by Cassie Cole
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“Yeah, well, that’s how life goes sometimes.” Suddenly I laughed.
She pulled away. “What’s so funny?”
“I just had a thought. It’s ironic that dad wanted us all to work together at the zoo as adults.” I gestured around me. “Here we are. All it took was his death to make it happen.”
She leaned up and brushed her lips against mine.
“What was that for?”
“Just because.” She smiled, gathered up the next batch of food trays, and carried them out to the Mule.
As I resumed my work, I felt a lot better than I had before.
18
Rachel
I spent the afternoon planning out how I wanted to redesign some of the larger enclosures. How to move the water source so that animal droppings didn’t run down into them, and ways to help rainwater drain better so that it didn’t leave standing water everywhere.
The panther enclosure was the easiest to redesign. There was already a run-off area along the other side of the enclosure, so all I had to do was dam up one part of the water source and it would flow in the other direction. While deciding how to handle the flow on the bottom, I noticed one of the panthers laying on its side underneath a tree. The shade was receding as the sun moved, and the panther was now half in the sunlight.
That was odd. Big cats, especially ones with dark coats, usually repositioned themselves to stay in the shade. As I walked around the far side of the cage I noticed it was the same panther with the visible wound above one eye. Its eyes were closed and its breathing was shallow.
I pulled my walkie-talkie off my belt. “Can I get some help over at the panther enclosure?”
“On my way,” David said.
All Jake said was, “Busy.” Annoyed, I thought about arguing with him and asking what was more important. But I knew that wouldn’t convince him to help, so I decided David and I could do it ourselves.
“I want to move Ernie to the medical office for an examination,” I explained. “We need to move Bert into the temporary pen, then tranq Ernie.”
“On it.” David retrieved a chicken neck from storage and used it to lure Bert over to the temporary pen. During the whole process Ernie barely even looked up. That was a bad sign.
I prepared a syringe of Telazol, an animal sedative, based on Ernie’s last recorded weight. I affixed it to the end of a jab stick, which I could then use to stick him through the enclosure fence. Yet Ernie didn’t respond to my calls and the chicken neck I tossed into the cage. Another bad sign.
There was a dart gun in the utility shed, but I didn’t like using those. They often scared or wounded the animals, especially big cats. Without any other option, I opened the enclosure and carried the jab stick inside.
David followed with a long catchpole. “Want me to take point?”
“I’ve got this. Stay behind me.”
I expected him to argue, but he listened and followed behind.
We approached Ernie’s resting place. His eyes slowly opened, yellow orbs appearing in his deep black fur, and he watched us approach. I circled around to the side, remaining in his vision the entire time. Letting him know I was coming closer.
“Easy there, Ernie,” I said in a calming tone. “We’re going to take care of you. Make sure everything’s alright.”
When I was ten feet away I held my breath, then leaned forward and pressed the pole into his fur. The pressure of the jab depressed the syringe, injecting him with the Telazol. He flinched and snarled, but didn’t leap up and run away the way most cats did. Bad sign number three.
David and I backed away and waited thirty seconds until the drug took affect. A novice vet might not have noticed a difference in the animal, but I could tell that Ernie’s breathing became deeper and the muscles in his legs relaxed.
David drove the Mule into the enclosure and parked it next to Ernie. We put an animal gurney on the ground next to the panther and then slid him onto it.
“Careful with the head,” I warned. “You need to support it or it will flop around.”
David grunted. “He’s got a gash above his eye. It doesn’t look so good.”
“Yep.”
Ernie weighed over two hundred pounds. David offered to call Anthony for help, but I insisted I could do it. My thighs strained and I trembled as I stood up, but I was able to successfully lift my end of the gurney up and onto the back of the Mule.
“Your form could use some work,” David said as we drove him to the medical building. “Next time take a deep breath, then lock your core. That way you use your legs more than your back.”
I smirked at him. “You sound like you know what you’re doing. You ought to open a gym or something.”
Unloading the animal into the medical building was tougher because we had to carry him fifty feet up the ramp, through the door, and into the examination room.
David watched as I treated the animal. First I weighed him—two hundred and four pounds, which was ten pounds lighter than the last record. Then I used a razor to shave away the fur around Ernie’s wound. As I had expected, the skin was bright red.
“His wound is infected,” I told David.
“Shit. Is that bad?”
“It would have been if we didn’t catch it.”
Next I cut away the scab with a scalpel, then washed the exposed area with a saline solution. I applied an ointment and then covered the wound with an animal bandage. Ernie’s body rose and fell as he breathed deeply, totally unconscious.
After that I drew some blood, mixed it with a violet stain, then put a drop of it on a glass slide. The medical facilities here weren’t stocked very well, but they did have a functioning microscope.
“What are you doing?” David asked curiously.
“It’s called a gram stain test. Basically, I’m checking to see how much has spread to his bloodstream, if any.”
“How long will that take?”
I rose from the table. “Already done. The test is positive, but it’s not a terrible case. We’ll need to give him antibiotics three times a day, and then he’ll be good as new. But it’s concerning that he had the wound in the first place.”
