“We had to give them Pedialyte just like they were human babies,” Vanessa said importantly. She leaned over the basket protectively, her long dark hair draping her oval face. “They were so cold; the vet said they could easily dehydrate. We had to warm them up first before we could try to feed them. Feeding a chilled kitten can be fatal, you know.”
Peggy drew a fluffy golden kitten from the basket and rubbed the small body against her face. “But where is the mother?”
Stella Brickson did not rise but craned her long neck to see the squirming feline mass. “There must be four of them. No. Five!”
“The mother’s feral. She abandoned them,” Mary Beth said matter-of-factly. “We’re not sure how long they were left on their own, but they were pretty weak when we hauled them out. Poor little things. But so far so good. We only lost one. Just yesterday.” At this last bit of information, her brown eyes grew soft.
The largest kitten had tufts of ginger and black fur in a ragged pattern. Its tiny face was gold but for a black patch over its left eye like a budding pirate. Two of the kittens were gray, and one had inherited color genes of every description. The fattest was gold with oddly crooked stripes on its tail and ears.
Alice stroked the fur of the little pirate. “Oh, Annie, aren’t they the cutest things you ever saw? I’d love to have this one when it’s big enough. Is it a boy or a girl?”
Mary Beth turned to Vanessa who blushed slightly and responded, “That one’s a boy. See, you can tell by the …”
“Never mind,” said Kate. “We’ll take your word for it.”
You’re not going to keep them all, are you, Mary Beth?” Alice asked, exploring the small tummy with a perplexed grin.
“No, that I can promise you. Another week or so, and I’ll be looking for good homes for every one of them. But they’ll still need a lot of care.” Mary Beth tucked the blue blanket around the kittens, which had been carefully returned to the basket. Her fingers moved gently near a listless black kitten smaller than all the others. “Not sure Blackie here is going to make it. It’s hard to get enough formula into her. Lord knows she needs it more than all of them, but she’s too weak to fight for her supper.”
“We should get them back by the stove,” Vanessa said, taking hold of one end of the basket. “Miss Calloway showed me what to do.”
Carla Calloway, a single woman in her fifties, had recently purchased the property known as South Shore and transformed it into a shelter. Stony Point gossip held that she had pretty much used up her considerable fortune to rescue abandoned animals of the region.
“In between shouting orders, no doubt,” Kate said with a sardonic expression. “Carla Callous is lucky you haven’t quit like the others. Nobody can take her critical tongue for long.”
“Yeah,” Vanessa said with a shrug. “But the animals are so cool—and she’s good with them. You guys are still going to have the benefit show for the shelter, aren’t you?” The teenager cast hopeful glances around the room of needlecrafters.
“We said we would,” Mary Beth said staunchly.
“You’ll get no thanks for it, mind you,” Stella Brickson intoned with an unrestrained hmph! “She’s as prickly as a riled porcupine.”
Annie pondered Stella’s remark and wondered what made Carla Calloway prefer the company of animals—if indeed that was true of the woman she had yet to meet. Personality aside, her care of Stony Point’s abandoned animals had made a significant contribution to the community’s well being. “She’s providing a wonderful service. We have to applaud that,” Annie offered diffidently.
Nods and sighs ensued, indicating willingness—however reluctant—to raise funds to augment the dwindling resources of the shelter’s founder.
Annie looked down at the tiny black kitten, its head weakly snuggled in the soft blanket. The filmy eyes seemed to meet hers briefly, and then slowly close. “Poor little thing,” she whispered. She felt a strange urge to pray for the tiny black runt with no mother.
At length, Mary Beth cleared her throat. “Well, then, we’ve had enough Animal Planet for today. Now, since we’ve committed ourselves to the benefit auction, we’d better not waste any more time.”
But Annie smiled to see that Mary Beth could not resist one final fond look at the basket as Vanessa carried it through the door.
2
“Just get rid of all this junk now before the lease runs out—unless you want to pay another month’s rent on your mom’s place!” Jem Carson glowered as he spoke, his swarthy face close to hers in the weak lamplight. His dark eyes roamed the tiny apartment with quick, dismissive glances.