Laney pouted. “We could take even better care of them at our home.”
Hyacinth quietly agreed and pulled the hood of her raincoat closer around her face.
“Does anyone else feel like this is totally strange?” Jessie asked a moment later. “A box of famished kittens arrives at our doorstep right after we get an inspection, and Mama’s home license gets revoked because we have animals in the brownstone. Who left them? And why? And is there a connection to the inspection?”
Isa spoke up. “I can’t imagine it’s connected to the inspection. No one else knew about it.”
“Mr. West knew about it,” Oliver said ominously.
Jessie snorted. “Mr. West wouldn’t leave a box of kittens at our door just to sabotage us.”
Hyacinth thought about Mr. West and his obvious aversion to animals. “Maybe he doesn’t like animals because he’s never had a pet.”
“Some people don’t have pets?” Laney asked, befuddled.
“Mr. West needs to know the love of an animal,” Hyacinth announced.
“Oh no,” Jessie said. “Don’t get any big ideas.”
“What big ideas?” Hyacinth asked.
Jessie narrowed her eyes at Hyacinth. “Those let’s-leave-a-kitten-outside-Mr.-Beiderman’s-door ideas.”
Hyacinth shrugged. “It worked, didn’t it?” She was referring to something that had happened a year and a half earlier, when the Vanderbeekers were trying to convince Mr. Beiderman to renew their lease. Hyacinth had left a kitten outside Mr. Beiderman’s door in an effort to melt their neighbor’s frozen heart.
“I still think it was brilliant,” Oliver said. “It definitely tipped the scales in our favor.”
Isa looked at Hyacinth. “You are not going to give Mr. West a kitten, okay?”
Hyacinth didn’t reply.
Isa put a hand on Hyacinth’s shoulder and leaned down so they were eye to eye. Franz jumped up and tried to lick Isa’s face.
“I need you to say out loud that you are not going to give Mr. West a kitten,” Isa said, gently pushing Franz’s face away from hers.
Hyacinth crossed her fingers behind her back and looked at Isa. “I promise I will not give Mr. West a kitten.”
“She’s crossing her fingers behind her back,” Jessie said.
Hyacinth glared at Jessie, uncrossed her fingers, put them out in front of her, then repeated her oath.
Relieved, Isa straightened and rolled the wagon to the entrance of Central Harlem Animal Hospital on Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard between 143rd and 144th Streets. It was sandwiched between a bodega and a preschool.
Hyacinth opened the door, and the little bell that was tied to the doorknob jingled, which set off a cacophony of barks, yells, yowls, and meows. The Vanderbeekers filed inside and stood in the lobby, dripping. Franz woofed and gave a vigorous shake.
“Holy smokes, it’s loud in here,” Isa said.
Dr. Singh raced past them in a blur, carrying a white dog in her arms. The vet technician had his arm around a woman who appeared to be the frantic pet owner and was guiding her into one of the examination rooms. Miss Ethel, the receptionist, was on the phone talking to someone in a serious tone.
“What’s going on?” Hyacinth asked Isa. She had never seen the office in such a state of chaos. Sometimes when they stopped by, Dr. Singh would be on her afternoon break and her assistant would give them steaming chai tea served in tiny metal cups. Dr. Singh liked to show them photos of animals she had recently operated on.
“Look at these gorgeous sutures,” she would brag.
Hyacinth personally did not like looking at the post-surgery photos, but for some inexplicable reason, Oliver, Jessie, and Laney loved it.
Miss Ethel put the phone down, then gave the Vanderbeekers a harried smile. “Sorry, guys, but it’s not a good time to visit. Dr. Singh has two emergency patients and is going into surgery in twenty minutes. Can you come back tomorrow?”
“We wanted her to look at these kittens,” Hyacinth said. “They showed up outside our door this morning. We don’t know if they’re sick or not.”
“We were hoping Dr. Singh could check them out and then keep them here for adoption,” Jessie added.
Franz howled in agreement.
Miss Ethel’s face softened at the sound of Franz’s voice. “How’s my Franz?” she cooed, reaching into her drawer and pulling out a bag of treats. She stepped around the desk, and Franz’s tail hitched up to 125 wpm, or wags per minute, as she fed him a dog biscuit. Then, realizing that the Vanderbeekers were all soaking wet, she pulled a few towels from the closet and passed them around before checking out the kittens.
