Ronni stopped the truck outside of the farmhouse, which was in a sad state of disrepair. “Let’s go find them, girl.” She opened the truck door and Jessie spilled out of the truck and immediately put her nose to the ground.
“Can she smell them?” Lucas asked.
Ronni shrugged. “Let’s follow her. We have nothing to lose.”
Lucas and Ronni ran after Jessie, who looked so happy. She’d found her happy ending. Lucas only hoped the lost kittens would be so lucky.
Chapter Thirteen – Ronni
Ronni hated the unknown. Which was probably why the sale of the land was so hard for her to deal with. Even with the offer from Carter, she couldn’t rest easily.
The unknown was a noise in the dark, a shadowy figure at the window. The unknown was kittens lost down a storm drain.
Were they dead or alive?
Lucas reached for her hand. “This way.” They ducked down and made their way under an overgrown thicket with Jessie leading the way. She moved with confidence, her tail wagging as she followed an invisible trail.
“I hope she isn’t just on the trail of a rabbit.” Ronni tripped over a tree root, and only Lucas’s strong arms stopped her from falling flat on her face.
Righting herself, she smoothed her hair back into its messy ponytail. Where were those kittens?
A sharp bark from Jessie hurried them on and they caught up with her as she snuffled in the undergrowth, searching for something. But what?
“Did Sian say who had called in with the information?” Lucas asked, looking around them. “This isn’t exactly the kind of place you just happen to be walking past.”
“I agree.” Ronni turned in a circle and then stopped, peering into the undergrowth. “There.”
Jessie was already on the trail, heading toward a clearing where a man lay on his stomach, staring into a narrow tunnel. “You’re here.” He looked up, his face and clothes mud-stained from where he’d been lying on the ground.
“Did you call about the lost kittens?” Lucas asked, his voice deep, protective.
“I did.” The man scrambled to his feet and thrust out a dirty hand. “Harrison Dimmock.”
“Hi, Harrison.” Ronni nodded in greeting and got straight down to business. “How do you know the kittens are down there?”
Harrison knelt back down and put his ear to the opening. “I can hear them. I’ve been here for an hour now. They were crying as if they were hungry, but I haven’t seen the mother cat.”
“Perhaps she’s here somewhere and is too frightened to come back,” Lucas suggested, looking around.
“I thought the same thing. Which is why I set my trail camera up at the entrance and moved out of sight. Still nothing.” Concern showed in Harrison’s expression and his voice.
Ronni scrambled over a tree root and knelt beside him. Sure enough, tiny mewling noises echoed down the tunnel. “Okay, we need to get them out of there. But how?”
The tunnel wasn’t a storm drain, it looked more like an abandoned drainage pipe that went nowhere. She crouched down further, took out her flashlight and shone it down the pipe, which was too small for anyone other than a small child to enter. This was going to be tricky.
“The pipe goes all the way back to the barns. I used to come over here with my dad when I was a kid. He worked here when it was part of a larger estate.” Harrison pointed into the dense undergrowth.
“Can we get to the kittens from the other end?” Ronni asked.
Harrison shook his head. “I can’t find where it emerges, and I walked the whole area before I called you. My guess is they are about fifty feet inside the pipe. But the buildings are two hundred feet away.” Harrison’s expression summed up the seriousness of the situation. “I hoped you had some magic gizmo you could shove into the pipe. Something that could retrieve them.”
“Sorry to disappoint you. I’m all out of magic gizmos,” Ronni replied.
“What do we do?” Lucas asked as Jessie stuck her head into the pipe and barked.
“Okay, girl, we don’t need you frightening the kittens anymore,” Lucas said, making a grab for her collar, but before his fingers curled around it, Jessie had shot forward into the pipe.
“Jessie, no!” Ronni called, but it was too late, the dog had scrabbled along the pipe out of reach.
“Damn it!” Lucas cursed. “I’m so sorry, the leash slipped through my hand.”
