Neither can we, Vee thought. “It will be unbelievable.” Vee didn’t have to remind herself why she’d forgotten. It was spelled m-a-t-h. Shooting a look at the tall, skinny woman who had to be the producer because she was the only person not carrying a camera that Vee hadn’t seen before, Vee saw her nod to the girls. They approached the woman.
The producer was easily as tall as Bill and skinny as the new tree in the front yard at home. A woman about the same age and a guy a little older carried big cameras on their shoulders and were moving around the room, up to the cat cages, around to the crowd, and now, to Vee’s discomfort, right in her face. She blanched.
“Hello,” she said, extending her hand to the producer. “I’m Vee Nguyen.”
The tall woman smiled broadly and reached for her hand. “Oh, you’re the one who e-mailed me about your great idea. I’m Ginger Padlow, one of the producers for Everything Animal. We’re excited to be here.”
“Uh, great.”
After Vee had introduced Sunny, Aneta, and Esther, the producer called the camera people over. “We’ll need an establishing shot of the room. That’s a community touch for sure. Then”—she motioned to the girls—“what are you going to do with the cats?”
“We’re socializing them,” Esther said.
For once, Vee was glad that Esther was the first to speak. Everything was kind of spinning together: noise, Twin Terrors, cats, wondering if the curious kitten would let her pick him up.
“Great. Tell me what you girls did first.”
Made a mess of things. Vee was sure Everything Animal didn’t want to hear that.
“Okay, so we caught the cats—,” she began.
Esther interrupted. “Trapped. The Cat—Gladys says since they are wild, we had to trap them.”
Vee sighed. “Yes, Esther. We trapped the cats.”
“Wrapped them in sheets to they can begin to de-stress,” Sunny provided.
“The cats? Like burritos? What do you mean?” Ginger’s carefully made-up face looked perplexed.
The girls took turns explaining. Every few moments, Vee would turn and look at the curious kitten. Each time, the kitten was either washing his face or sitting with his tail around him, yet he was always watching Vee. Vee smiled. She caught Mom’s eye, and Mom looked over at the kitten and nudged Bill.
“We talked to them through the sheet and told them we love them. Then we took the sheets off and read stories and sang to them.” Aneta’s voice was low and sweet.
An awwwww rippled through the room.
Esther picked up the explanation. “Paws ‘N’ Claws Animal Buddies has a TNR program, which stands for Trap, Neuter, Return. The cats will be neutered, and the tip of one ear clipped while they are under anesthesia so people know they won’t be reproducing. They also get shots.”
“Great. Now let’s see you work with the cats. Will I be able to hold one?” Nadine handed her Momma Cat. Ginger spied the oven mitts. “What are these for?”
“Safety measures,” Esther said. The girls donned the mitts and held them up like surgeons ready to operate.
“Adorable,” the producer raved.
The crowd chuckled.
Score one for Squad cuteness.
“This cat was wild?” Ginger asked, stroking Momma Cat, who obliged by purring. The producers heavy eyebrows shot upward. The camera people stepped closer. “She’s a cuddle bug.”
Vee sent a “hear that?” look toward the curious kitten. See how nice it is to have people hold you and say you’re wonderful? He blinked. Vee noted the whiskers, which flattened back when the kitten was panicked, had sprung forward. That meant interested. Good.
Score two for Momma Cat. So far so good.
“One of the ladies of the senior center remembers a family who had a cat that looked a lot like her. They moved about a year ago.” Cat Woman slid between Vee and Ginger. “They abandoned her or couldn’t find her the day they moved. Happens all the time.”
“Wow,” Ginger said, lifting Momma Cat to her face and nuzzling her head. “She’s such a cutie.” Then, while she still held Momma Cat, she gestured to Esther and Aneta. “Okay, girls.” Turning to the camera people, she added, “Get in as close as you can. I want to see the cats’ expressions. How ’bout you each open the cage at the same time? It would look so cute to have all those oven mitts going into the cages at once.”
Frank, Nadine, and Sunny moved into place to be the door openers. “I got a ba-ad feeling about this,” Frank muttered to his wife. Vee did, too. They had never done this before. What if the flicking-tail brother upset the curious kitten?
“Okay, as soon as you get them out of the cages, turn and face the camera and smile, okay? We’ll just keep rolling. Then I’ll interview you girls, see what else is in store for the Great Cat Caper. Sound like a plan?”
No, it sounds like major crunching-beetle-drama. Vee wanted to shout, “We have no plan past the cats!” This time the Squad had gotten themselves in waaaay over their heads.
Ginger didn’t wait for Vee to answer. She shooed the girls toward the cages.
“Yikes,” Sunny murmured, taking her position as door lifter by Esther’s cat.
“You might want to start praying,” Frank said in a low voice to Aneta, acting as her door lifter.
“Nothing like a little pressure.” Nadine smiled at Vee.
“Oven mitts ready?” Esther held up her mitts.
“Oven mitts ready!” Aneta answered with a smile.
Dear Lord, it’s Vee again. Do You have time to help me? Vee nodded to Nadine who looked at Frank and Sunny. Simultaneously, they lifted up the doors.
Another murmur in the crowd, this time of amusement.
Oven mitts at the ready, each girl placed her hands inside the crate. Esther’s cat, already at the back of the cage, widened its eyes and lashed its tail. In the next cage over, Aneta’s cat emitted a piercing shriek, wiping away the buzz of conversation. Vee looked over at it, her mitted hands moving toward the curious kitten, the brother in the litter box in the back thrashing the dust.