“They are precious,” Miss Ethel said, “but we’re already housing ten kittens for adoption. I can see if the new vet tech is here to give you some pointers on taking care of them, but we won’t be able to take them in right now.”
There was a stunned silence.
“But what will we do with them?” Oliver asked at the same time Laney exclaimed, “Yay! We can keep them!”
“We really can’t keep them,” Isa said, using a towel to dry her hair.
“I don’t know what to tell you,” Miss Ethel said.
The Vanderbeekers looked at one another in resignation.
“Our new vet tech just started a few days ago, and she’s a little . . . well, you’ll see.” Miss Ethel picked up the phone, punched some numbers, and then spoke into the mouthpiece. “Oh good, you’re here. Can you come upstairs?” She hung up, then raised her eyebrows at the Vanderbeekers. “Get ready to meet Cassandra.”
Eight
“Oh my gosh, Miss Ethel! Are you really letting me treat patients? I am so excited! Are these the little sweethearts? Oh, they are so cute! Wait, can you take a picture of me with them? My parents are going to freak out!”
The Vanderbeekers stared at Cassandra. She had hair the color of a sunset, and she spoke as if she had just gulped down five cups of coffee. Isa took the offered cell phone and dutifully snapped some photos of Cassandra and the kittens.
Cassandra flipped through the photos, then started pressing the phone keys with her fingers. “These are awesome. My parents are going to be so proud. My first patients! Miss Ethel, can you believe it?”
Miss Ethel shooed Cassandra away with a flick of her wrist. “Go downstairs, please. Dr. Singh doesn’t need to be tripping over you right now.”
Cassandra beamed a smile as bright as a rainbow at Miss Ethel. “I’ll make you proud! Don’t you worry! Okay, kids, follow me!”
The Vanderbeekers followed Cassandra downstairs, leaving a trail of rainwater behind them. Laney kept trying to insert a comment about Cassandra’s hair, but for once, she couldn’t get a word in edgewise.
“Oh, aren’t they precious?” Cassandra cooed. “Now, they look a bit skinny. Are you feeding them enough? Oh! That one may have coughed. Maybe kennel cough. Hmm . . .”
“We found them outside our apartment this morning,” Jessie said hastily while Cassandra took a breath.
“Abandoned kittens! And in this terrible weather!” Cassandra exclaimed. “What is wrong with this world! Thank you for bringing them in. It’s very important to treat any issues right away. ‘An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,’ as someone—I have no idea who!—once said. What a wise person, right?”
“We’re worried they have rabies!” Laney blurted out, finally finding a moment to insert her thoughts.
Cassandra squinted at the kittens. “Rabies? Why do you think that? Well, I guess it is the main fear people have about abandoned animals. Unwarranted, let me tell you. Sort of like how people are afraid of sharks even though they only kill, like, one person every two years. Come into the examination room, quick, quick! Oops, I need to get my stethoscope. My aunt bought me a new one when I got into veterinary school. Okay! I think I’m set.” Cassandra gave her phone to Isa again. “Can you take a photo of me using my stethoscope on this adorable kitten? Oh my gosh, my parents are going to flip! I bet this p
hoto will go viral. I mean, kitten videos get the most views of any animal video, did you know that? Here, can you lay this towel down on the table?”
Laney took the towel and put it over the metal table while Isa snapped a few more photos of Cassandra examining the kittens.
“This is so cool! Who wants to hear the heartbeat?”
Laney was by her side so quick that if you blinked, you would have missed her moving. Cassandra put the stethoscope to her ears. “Isn’t that the most beautiful sound in the world?” she asked, her voice hushed. “That’s her heart pumping. The sound of life.”
Laney heard a steady thump and whoosh through the stethoscope, and for a second she almost felt transported into the kitten’s little heart.
“Isn’t life a miracle?” Cassandra said as she continued examining the kittens. She shined a light into their eyes (“Ooh, Isa, can you take a photo of me doing that?”), felt their tummies (“Feels good to me!”), and looked inside their ears (“No ear mites!”). She took their temperatures and checked for fleas (“I cannot wait to tell my parents about this!”).
