Archer’s a wealthy guy in his own right, and he’s prepared to invest some of his own money into setting up the center, but we both understand that you can’t keep ploughing your own money into a facility like this, so I’m sure he’s pleased that they’ve asked Leon to be involved.
“First,” Leon says, “we want to talk about the extent of the Ark’s involvement in the center.”
Noah nods. “Basically, we understand that it’s your baby, Archer, and just because it might be situated close to us, we don’t want to come in and trample all over it. We acknowledge that you’d be the CEO with sole control over the vision of the center and how it’s run.”
“After saying that,” Brock says, “We Three Kings would like to make a significant investment into it, if you’d like us to.”
Archer glances at me and straightens. “Of course, we’d be open to any and all donations. That would be very generous.”
“We don’t want you to feel that it means we’d want a hand into how it’s spent,” Noah states.
“We’re not precious about it,” Archer says. “We just want to help people. Money is money wherever it’s from, and I’m not going to turn anything down.”
“Okay,” Brock says. “Well, We Three Kings would like to offer five hundred thousand dollars.”
Archer and I both stare at them. It’s so much more than we were expecting. And that’s without any government funding.
“The idea is that it will help secure the initial premises and aid in renovation,” Leon says. “And it should cover initial staffing, equipment, kennels, and therapy rooms, and maybe provide a year or two of operating security while you get grants and clients.”
“It’s an incredibly generous offer.” Archer’s voice is a tad husky. He’s had the idea for this center for a long time, and I think this is the first time he’s actually believed it’s going to come to fruition.
To cover his obvious emotion, I say, “I don’t think Archer’s report mentioned it, but we’ve also talked about an outreach program—the Healing PAWS bus—to take the animals out to rural communities, schools, retirement villages, and the prison. This would help set that up, too.”
“Fantastic idea,” Brock says. “There are so many people in the area who don’t have the means to be able to travel.”
Archer nods. “The thing is that the more we can teach people—children especially—to be kind to animals, it’ll hopefully mean it’ll lead to less rescue animals.”
“Trying to put the Ark out of business,” Noah jokes.
Archer smiles, but the rest of us sigh. We all know that unfortunately it will never happen. There will always be people who mistreat animals, and the Ark will always be needed.
We talk for a while about funding, with Leon explaining ways to build on the initial investments to make sure the business becomes self-sustaining. “I had a five-year plan for the Ark,” he explains. “In the end it only took three-and-a-half for it to pay for itself. Then of course you can decide how to reinvest any profit back into the center.”
“It all sounds great,” Noah says. “So… what about staffing? You won’t need vets as such, I’m guessing, but I’m guessing there might be some people at the Ark who’d be interested in helping out?”
“I don’t want you to worry that we’d be filching staff,” Archer jokes. “We’d discuss any movements with you first. I know a couple of therapists who are keen to make the move to a private practice, but obviously we’d need some people to look after the animal side of things, too.”
He leans forward then, cradling his coffee cup. “You mentioned me being CEO with sole control… Well, I have another proposition.”
I have a mouthful of coffee, wondering whether he’s going to ask Noah to run the place with him. It wouldn’t surprise me, although Noah’s more of a visionary, and I think Archer could do with someone more practical.
“I’d like to officially offer Cullen the position of joint CEO with me,” Archer says.
I cough and nearly spray coffee over the table, and they all chuckle.
“What?” I wipe my mouth.
“You must have seen that coming.” Archer looks amused.
I just stare at him. “I honestly had no idea.”
“I want you to run it with me,” he says. “Joint CEOs, me on the therapy side, and you on the animal care side. Come on, Cullen, we came up with the idea together. We’ve developed itover the past six months. We work well together. I can’t think of anyone I’d rather do this with.”
I look at the other three. It’s clear from their expressions that they were expecting this.
“I’m flattered,” I say slowly. “Of course I am. But…” I hesitate.
“You feel blindsided,” Noah says. “I understand.”
