Chapter Ten
He started the four-wheeler and we began moving towards God knows where.
We passed a few habitats, and he explained to me which animals were there and how many. He promised I would get to know their names as the week went by. I was beginning to see how massive this rescue was, and we hadn’t even covered a quarter of it.
“This is the front of the rescue. You passed through here when you came for the birthday party.” He stopped in front of a block building. I recognized it from Natalie’s birthday party, but to be honest, I wasn’t truly paying attention to it last time. I think there was a gift shop in it. Oh, and they made us watch a movie on the dos and don’ts on the rescue, along with some other information I’m sure was important. I hopped off the machine and Jake followed.
“I want you to see the rescue from the beginning to the end.” He beamed and I shuffled behind him as he walked through the open double doors in the back of the building. It wasn’t super large, maybe 1,000 square feet.
It had a desk, a ton of shirts, and other gift shop memorabilia with the Wild Rescue logo on it. I took it all in and wandered around, leaving Jake behind. I giggled at some of the stuffed animals with their big wide eyes and little T-shirts on. There was a lot of hippie-like stuff there. I guess “save the animals” in tie-dye did have a good draw.
I found my ovaries starting to ache when I looked at the cute onesies with animal-shaped heads on the front and a tail on the butt. Not wanting to go down that road, I moved on and saw a bunch of laminated papers displayed on a wall. You could adopt all sorts of animals, which was pretty much just sponsoring them. There were so many options, so many ways to help. I was starting to feel a little in awe of what all they had to do to help these animals. It wasn’t like a circus or a place that wanted to just get a bunch of money off of having animals.
I turned back towards Jake to see him talking with an older woman who was working around the desk. Wanting to go say hello, I walked over and introduced myself.
“Hi, I’m Cammy, Jake’s hostage for the week.” I waved. I noticed Jake bite back a smile as I stopped at the desk.
“Hostage, interesting. I’m Patty, too old to be working but Jake just can’t get rid of me.” She was tall, and pretty thin. She looked like she was healthy, though. Her gray hair was cut short and she was wearing a blue polo shirt and khaki cargo shorts. I had seen a few other people wearing clothes like that so it must be their uniform.
“Nice to meet you. Jake here was just showing me around the rescue. Seems pretty snazzy so far.” I looked around the little gift shop again.
“We do put in a ton of hours keeping this place nice. I’m glad my grandbabies have somewhere they can go to learn about animals, and not have to worry about a crack needle getting stuck in their foot.” Her face told me she wasn’t joking. I felt a little awkward after that comment.
“Yes, well, we can’t have that happening.” Thank God Jake decided to save me at that moment.
“I’m going to finish giving my hostage a tour of her prison. We’ll see you later.” He wrapped his arm around my waist and directed me towards the door. We hopped back onto the ATV and he showed me the pavilion where Natalie had her birthday party, which happened to be near another smaller barn with two goats, Francine and Frank, and a pig named Judice, hanging out behind the fence.
“You have quite the variety of animas here,” I yelled at him.
“No need to shout, I can hear ya just fine.” He turned down a path and we came to a block building with two girls coming out of it. Both girls were young, maybe twenty. One had long brown hair and was petite but had a nice rack, and the other girl had caramel colored hair, petite as well, but with no rack. I wondered what they did here. As soon as their eyes landed on Jake I understood why they were here. Both of them had a sultry look in their eyes. They wanted the man straddling the machine right now.
“Girls, I’d like you to meet Cammy. She’ll be helping us on the rescue this week.” Jake helped me off the ATV and then got off to stand next to me. The girls’ eyes swung to me and I saw a little sneer on the blonde’s face. I felt my inner bitch rear her head. These girls wanted to play high school mean girls? Fine, little did they know, Iownedhigh school.
“Hiya, girls. Nice to meet you. What’s your name?” I walked up and shook their hands. Showing them I was no little girl. I was a full bitch-blooded woman, if needed.
“I’m Autumn.” The brown haired girl shook my hand but it was a weak shake. The blonde shook it next, a little firmer but still. Pansy.
“I’m Helen.” We took a step back from each other and their eyes went straight back to Jake.
“Autumn and Helen run our social media sites. Keeping everything updated and reaching new people. Social media has become one of our best tools for educating the public on exotic animal abuse, along with what we do here.” You could tell this place was his love. And these girls were helping him share that love with the world. I guess I could let their little love glares roll off my shoulder. Autumn suddenly got really excited, and had something to say.
“Oh and it’s time for another picture, Jake. Don’t forget about it.” I looked at him in confusion. He sighed, but nodded.
“A picture of me holding Casey got out onto Facebook and ever since then, I’ve been dubbed the Extremely Hot Animal Guy.” He looked uncomfortable, like that name was something new. I mean honestly, I bet he’s been called that many times before a picture went viral. Helen piped up with more on the subject.
“It’s been great for the rescue, though. There have been articles written about him and his work. He’s all over Instagram and Pinterest. Donations have been coming in to support him, along with more hits on our website. Sorry, Jake, but sex appeal sells. You’ve got it going on, and we are going to use it.” While I didn’t like the way she said it, I understood. And it was probably true. I had heard about a hot veterinarian a couple months back, and his practice was booming. I bet things were doing great now that the world saw the hot man behind the scenes.
“Yeah, yeah, maybe this weekend.” He nudged me towards the building while saying goodbye to the girls.
“Bye!” I told them and they both stayed silent, watching us walk through the door. The room was open, it had a mini fridge, and a long shelf desk covering the wall. A man with a bald head turned in his computer chair.
“Oh, Jake, you shouldn’t have. My birthday isn’t until next Monday.” The man appeared to be in his late twenties, had a trimmed beard around his lips, and glasses. He was a large man, but not heavy. He reminded me of a teddy bear. I just wanted to hug him.
“Chip, I’d like you to meet Cammy. Cammy, meet Chip. He’s our marketing expert and editor of the Wild Newsletter.” I noticed he was designing something on the computer. Papers were scattered everywhere and the printer was doing its job as we spoke.
“Nice to meet you.” I went to shake his hand and he pulled me in for a hug. While I wasn’t always a hugger, I felt like this hug was okay.
“Cammy, nice to meet you. And if you ever get tired of this brute, then come talk to me.” He winked and went to go grab something from a cabinet.
