My jaw tightened, and my molars hurt. “No, no, come on. Let’s go.”
I held out my hand and waited for her to take it. She did, and I focused on making tonight enjoyable for her. No thoughts of Gilly, our mom, the mistaken identity issue, or what would happen when she went back home.
It was just us.
“This isamazing!”Nora scanned the animal shelter with her wide eyes. She spun in a circle and kept repeating it over and over how great this was.
And we hadn’t started yet. “Doc, hold on. You don’t even know what we’re doing. It could be gross. What if we get assigned to do litter cleanup?”
She scrunched her nose and shrugged. “If it helps them, then it’ll be amazing.”
She walked to a cage with the nameLEAFYunder it, and a tiny gray cat sat curled up in the small kennel. “They look so sweet and scared.”
“I imagine so. At least they are safe here, fed, warm. It could be worse if this place didn’t take them in.” I kept a hand on her lower back, but she reached up and intertwined our fingers. Small gesture, huge impact. She held my hand tight, like she could only convey her thoughts and excitement through squeezes.
Just another cute layer of my neighbor.
“Fritz, Nora, thank you both for your time.” The volunteer coordinator entered the room. She eyed our outfits and frowned. “You might get dirty.”
“I prefer it that way,” Nora said, beaming at her. “He surprised me with this date night, so I promise I didn’t choose to wear this here, but I’ll do anything. It can be washed.”
The woman smiled and picked up a clipboard. “Appreciate the can-do attitude. Tonight, I need you to clean cages and water bowls first. Then, if you want, just play with them. The dogs get all the attention for playtime, but cats need human connection too.”
Nora nodded as she eyed Leafy again. “Of course, yes, we’ll do it all.”
“Agreed. We’re here to help,” I said, already planning my next move. The date was intended to show Nora how getting your hands dirty was better than writing a checksometimes,but I had an ulterior motive.
One I was pretty sure she was going to think of on her own.
“I heard this place does an educational program where they pair up with schools to show kids how to care for animals.” There, I lobbed the idea at her.
“How wonderful. This is such a humbling experience.” She put on gloves and went to the first empty kennel. “It makes me feel foolish that I thought a social media campaign would be enough to help.”
“Not foolish. Misdirected. And those do help sometimes. Your heart was always in the right place. Now, you have more experience getting your hands dirty.” I followed her and put on gloves and got the cleaning materials.
There were at least thirty kennels to clean from the coordinator’s list, and that would definitely take more than an hour. I’d planned on doing an hour here and then a fun dinner, but Nora’s face was set in determination. “What are you thinking about?”
“This is amazing, Fritz. This date. Really. It’s right up my alley, but I’m struggling with the fact I don’tdoenough to help. I’m privileged and…” She trailed off, her shoulders slumping as she lost a bit of her mojo.
“Hey, hey, look at me.”
She did.
“Strong and courageous. That’s you. This isn’t a failure. You need to readjust your plans. Your words, babe, not mine.”
She grinned and leaned over for a quick kiss. “I might keep you around, Fritz.”
“I might let you.”
After that, we got to work cleaning all the items on the list. They broke it down to do half the kennels for our shift, and someone else would do the others the next day. I sweated a lot, and Nora had a smudge of something brown on her forehead, but it was so cute, I didn’t tell her. We replaced water bowls and put all the cleaning supplies away before she looked at me with a crazed expression.
“Playtime,” she said, moving toward the narrow hallway to poke her head into the office there. “I think we’re ready to spend some time with them now.”
“Excellent. I’ll unlock one at a time, and when you’re done, just let me know.”
“Do they get excited when they’re let out?” Nora asked, her voice small again.
“Yes,” the woman said, smiling as she let out the first cat. Sir Greg was the name. He was thin and a dark gray with bright-blue eyes. “Greg acts like he hates people, but secretly loves them.”
