounging in their night rooms due to the heat.
Cassie chatted at him for most of the tour, seemingly determined to fill the silence. How many hints could he possibly give her? He had shit to do. But his mom would be pissed if she knew he half-assed a tour with someone who was volunteering their time.
“Well. Let’s introduce you to the rest of the big cats.”
They approached the largest set of enclosures, spanning multiple wooded acres. They were so large that families regularly complained that they couldn’t spot the tigers at all.
Cassie gasped. “You have a snow tiger? I’ve never seen one.”
Noah nodded. “This is Rajah. She bunks with Hobbes. Some jackasses in Florida were selectively inbreeding. She has a number of health issues. We don’t know how long she’ll be with us.”
Cassie stared wistfully at the cat, who was lounging in a large plastic tub of water. “Sometimes I hate people,” she said, barely above a whisper.
“Me too,” he admitted.
Finally, something they could agree on.
He walked a distance without waiting to see if she followed. “Over here are Thor and Macchiato.”
Thor briefly picked his head up at the sound of Noah’s voice. He glanced around before settling back into his nap. Macchiato was probably out prowling the perimeter, watching the deer in the enclosure across the road.
“Wow. You really do have quite a collection here.”
“We prefer to think of it as a family,” he said flatly.
“Right,” she said quickly. “I’d like to talk to your mom again before I leave. Briefly.”
“Fine.” He turned back in the direction of a large Victorian-style house in the distance.
“Oh, a pollinator garden. Love that. Did you know lemurs are actually pollinators?”
“Yes,” he said without enthusiasm. He picked up the pace again, but she matched him.
“You really have a nice facility here. These animals are lucky to have you and your mom.”
He grunted and continued his trek. The sooner they made it back, the sooner he could put the finishing touches on that live-edge coffee table.
“Did I do something to piss you off?” Cassie asked behind him as he stomped up the wooden steps of his mother’s house.
He whirled around with one hand on the doorknob. “You mean other than treating me like a criminal running a circus?”
She took a sharp breath, and darkness clouded her eyes. “I-I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to—”
“That you, Noah?” Gloria called from the open kitchen window.
“Come on,” Noah said. He’d drop the doctor off with his mom, and then he’d get on with his day.
The screen door swung shut behind them. In the kitchen, his mother was elbow-deep in the sink, washing up one of the food prep bins.
“Why don’t you let me do that?” he went to take a cloth from her, but Gloria shook her head sharply.
“I know you have things to do,” she said. “Go on, get.”
“Yes,” Cassie said, turning to him. “Thank you for the tour.”
He narrowed his eyes. She was trying to get rid of him. “I think I’ll stick around.”
Cassie’s smile fell, and she turned back to Gloria.
“I just wanted to talk to you about some simple ideas I had to help with the financial pressure.”
“Oh, wonderful. Let me just get my notepad.” Gloria dried her hands off and pulled a pad out of the junk drawer.
“We don’t need ideas to help with the financial pressure,” Noah said. “Admission prices are going up on Monday.”
Cassie turned to him. “That’s barely even a short-term solution. You live in this incredibly close-knit community. People will want to help.”
She waved a hand at the window. “There are so many things you could do to stir up some business in a totally ethical and non-stressful way for the animals. Offer a quiet yoga class on the premises. Food trucks on slower days of the week. Children’s birthday parties for a flat fee.
Camping experiences. Coffee with the coatis.
Sip and sees. Feed your ex to the wolves. ”
Noah’s exasperation grew at each suggestion. This was ridiculous. “Feed your ex to the wolves? We’re not usually in the business of body disposal.”
Cassie smiled. “It’s just cookies with people’s names on them. Very low-cost, very satisfying.”
“No,” Noah said sharply.
“No?” Gloria, who had been frantically jotting down ideas, paused to look at him.
“We don’t need some out-of-touch big-city vet coming in here and telling us how to run things. We don’t have endless time and money to pander to people. We run on volunteers. The community already helps enough.”
“Noah Jeremiah,” his mother said sternly.
Cassie went pale, but her mouth flattened into a hard line. “I’m just saying there are a lot of simple things you could do to take the pressure off. Is there a university nearby? We had volunteers from fraternities and sororities all the time. Food prep, mucking the enclosures, everything.”
“So we’re just supposed to trust that a bunch of beer-guzzling sycophants have the skills to care for abused and abandoned exotic animals?”
“Why not? It seems like you do.”
“Why are you like this?” The level of his voice was rising. “We don’t need your help.”
Cassie jabbed a finger toward the sanctuary.
“These animals don’t have a voice. It’s my job to speak up for them.
What you’re doing right now isn’t enough.
If you fail and have to close down, they’ll be taken someplace else—probably somewhere worse.
Why are you so determined to continue down this path instead of just trying something new? ”
“I’m leaving.” He whirled on his heel, body tense with anger. Decorative plates rattled in the hutch as he stomped down the hallway to the front door. It slammed behind him, and the night was full of sounds—cicadas, a coyote howl.
“Noah.” His mother’s voice was quiet but powerful.
He paused on the last step. “I’m sorry,” he said automatically. He turned to look at her. Her arms were crossed over her chest, and she had a stern look on her face.
“I know I don’t need to remind you to never speak like that to a guest in my house again,” she said. Her voice was like the beginning of a thunderstorm.
“I know. I just—”
“I get it. It’s hard for me too, to accept that the way we’ve always done things isn’t working anymore. Change is hard. But the doctor’s right. We need to try things differently, give it one last try. Otherwise we’ll have no choice but to throw in the towel at the end of the season.”
Over his dead body.
“There is another option,” Noah said.
“What do you mean?”
“Sell the house,” Noah said. The proceeds from the sale would prop them up for a decade.
And she would be safer and more comfortable in the Cape Cod next door to him.
The kitchen was big enough for food prep for the animals, and there was a bedroom with an en suite on the first floor. It was a no-brainer.
“Absolutely not,” Gloria said. “This is my home, and it has been since your dad and I built it forty years ago. I ain’t leaving unless it’s in a body bag.”
“Well, that might be sooner than expected, since it’s only a matter of time till you fall down the stairs with that bum hip,” he snapped. “You’re not safe here. This house is a death trap.”
“Maybe, but it’s my death trap. I love you, darlin’. Now please get some sleep, you’re kind of being a butthead.”
He kissed his mother on the cheek and climbed into his truck. What a fuckin’ day.