Just Horsing Around

Chapter 15

The first thing I did when I got to work the next day was to put up the new photos I’d gotten from Ellie the day before. Behind Karen’s receptionist desk was a large corkboard where I put up any Christmas or thank you cards I got from clients, as well as pictures of their happy and healthy pets that they sent me. I grabbed a couple of thumbtacks and carefully put the picture of Touch of Frost up, along with the one of the mare and his foal. Sure, the latter two weren’t exactly clients, but I didn’t have any other horses whose pictures I could put up. It wasn’t like Touch of Midnight was recognizable yet, anyway. He was still a foal, he had a long way to go before he would reach the same fame as his father.

“First you abandon me for a dog, and now a horse. Why do you hate my species so much, you racist?” Bee asked. As soon as we got in that morning she immediately curled up into a little ball in her bed on the counter, but apparently wasn’t so tired that she couldn’t complain about Touch of Frost.

“First of all, I’m fairly certain the term racist doesn’t apply to inter-species dislike. And secondly, I haven’t abandoned you for a horse. Touch of Frost is a client. I put lots of client photos up here.”

“You don’t have photos of me up there.”

“That’s because you’re not a client, you’re my special little kitty-poo,” I told her, walking over to where she was and giving Bee a big, exaggerated hug that earned me a hiss in return.

“I still have my claws, and I will use them,” Bee muttered angrily, and I laughed as I stood up and left her in peace.

“You can’t complain that I don’t like you, and then complain when I give you affection,” I told my cat, glancing at her side-on.

“I can too. I want your love, but only when it suits me, and only a limited amount.”

I laughed as I saw Karen coming up the street and into the clinic.

“Oh, is that Touch of Frost?” she asked when saw the pictures, dropping her bag off on the little shelf under the receptionist desk.

“Yeah, it is,” I replied happily. “And his foal, Touch of Midnight.”

“What a little cutie patootie.”

“That little cutie cost his owner half a million bucks. Apparently that’s the going rate for Touch of Frost’s sperm these days.”

Karen’s mouth dropped open. “Wow! I guess that explains how they were able to pay you so much for a consult when he was sick.”

“Definitely. So who’s my first appointment for the day?”

Karen opened up the appointment program on the computer.

“You’ve got Natasha Klein, bringing in Deko. The little Jack Russel who broke his leg?”

“Awwww, I do. That little dude has so much energy, he just doesn’t know when to stop. He jumped out a second story window, onto the garage and then down onto the ground, right?”

Karen reviewed the notes and nodded. “Yeah. Luckily he landed in the garden and not on some concrete.”

“Good. He should be healed up by now so I’ll give him some X-rays to double check.”

“And then second you’ve got… oh, yeah. You remember Gloria, that talkative old lady with the cat that likes Bee?”

She didn’t make any other movement, but I could have sworn I saw Bee’s ear twitch when Karen said that.

“Yeah?” I replied.

“Well, it turns out he’s got a patch of fur missing, and he’s been licking at it for a bit. So she called yesterday afternoon and she’s the second appointment of the day.”

“Ok, perfect, thanks Karen,” I told her. A missing patch of fur and excessive licking was usually a sign of stress. We’d have to see, anyway. Maybe Buster wasn’t adjusting well to the move.

I didn’t have too long to think about it, because ten minutes later I heard the familiar yips of a certain overactive terrier who knew where his owner was taking him and wasn’t happy about it. I smiled to myself. Poor Deko. At least nothing bad was going to happen today, he was just going to get some X-rays and a checkup to make sure his leg was fine.

Forty-five minutes and a confirming X-Ray later, Deko was back out in the world with a completely healthy leg, ready to go out and create even more chaos. I was helping Sophie clean the exam room and get it ready for Buster when I heard Gloria’s voice out in the waiting area.

“Oh hello there Karen, how are you doing today? Isn’t the weather just lovely this time of year? I absolutely love it.”

I heard Karen reply. “If you want to go grab Buster I’ll bring up his profile,” I told Sophie, going over to the computer in the corner where we kept the files on all our animal clients. The program was slow to load, and by the time I finally got Buster’s chart up, about two minutes later, Sophie still wasn’t back.

“Uh, Angie?” Sophie said, coming back into the room. “I think you may want to come out here and see this.”

I followed Sophie out into the waiting area, where Bee and Buster had jumped on top of the tall cabinet at the back of the clinic where we stored all the specialized dog and cat food that we occasionally sold.

“Buster, get down from there!” Gloria was scolding, one hand on her hip.

“I’m not. You can’t make me.”

“We really need to put something on top of there,” I muttered to Sophie as I walked over to the bookcase.

“Bee, I don’t know what kind of dumb joke you’re doing, but you need to stop. Buster needs me to look at his leg. He’s licking at it.”

“You don’t need to look at his leg, he’s fine.”

I glared at my cat. Obviously in front of Gloria and Karen, I couldn’t reply.

“Come on. Come on down now, this isn’t funny.”

“We’re not coming down. Tell Gloria to come back later.”

I grabbed Karen’s chair in response and stood up on it, bringing me up to eye level with the two most mischievous cats in Willow Bay.