Finally Cassandra put all her veterinary tools down. “These guys look great! I know you’re worried about rabies—everyone is—but honestly? It is so rare to have rabid animals roaming around New York City. It’s not like the Great Wilderness, am I right?” She laughed at her own joke. “Last year there was only one reported rabid animal in all of Manhattan, and that was a raccoon. Anyhow, I estimate these adorable munchkins are ten weeks old. See their eyes? See the amount of fur they have?
“Okay, here’s the plan. I’m going to give them all vaccinations. Dr. Singh won’t charge you for that because these are rescue animals, and she likes to give the first checkup and vaccinations for free. Isn’t Dr. Singh the coolest? She’s my hero. Maybe one day after I finish vet school I’ll join her practice and I can put my diploma up on the wall right next to hers.
“All right, all you need to do is fatten these kittens up. Isn’t that fun? It’s much better to help animals gain weight than lose weight.” She paused to glance at Franz. His tummy hung low to the ground.
Franz looked up at her with his droopy eyes. Laney thought he was trying to hypnotize her into giving him a treat.
Cassandra opened a can of kitten food and spooned it into a long, low dish. The kittens immediately scampered to it and started eating. Laney watched them, and it gave her the best feeling in the world, even better than when she wore her favorite puffy skirt and silky top, rainbow socks, and sparkly high-tops all at once.
“I don’t think you’ll have any problem with them eating,” Cassandra said. “I’ll send you home with some kitten food. Feed these precious sweethearts twice a day,” she continued, “and they’ll be all set!”
“Whoa, whoa,” Jessie said, putting her hands up. “We can’t keep these animals.”
Cassandra’s eyes grew wide. “We already have ten kittens we’re trying to get adopted. No room here; no, ma’am. If any of them have trouble eating, bring them back immediately. But I suspect they’ll gain weight in no time. I want to see them for another checkup in two weeks, okay?”
“We really can’t keep them,” Jessie insisted, avoiding her siblings’ glares. “Our mom’s business is at stake. What should we do?”
Cassandra’s smile flatlined, and Laney was struck by how sad she suddenly felt. “The only thing I can suggest is that you bring them to the local shelter,” Cassandra said. “There’s an Animal Care Center not too far from here.” Cassandra wrote the address on a piece of paper and handed it to Jessie. “But I hope you can take care of them for a little bit and find them homes. That’s really the best way. The kittens will become nice and socialized around you, and then it will be easier to get them adopted. Plus they don’t have to live in cages, which is so depressing.”
The Vanderbeekers nodded and thanked Cassandra for the supplies. Cassandra insisted on a photo with all of them, each holding a kitten (“I’m totally posting this on social media!”), before saying goodbye.
Laney turned back as they went up the stairs and looked at Cassandra. She was now picking up a dog from a kennel and murmuring in his ear, and Laney decided then and there that when she grew up, she wanted to be a veterinarian. And when that day came, she was going to be exactly like Cassandra.
Nine
The Vanderbeekers stood outside Central Harlem Animal Hospital, getting rained on all over again. Four kittens were back in the wagon, the tarp draped over them. Laney had the fifth kitten snuggled against her chest inside her raincoat.
“I guess we have to go to the animal shelter,” Jessie said, looking at Isa for confirmation.
“I guess,” Isa said. “I feel bad, but we can’t take care of them right now. We need to save Mama’s business.” Her phone pinged, and she glanced at it, then looked at Oliver. “That was Uncle Arthur. He decided to come over anyway and wants to know if you’d be up for helping him build bookcases.”
Oliver’s eyes brightened. “Tell him yes!” he said, and started running in the direction of the brownstone.
“Oliver, wait!” Jessie said. Oliver did not slow down. “Isa, you go with him. You can practice, Oliver can work on the bookshelves, and I’ll take Laney and Hyacinth to the shelter to drop off the kittens.”
Hyacinth choked back a sob at the thought of leaving the kittens. Franz sat next to her, his big head leaning against her knee.
“I can’t let you go to the shelter by yourself,” Isa said to Jessie. “Don’t you have a science project to do?”
“I’ve got all week,” Jessie said with a shrug. “Plus Orlando and I need to work on it together. Hey, Oliver, wait up!”