David shrugged. “I don’t know as much about big cats as you, but ever since I was a little boy I remember the cats playing with each other.”
“Playing is fine, but they shouldn’t be this rough,” I replied. “They may not be stimulated enough. Which is why it’s good that they’re being moved to proper homes.”
We shared a smile, then loaded Ernie back up on the Mule. Instead of returning him to the main enclosure, we released Bert from the temporary pan and then put Ernie inside.
“The fuck you do that for?”
I turned to see Jake walking by on the pedestrian path. He was shirtless again, wearing his beanie, sunglasses, and a pair of earphones.
“It’s always best to allow big cats to wake up in a smaller, safer area before letting them resume normal activity,” I explained. “Plus, if for whatever reason he doesn’t wake up as expected, I can help him in here without the need to move him again.”
Jake sneered. “I meant why’d you move him all the way to the vet office? Dad always knocked ‘em out and examined them in their cages.”
I left the temporary pen and locked it behind me. “Big cats are observant animals,” I explained more patiently than I felt. “It’s always best to do medical work in a secondary location, away from the others.”
“Waste of time,” Jake muttered, then walked away.
David and I shared a look before returning to work.
Anthony made lasagna and garlic bread for dinner. He even made a carb-free version for David that was just cheese and meat. Jake wolfed down his food in less than a minute and then left the house, slamming the front door behind him.
“Where’s he going?” I asked.
David stirred his food and smiled. “I don’t know, but I have an announcement. I got an email from the E
ndangered Cats Animal Preserve.”
I froze with my fork halfway to my mouth. “And?”
“They’re taking eight big cats.”
I squealed excitedly. “Yes! Which ones?”
“They want four female Bengals, two male Siberians, and both cheetahs. Yeah, yeah, I know—cheetahs aren’t technically big cats. But that’s about a thousand dollars worth of food we’re saving each week.”
“Alright!” Anthony said. “Nice going David!”
“Even better, they’re handling all the transportation,” David explained. “They’ll be here in four days to pick them up.”
I couldn’t stop smiling for the rest of dinner. It felt good to make some progress in our primary goal. And it was confirmation that David was holding up his end of the bargain.
After dinner I followed David upstairs and kissed him when we were alone in the hallway. He gripped my waist with both hands and kissed me passionately, then stopped.
“I hope this isn’t weird,” he said, “but I’ve had a headache all day. Is it alright if I just go straight to bed?”
“I thought the headache thing was an excuse women used to get out of sex,” I teased.
David’s smile was incredibly sexy. “I would never use an excuse to get out of sleeping with you. Rain check?”
I kissed him again. “I’ll hold you to it.”
I wasn’t sleepy yet, so I went downstairs to get some dessert. With a bowl of ice cream in hand, I wandered around the downstairs of the house. There was a hunting room with taxidermy animal heads mounted on the walls. I avoided that and went into a room which was filled with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves and thousands of books. Anthony was inside, sitting in one of the leather chairs with his laptop. He smiled when he saw me.
“Sorry, I didn’t know you were working,” I said, turning to leave.
“No! Not working at all. I mean, not really. I was just checking up on the GoFundMe page and social media.”
Next to his chair was a square table and a chessboard, and another chair on the other side of that. I sat in the open chair and said, “How much money have you raised?”
He spun the laptop around and grimaced. “Eighty-four bucks.”
“That’ll pay for half a tub of vitamin C powder,” I said hopefully. “That’s better than nothing.”
“I guess. But it’s not what we’re hoping to get. David says it may take months to find homes for all these animals. We threw in a bunch of our own money to keep this place afloat until then, but I don’t know if it will be enough.”
Anthony was usually enthusiastic and upbeat, so it was jarring seeing him gloomy about our prospects. To try to cheer him up I said, “I didn’t expect to see a room like this in Crazy Carl’s house.”
Anthony looked around the room and chuckled. “Dad liked the idea of having a library full of books to make it seem like he was worldly. But he wasn’t much of a reader, no.”
“How are you handling his death?” I asked gently. “David seems okay, and Jake wears his emotions on his sleeve so it’s obvious he’s hurting. But I can’t get a read on you.”
Anthony closed his laptop and ran a hand through his messy hair. “I’m doing okay, I guess. It still hasn’t sunk in that he’s gone, you know? I thought I would cry at the funeral but I was totally stone-faced. Maybe it would have been different if there was a body in the casket. One last chance to see him and get closure.”
He met my gaze and smiled. His blue eyes were so much like David’s, but different too. He had long eyelashes, and his eyes were softer. They were beautiful even in his sadness. I wished there was a way for me to comfort him.
There is, a voice in my head whispered.
I rose from my chair, stood facing Anthony, then leaned down until my hands were on the arms of the chair. I kissed him softly, and he leaned into my lips with passion and desire.
“What was that for?” he asked me, sounding exactly like David when I had kissed him earlier today.
“Because I wanted to kiss you.”