“It’s not your fault.” Ronni shifted her position and lay flat on her belly, her flashlight shining down the pipe. “I see her, she’s still moving away from us. Jessie. Come here, girl.”
Lucas put his hands on his hips and sighed heavily. “I’ll call in all the help I can. If we start digging this end, we might be able to unearth the pipe.”
“Wait. She’s coming back.” Ronni stared down the pipe as the two men stood silently waiting for news. “Good girl, come on, Jessie.”
Ronni shuffled backward but didn’t take her eyes off the pipe. Then a thick tail appeared, it was no longer yellow but was covered in mud and leaf litter. Slowly the rest of Jessie appeared, with the added addition of a small kitten in her mouth.
“She saved the kitten!” Lucas stripped his jacket off and put it on the ground. Jessie calmly dropped the small kitten on it and then turned back toward the drainage pipe.
“She’s going back for another one,” Harrison remarked in astonishment.
Ronni was quicker this time and curled her fingers around Jessie’s collar. “I’m not sure that is a good idea.”
“If Jessie doesn’t go and get them, we’re going to have to dig this pipe up and that might take too long. Plus, we don’t know where the kittens actually are and if we have to cut the pipe and get it wrong...” Lucas didn’t finish his sentence. He didn’t need to.
“But what if Jessie gets stuck?” Ronni asked, her finger still holding Jessie by her side, even though she struggled against her. “Calm down, girl.”
“She wants to help,” Harrison said in awe. “Why not let her? She got in and out with the first kitten, she can do it.”
Lucas nodded although he didn’t look happy about the situation. “Harrison is right. We need to let Jessie do this.”
Ronni bent her head and kissed Jessie on the head. “Thank you, Jessie. I promise to give you a nice bath when we’re done.”
Jessie lifted her head and licked Ronni’s cheek. As soon as Ronni’s fingers uncurled from her collar, she pulled herself forward into the pipe. All Ronni could do now was hope Jessie had the strength to rescue all the kittens before she exhausted herself.
One by one, Jessie did just that until there were six dirty, but lively kittens nestled on Ronni’s lap with Lucas’s coat keeping them warm.
“You are amazing,” Lucas told Jessie as she sat panting by his side, with one eye on the kittens. “She has a strong maternal nature, don’t you, girl?”
“She sure does.” Ronni adjusted the bundle of kittens in her lap and then got to her feet. “We should get them back to the center and warm them up and give them some milk.”
“You don’t think the momma cat is down there, too?” Harrison asked.
Ronni looked back toward the pipe. “I don’t hear her, and Jessie seems to think her job is done.” She looked at the kittens with sadness in her heart. “I’m worried something happened to their mom, which was why they were calling for her.”
“I’ll leave the trail camera set up here and come back tomorrow to check the area just in case she comes looking for them,” Harrison assured her. He took a long look at the kittens he’d helped save. “They sure are cute.”
“If you want to adopt one or two of them in a few weeks’ time, you know where to find them.” Ronni gave him a bright smile.
“Nice try, and I’m sorely tempted, but I already have a couple of cats at home and they like things just the way they are.” Harrison nodded and then back away. “I’ll call you tomorrow if I find the momma cat.”
“Thanks, Harrison,” Lucas waved his h
and in the air. “You saved these six lives, you know.”
Harrison stuck his hand in the air and waved. “Anytime. I couldn’t let them die down there. I’d never have forgiven myself.”
“Okay, back to the center we go.” Ronni hugged the kittens to her, hoping to transfer some of her body heat to the small bundles of fur.
“How old are they?” Lucas asked. Jessie was walking by his side as if she didn’t want to let the kittens out of her sight.
“I’d say about four weeks. Give or take a day or two.” She looked down at them. “I’ll need to feed them regularly through the night. At least until I’m happy they are warm enough and are over their ordeal.”
“So they crawled in the pipe?” Lucas took the lead, guiding Ronni back to the abandoned barns.
“Or their mom carried them in there. She might have left them there thinking they were safe.” She glanced up at Lucas.
