Becky opened the door to the shelter. “It sounds as though you have a good plan.”
After washing their hands, they walked into the kitten room. Mary admired each feline as it came to investigate the little girl with honey-gold hair in pigtails.
Sean wasn’t sure how Mary’s strategy was supposed to work. When she sat in the middle of the floor, seven kittens pounced on her, each begging to be cuddled.
Becky watched what was happening with a smile. For someone who wasn’t sure she wanted a kitten, she was awfully relaxed about the implications of what she was seeing.
Mary didn’t move from the center of the room. Once the novelty of having her there had worn off, two of the kittens jumped on each other and played happily on their own. While more kittens snoozed, the last two made themselves at home on Mary’s lap.
“What are their names?” Mary asked quietly.
Sean found their photos on the cards slotted into the outside of the cages. “The black and white one is called Daisy. The white one is Snowflake. They’re sisters.”
“Snowflake has the same name as your llama,” Mary said excitedly. “We could have two Snowflakes.” She giggled at her joke and rubbed the two kittens under their chin. “But what about Daisy? We can’t take her sister home and leave her here.”
Sean was leaving this discussion to Becky. As someone who had more animals than most people saw in a lifetime, he was the last person to speak to about taking only one kitten home.
Becky sat on the floor beside Mary.
Sean silently cheered as Snowflake and Daisy jumped into Becky’s lap.
“They love you, too,” Mary cooed.
Becky looked up at Sean and he shrugged. The slight narrowing of her eyes told him his message had come through loud and clear.
Becky patted the kittens. “We talked about how many kittens we can take home. We don’t have room for two.”
“But they’re only small. And look how much they love you.”
Mary was right. The two kittens were rolling around on Becky’s lap, encouraging her to scratch them under their chins. Go Snowflake and Daisy!
“I don’t know. Looking after two kittens will be a lot of work.”
“I can do it,” Mary said firmly. “We just need another food bowl, that’s all.”
The indecision on Becky’s face was a sight to behold. For someone who always had a clear idea of where she was going and how she would get there, this was something she wasn’t used to.
She looked down at the balls of fluff rolling around and sighed. “Okay. I don’t want to split up the kittens, either. We’ll take them both home.”
Mary launched herself across the short distance between them. “Thank you, Becky. I promise to look after them so you won’t have to do anything.”
With those words ringing in everyone’s ears, Becky and Mary went to the office to see how they went about adopting the kittens.
While they were gone, Sean sat on the floor and cuddled the kittens. “I hope you guys are ready for what’s ahead. Mary will want to spend every single minute with you.”
And with a loud purr of contentment, the kittens climbed onto his lap and fell asleep.
Four weeksafter Snowflake and Daisy joined them, Becky felt as though they’d always been part of their family. Mary was doing everything she’d promised and the kittens returned the favor by being cute and cuddly, and not peeing on the floor.
Sean wasn’t quite so happy with them, especially when Daisy ate the corner of his house plans.
“It was only a small piece of paper,” Becky told him. “And it didn’t include any of the actual drawings.”
“It looks scruffy.”
“You could photocopy the sheet of paper,” Mary suggested. “Then you wouldn’t have a chewed bit.”
He lifted his eyebrows. “When did you get to be so smart?”