I sat in his lap and kissed him some more. He may not have been as jacked as his brothers, but his body was firm and hard underneath mine, and I wondered what he looked like nude. I wanted to find out.
After making out for a few minutes, I said, “Want to take this party upstairs?”
“I do.” He sighed, but it was a sigh of regret instead of happiness. “But I kind of want to take things slow.”
“Oh.”
“I just like to get to know someone first, you know?” he quickly added. “It’s nothing with you. Shit. You’re amazing, Rachel. I just don’t want to rush it.”
“That’s okay, I understand,” I said.
I started to rise, but he pulled me back down and kissed me again. Harder this time. A kiss that held a promise in it.
“Is that okay?” he asked softly.
“Of course. Why wouldn’t it be?”
“Just making sure.” He grinned. “Goodnight, Rachel. I’m glad you’re here.”
“Me too,” I said, although it still felt like I was being rejected because I had jumped the gun.
19
Rachel
We spent the week working to prepare the eight big cats for pickup. In addition to the normal daily duties around the zoo, I had to medically examine each outgoing animal so I could provide the ECAP with a full medical profile. That was the scariest part for me. I was terrified the examinations would turn up something that would make the organization change their mind about the animal pickup. Some undiagnosed disease or condition that would reflect poorly on me.
But each animal looked fine, and the bloodwork came back negative for all major concerns.
Anthony wasn’t working in the zoo as much as the rest of us, but he tried to help whenever he was done with his programming job. He was an eager employee who asked me where he could be the most help, then jumped to work without argument or complaint.
If only Jake was this helpful. He still did whatever he wanted around the zoo without telling anyone. I guess it was better than nothing.
Anthony and I flirted while we worked. Little things at first, like smiling and checking each other out whenever we crossed paths during the day.
“Nice tail,” he said in a suggestive voice one day while passing by. “On the cheetah, I mean.”
“Right, the cheetah,” I said with a grin.
We started playing checkers in the library after dinner each night. Anthony was better than me, but only by a little; I won every third game, and the other two were close enough that I felt good about myself.
We also made out every night when we were done playing checkers.
It felt like a high school relationship, kissing and grinding against each other without taking things further. One night I was really tempted to unzip his pants and wrap my fingers around his cock, but I was afraid of jumping the gun again. Men got rejected all the time, but it was devastating to a girl’s confidence to be sexually rejected by a guy. I wasn’t going to put myself in that position again. The ball was in his court.
Fortunately, he was ready to shoot his shot.
We had just moved one of the female tigers—Chloe—into the medical room. I wanted to get her up-to-date on her vaccines before she was moved to the new wildlife refuge in Florida, and I wanted to give her a general physical examination to make sure everything looked fine. The last thing I wanted to do was hand over a diseased animal—both because it would be bad for the tiger, and because it would be embarrassing for me as a zoo vet. Like a mother sending her child to school with lice.
“Rabies and distemper?” Anthony asked. “Just like a dog.”
I opened Chloe’s eyelids and shined a bright light inside. The fluid in her eyes looked clear. “Most mammals are vulnerable to the same types of diseases. You have a dog?”
“No way,” he said with a chuckle. “Don’t get me wrong—I loved dogs. Dogs are awesome. But after growing up here I think I’ve had a lifetime of pets.”
&n
bsp; As I walked around the table, I turned sideways and allowed my ass to brush against the front of Anthony’s jeans. I pretended like nothing had happened. “Makes sense.”
I bent over the table to examine Chloe’s back paws. I felt Anthony come up behind me. “What are you checking for now?”
“Just a general examination. Her pads are smooth and clean, with no sign of discoloration.”
His crotch pushed against my ass. “That’s good.”
“Very good,” I said, glancing over my shoulder.
Anthony pulled me up into an embrace, kissing me hard and desperate. His hands slid over my body, exploring me in ways we had not done during our nighttime checkers make-out sessions. He grabbed my ass with both hands, squeezing my cheeks toward him.
“I’ve been thinking about you all week,” he said while unbuttoning my shirt.
I pulled his t-shirt over his head. “What took you so long?”
“I don’t know. But it’s not stopping me now.”
Within seconds he had my shorts off, pulled down around my ankles. I shimmied out of them and my panties, and the air was cool on my wet sex. Anthony gazed at me longingly, devouring me with his eyes. Then he spun me around and bent me over the examination table.
I gasped as he slid his cock into me from behind, filling my pussy completely and making me feel that wonderful ache of lovemaking. He gripped my hips with both hands while he was all the way inside, as deep as he could go. He remained like that as I looked over my shoulder at him, admiring his bare arms and chest. My suspicions had been correct: for a computer programmer he was surprisingly muscular. His torso was covered with lean muscle, like a Greek hoplite that was ready to run a marathon and then fight a battle at the end of it.
His blue eyes sparkled with ecstasy as he met my gaze.
I turned around and arched my back for him. Still gripping my hips he began fucking me, slowly and steadily. On the table in front of me Chloe was still unconscious, her orange and black fur gently moving with each breath. Her presence added a layer of danger to our act. It made it more exciting.