“But something happened, and she never came home.” He gave her a tight smile. “At least they have a home now.”
“Yes, we’ll keep them for a few weeks and then hope they get adopted. Kittens are usually easy to rehome. It’s the older cats that stay with us for longer periods.” They reached the truck and Lucas opened the door and climbed in after Jessie. “Here.” Ronni handed him the bundle of kittens and then carefully closed the door.
In an instant, she ran around to the driver’s side and climbed in. With great care so as not to disturb the kittens too much, Ronni backed the truck up and then headed back to the sanctuary. A wave of tiredness swept over her. It had been a long day and the night promised to be even longer. Orphaned animals took a toll on her time, not that she begrudged them that time. But it would mean several sleep-disturbed nights before the kittens were weaned onto solid food.
Unless Harrison found their mom. Ronni was still willing to hold onto the hope that the mother cat might just be lost or delayed.
“Do you want me to take turns with the feeds?” Lucas asked.
“Huh?” Ronni had been lost in thought.
“I could stay over and help you look after them,” Lucas offered.
“I’m okay. It’s probably a good thing if one of us gets a good night’s sleep. There’s still so much to organize for the auction.”
“That reminds me...” Keeping the kittens secure with one strong arm, Lucas reached into his pocket for his cell phone and tapped the screen. “George. How did the meeting with the curator go?” Lucas tapped the screen and put his phone on speaker.
“Good. Really good. The curator agreed to the animal shelter using the museum as the venue for the auction. He also agreed to Thorn and me organizing a private tour of the museum. He’s willing to let me go through some of the archived collections so we can create something really special. Some of the artifacts down in the basement have never been on display.” George sounded pleased with himself. “I’m hoping if it’s a success, we might be able to talk the curator into organizing special tours on a regular basis.”
“That’s great.” Ronni drove carefully, avoiding any bumps in the road that might upset their precious cargo. “It’s great that by trying to help the animals, so many new things have been set in motion.”
Lucas chuckled. “Like an annual beer festival?” He nodded as his smile broadened. “There are going to be many people in Bear Creek who will be grateful for that alone.”
Ronni grinned. “Glad to be of service.” Her face grew serious. “I’m still nervous about raising the money we need. I wish we had some idea of how much Kevin expects for the land.”
“Have you asked him?”
Ronni jerked her head around. “No, I didn’t want to. I was too much in shock.”
“Just ask him. See if you can come up with a deal that you’re both happy with.” Lucas’s suggestion sounded obvious. If they had a figure to aim for then they could give people updates and they’d have a concrete goal.
“I’ll ask him tomorrow. First thing in the morning. It’ll prove to him we’re committed to buying the land.” Ronni settled back in her seat.
“Of course, if no one else is interested in the land you might pay more than if you took a chance and let it go to auction.” Lucas shrugged off the look Ronni sent him. “I’m making sure you see it from all angles.”
“I don’t want to take that risk. Anyway, I think I can handle Kevin Jones and get him to come up with a figure we’re all happy with.”
“That’s my girl.”
“I am your girl, aren’t I?”
“You are.” He looked across to Jessie who thumped her tail happily. “You’re my girl, too.”
“It’s a good thing I love animals and am not the jealous type,” Ronni told him.
“Aren’t you the jealous type?” Lucas asked.
“Nope, not where you are concerned because I trust you. We’re fated mates. And that is the kind of unbreakable bond that lasts forever.” Ronni pulled into the parking lot in front of the animal sanctuary and got out. She ran around the side of the truck and opened the passenger door carefully.
“Here,” Lucas spoke quietly as he scooped up the bundle of kittens and handed them carefully to Ronni.
She clutched them to her and carried them to the reception area. Sian yanked the door open before she reached it. “Did you get them all?”
“Six kittens. They are about four weeks old.” She leaned forward and let Sian see them. “Unfortunately, there was no sign of the mother.”
“Oh.” Sian’s face crumpled. “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to seeing orphaned animals.”