“I have just about had it with the both of you,” I muttered, and the two of them exchanged a look. As I reached for Buster he made a leap for it, hitting the corkboard with all the photos on it and making it crash to the floor with a loud bang, then bouncing off from there and landing on the counter before swiftly running along the back of the chairs in the waiting area and jumping on top of the door leading to the exam areas. It swung towards the wall from the force of his landing on it, but of course, being a cat, Buster kept his balance perfectly. A split second later Bee also tried to jump for it, but the difference was, I knew my cat too well. I knew exactly how she jumped, and I caught her in mid-air, resisting her swipes as she hissed at me. I carried her under the armpits, at arm’s length as she struggled. This was good, I had a hostage. I couldn’t believe I was actually to the point where I was holding my cat hostage.

“Now Buster, get down from there and go into the exam room, or Bee gets it,” I told him. What exactly “it” was, I hadn’t thought of yet. I thought Buster could probably tell, since he tilted his head to the side.

“You have no idea what you’re talking about little lady.”

“She’s bluffing!” Bee told him. “She’s just bluffing! Don’t let her win!”

“No sushi for Bee for a month if you don’t go into that room right now,” I finally threatened. Bee howled and struggled once more, trying desperately to get away. She managed to scratch me on the wrist, but I held strong. Finally, Buster sighed.

“Don’t do it!” Bee cried. “I can survive without the sushi! Don’t let the humans get away with this! Don’t negotiate with the terrorists!!”

Trying hard to resist rolling my eyes at Bee’s histrionics, I gave Buster a good, hard look.

“No, Bee, it’s not worth it. I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if I was the reason you didn’t get any sushi for the next month.” And with that, he hopped off the door frame and went into the exam room. Sophie rushed in behind and closed the door after him, locking him in there until we were ready to look at him.

“I’m so sorry!” Gloria said. “He’s always been a little bit of a bugger, but he’s never been this naughty before! You sure have a way with animals though, getting him to go in like that.”

“It’s alright, as you can see I also have a cat, and I understand that sometimes they can be a handful,” I told her as I went and helped Karen put the corkboard back up quickly. I grabbed some of the pictures and cards off the ground and put them on the counter. Suddenly, I saw something I hadn’t noticed on the photo of Touch of Midnight. His eyes seemed lighter than they should have been. I suddenly had the feeling that there was something about that, that my brain was trying to tell me something, but before I could figure out what it was, I had to go tend to Buster’s paw.

I followed Sophie into the room, with Gloria on our heels, where Buster was now sitting on the exam table, swishing his tail softly as if nothing had happened.

“Hello,” he greeted us chirpily as we entered the room.

“Alright, Buster,” I told him. “I hear you’ve got a bit of a licking issue.”

“Yes, it’s his front left paw, there,” Gloria told me, pointing out a little patch of raw skin. “He’s been licking at it like that for a few days, and the coat’s been wilting away there.”

I had a look at Buster’s paw. Sure enough, the skin was red with irritation where he’d been licking.

“Is he on flea medication?”

“Oh yes! Every month, like clockwork.”

“Do you give him drops, or a pill?”

“A pill, definitely. My old vet recommended it.”

“Your old vet was smart, pills are the best way to give pets their flea medication,” I told her with a smile. It was unlikely to be parasites, but I still ran my hands through Buster’s coat, giving it a careful look, just to be sure.

“Has he ever had any allergies to anything?”

Gloria shook her head. “No, nothing like that. I don’t understand why he’s doing this now. For the last three days Buster’s just been licking and licking, and I haven’t been able to stop him. And yet now, he’s just sitting there.”

“Kind of like how you take your car to the shop because it’s making a weird noise, then you get there and the noise stops,” I joked with a smile.

“Exactly like that!” Gloria said.

“Hey!” Buster protested, unhappy with my comparison.

I looked at Buster, and suddenly realized. I laughed out loud.

“I know exactly why he’s licking!” I said suddenly. “Buster wanted to come here to see his girlfriend!”

“What?” Gloria and Sophie asked at exactly the same time.

“The first time Buster came here, he and Bee were hanging out together, which Bee never does. And then today they were together again, and it wasn’t until I’d caught Bee that Buster calmly came in here. I bet you a few days ago when Bee ran away for a few hours she wasn’t out terrorizing wildlife like I’d thought, she went to find Buster.”

There was silence for a minute, and then Sophie burst out laughing. “That’s amazing! It makes perfect sense. So Buster licked himself so his fur would come off so Gloria would have no choice but to bring him back here to see Bee again!”

“Well aren’t you a cheeky little fellow,” Gloria said to Buster. “Is that true?” Buster meowed and gave his best kitten-eyes to Gloria.

I laughed. I was never, ever going to let Bee live this down.

“If you’d like, or if Buster would like, you’re welcome to stop by anytime,” I offered. “If you want to bring him in when you do your groceries, for example, then come pick him up on your way back, he’s more than welcome to hang out with Bee in our lobby.”

Buster’s ears perked up at that. “Really? Awesome!” he said, and I shot him a smile.

“Well, if Buster’s girlfriend lives here, I suppose coming over for a playdate a few times a week wouldn’t be trouble, if you don’t mind.”

“Not at all,” I replied. After all, I made fun of Bee a lot, but if she legitimately had found herself a friend, well, I was happy for her. I was also going to tease her mercilessly about it, but I was definitely happy for her.