Oliver turned around, his hair a wet mop around him. “Come on!” he yelled.
“Fine,” Isa told Jessie. “Take the umbrella, okay?” She handed the umbrella to Jessie before peeking under the tarp at the kittens. She whispered, “Have a good life, little guys,” before running to catch up with Oliver.
Meanwhile, Hyacinth felt like a balloon that had deflated, and she tried to keep her tears inside instead of rolling down her cheeks.
Jessie grimaced and picked up the wagon handle. “Let’s do this,” she muttered, then led the way to the Animal Care Center, which was about a mile away on 122nd Street between Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard and Frederick Douglass Boulevard.
Although Harlem lacked football fields and running tracks, hiking trails and great big open spaces, the Vanderbeekers were A+ walkers; they could walk for miles on the city streets without getting tired. Franz, on the other hand, started fading around 135th Street. When he lay down in a big puddle and refused to get back up again, Jessie and Hyacinth heaved him into the wagon and continued on their way. There he sat, alert and howling at ambulances passing by and greeting dogs and kids with a prick of his ears and a wag of his tail.
Hyacinth did not get a good feeling when they turned onto 122nd Street and headed east toward the address Cassandra had given her. Nearly half the buildings were shrouded in black netting, and rusty metal scaffolding blocked all the sunlight. The wretched weather made the block seem even gloomier.
Laney, who had carried the tuxedo kitten inside her raincoat the entire way from 143rd Street, was getting more and more anxious. She kept murmuring things to herself and looking around furtively, as if she were planning to temporarily stash her kitten somewhere on the street and hoping Jessie wouldn’t notice a kitten was missing when she turned over the box.
They arrived at the shelter, a gray building with posters in all the windows that said SAVE A LIFE! ADOPT TODAY! with adorable kittens and dogs with big, sad eyes.
“I don’t want to go in there,” Laney said.
“We don’t have a choice,” Jessie said grimly. She shook out the umbrella, grabbed Laney’s elbow, and marched inside.
Behind the reception desk, a man with a name tag that said HI! I’M FRANKIE! ASK ME ABOUT ADOPTION TODAY! greeted them with a giant smile. “Are you interested in adopting today?” he
asked.
“No,” Jessie said, shaking raindrops from the sleeves of her coat.
Franz woofed in agreement.
Frankie’s face fell. “You’re surrendering your beautiful dog?”
Hyacinth put a protective arm around Franz and glared at Frankie. “We would never give away Franz!”
Frankie put his hands up in surrender. “I’m sorry. You can’t even imagine the pets that get abandoned here.”
Laney and Jessie relented. “It’s okay,” they said.
Hyacinth refused to look at him.
“These kittens were left outside our door this morning.” Jessie picked up the box from the wagon and put it on the reception desk. Frankie peered inside. “There was no mother cat around,” Jessie continued, “and we took them to our vet, but she can’t take them in, and Cassandra said the kittens are about ten weeks old and can’t take care of themselves yet.”
“Aren’t they cute?” Laney asked.
“Then they gave us your address and said we could bring the animals here,” Jessie finished.
Frankie looked at the kittens. “Well, technically we can take them in because they’re strays. For most owner surrenders, we require people to make an appointment, meet with a counselor and a veterinarian, then pay a fee if they do end up leaving the animal here.”
“Owner surrenders?” Hyacinth said. “That’s terrible.”
“Our shelter is overcrowded right now, so you should know that the outcome would be much better for these beautiful little creatures if you found a home for them on your own.”
“We can’t bring them home,” Jessie explained. “We’ve already messed up Mama’s life enough.”
Frankie gave a disappointed sigh. “If you’re certain you want to leave them here, then come with me.”
“We’re certain,” Jessie said at the same time Hyacinth said, “I’m not certain.”
Frankie put the box back into the wagon with Franz, and he pulled it down the hallway with the Vanderbeekers following him. After walking for a minute, a steady rumbling grew louder and louder, until Hyacinth could distinguish individual barks, howls, and snarls. Then Frankie opened a door, and the whoosh of sound reminded Hyacinth of the time they went to an air show and the Thunderbirds roared above them with their huge engines.
The Vanderbeekers to the Rescue Page 4