“Come on, perhaps if you help me feed them it’ll make you feel better.” She looked over her shoulder. “Lucas, could you take Jessie back to her kennel, please?”
Jessie bolted through the door and whined at Ronni.
“I think she wants to stick around and help with the kittens,” Lucas said, catching hold of Jessie’s collar. “But I can put her in her kennel if you want me to.”
Ronni looked down at Jessie’s face. With her soft brown eyes and alert, attentive expression, there was no way Ronni had the heart not to let Jessie see this through. “Come on then, girl. Let’s get them settled.”
“Jessie has a strong mothering instinct. I wonder if she had a litter of her own before she came to us.” Sian stroked Jessie’s head. “I understand completely,” she told the yellow Lab.
Ronni placed the kittens down on a fluffy cat bed and placed it under a heat lamp. However, Jessie gently eased herself down beside them and began licking them clean. The kittens mewled at her and then snuggled into her warm body while Ronni and Sian prepared the special milk they used for feeding kittens.
“Okay, if we take two each, we’ll soon have them fed.” Ronni handed over small syringes to Sian and Lucas.
“Okay, here we go.” Lucas picked up one of the tiny kittens in his large hands and placed the syringe in its mouth. “You have to stop wriggling.”
Ronni watched in delight as her kitten began to drink the milk. “This one is hungry. That’s it, I know it’s not your momma’s milk, but it’s the best we’ve got.”
With a lot of wriggling and an equal amount of delighted giggling from Sian, the kittens were soon all fed. They were only too happy to snuggle up with Jessie and sleep once their small bellies were full.
“And in four hours’ time, we get to do it all over again.” Ronni took the empty milk bowl to the sink and ran the hot faucet.
“Perhaps I can bring the girls over tomorrow after school, they would love to see the kittens.” She gently stroked one of the sleeping felines. “I’m pretty sure they’ll try to talk me into taking one or two home when they are old enough.” Sian didn’t sound as if that would be a bad thing.
“Bring them over. They can feed them and have a cuddle. And if you could rehome any of them, that would be amazing.” Ronni looked up at Lucas. “Perhaps Thorn and Emilia might adopt one or two.”
“They might. Thorn said they would be over early in the morning
before the museum opens. I hope that’s okay.” Lucas stroked Jessie’s head and then got up. “I’ll make coffee.”
“Thanks.” Ronni got up and stretched. “I guess I’ll be sleeping on my trusty sofa tonight.”
“I’ll stay with you,” Lucas offered again.
“You don’t have to,” Ronni insisted.
“Yes, I do.” He looked down at Jessie. “I can’t leave my two girls all alone.”
Sian giggled and eyed Ronni with amusement. Ronni rolled her eyes. “In Lucas’s eyes, Jessie and I are equal.”
“I see.” She smothered a smile as she checked the time. “I have to go. I’ll see you all tomorrow.” She kissed Ronni on the cheek and murmured, “Try to get some sleep.” With a quick wink, Sian left the room. “Have a good night.”
“Night,” Lucas called as he poured two mugs of coffee. “So what do we do with ourselves until the next feed?”
He slipped his arm around Ronni and pulled her close.
Ronni slid her hands around his neck and planted small kisses along his jawline. “We have over a hundred dogs and cats to feed.”
Lucas sighed. “No rest for the wicked.”
“I must have been very wicked.” Ronni placed her hand on his cheek and turned his face to hers.
“That I’d like to see.” Lucas captured her lips with his.
Perhaps she might have more uses for the old sofa than just sleeping tonight.
Chapter Fourteen – Lucas
Lucas lifted his head and looked around, trying to figure out where he was. The last thing he remembered was feeding the kittens and letting Jessie outside. He’d planned to come back into the small room behind the reception area and make love to Ronni.
His arm was wrapped around her, but he had no recollection of what happened.
You fell asleep, his bear informed him.
Lucas shook his head, trying to remember exactly when he fell asleep. Surely not when he was kissing Ronni.
His bear chuckled. No, she was already asleep. She obviously finds you scintillating company.
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