Vee focused on the curious kitten. He sat motionless, eyes wide in the tufty-eared little face as its gaze flicked between the incoming mitts and Vee’s face.
1. Take out curious kitten.
2. Hold him, turn to the cameras.
3. Smile.
4. Name him (what??).
She stopped.
“What’s wrong?” Esther asked, next to her, valiantly trying to clutch the all-over gray cat with the three black feet who kept moving around the cage. “Keep going. The cameras are rolling.”
Vee shook off the idea of actually bringing the kitten home. “Okay, curious kitten. Let’s check this off our list for taming you.” Vee placed the mitts on either side of the kitten and began to ever sooooo slooowwly draw him out.
Off to her right, two high-pitched boy voices hollered, “Go Vee the B! Grab your kitten first!”
At the sound of the boys’ voices, several things happened at once. Vee jerked and squeezed the kitten. The kitten’s wide pupils zipped into slits, and it dug its way out of the mitts and up Vee’s arm, digging in for stability.
“OW!” she yelled, yanking her arms from the cage.
“He’s out! He’s out!” Esther shrieked, dropping to the floor and lunging in vain for her cat who had streaked out of the cage, hung in midair, and then dropped to the floor. He was immediately lost in the tables, chairs, and many pairs of moving feet.
“He’s over there—no wait, that’s the other one!” someone shouted.
“My cat! My cat is out!” Aneta wailed.
Ginger bellowed at her crew. “Keep filming; get both sides of the room!” In obeying, they got in each other’s way and then somehow crashed down in a tangle of legs with the Twin Terrors who thought this was hilarious.
“Vee, watch out. The flick-tailed kitten!”
Vee, her left hand cupped over the curious kitten who was clawing his way up her bare right arm, gasped. She felt a second fu
rry object dig itself into her waistband. A light weight with a sting of claws progressed up the front of her shirt. She hollered, “Esther! Help! The Flick Cat!” and clapped her right arm—with the clinging curious kitten—toward her chest to stop the upward flight of the now-named Flick.
The pressure on him only caused him to dig deeper for better climbing power. He climbed her shirt like it was a ladder to the stars. She heard the deep, guttural growl, looked down, saw the bugged-out eyes. His lips curled back to show white kitten fangs. He was heading straight toward her face. Had Frank taken them to get their shots yet? Is rabies like leprosy? Will I have to live on an island all by myself?
In the next ragged breath, Flick was up over her face, a last dig into her scalp before launching off.
“Ouch!” Her voice was lost in the cacophony of cats, camera people, and leaping, lurching bystanders.
“There he goes! Stop him!” the mayor screamed, pushing past one chair and tripping over another one. She landed on the floor. “My ankle!” she began to wail, rocking forward to grab her ankle.
Vee whirled toward the chaos, managing with difficulty to get the curious kitten off her arm and contain it, squirming, once again between the mitts. It began to hiss. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. It wasn’t supposed to be like this!” She begged him to chill out. “Don’t hiss, don’t hiss. This is the day I hold you.” Everything was going wrong. “You’re messing up my to-do list. Please.“
Esther, Frank, the mayor, and Aneta were yelling directions nobody was listening to. The mayor was screaming. Sunny was screaming.
Esther: “Shut the door! Hurry! Shut the door, Aneta!”
Frank: “Quit screaming!”
Mayor: “I am not screaming!”
Frank: “I’m not talking to you!”
“Don’t you dare lose them!” Ginger bellowed again. Suddenly the cats were out of the room with a line of pursuers. Human voices echoed in the hall.
“They went right!”
“No, left, left! I saw a tail!”
Ginger, the remaining person in the room, was holding Momma Cat and looking a little dazed. Vee looked at her.
“I think we might have caused a bit of a furor,” Ginger said, stroking Momma Cat like she was the only link to sanity.
Fur-or. Sounded like catness. “I would say yes,” Vee replied, then blinked, looked down at the mitts, and up again. A delighted smile stole across her face. A curious buzz had begun in the mitts.
“What’s that kitten’s name?” Ginger asked, shifting Momma Cat to her other arm.
Name? Buried in the oversized oven mitts, the curious kitten looked like a striped head, black nose smudge with no body. He looked up at Vee and she down at him for a long moment. The mitts continued to buzz with the purring kitten.
“Buzz. His name is Buzz.”
Chapter 20
We’re Toast
After the Everything Animal cameras had captured the drama of the runaway cats and the tears of Esther and Aneta, the families headed home and tables and chairs were righted in the Cat Room. The producer insisted the girls sit in a semicircle where she kept repeating what “great entertainment” the escapade had provided the fans of the Everything Animal program. It wasn’t a great time for Esther and Aneta. Vee’s heart hurt for her two friends sitting on either side of her. Esther’s face was streaked with tears, the same sort of tears that trickled down Aneta’s cheeks.
Esther and Aneta’s moms had not been too happy to leave the girls to an interview after their projects had jetted out the door; however, the two girls insisted that they “could deal” and wanted to finish what they started.
Ginger, who seemed to be reluctant to give Momma Cat to Sunny to hold during the interview, settled in her chair. “Esther and Aneta, your projects left the building. What’s the next step?” Ginger asked, crossing one long, skinny leg over the other. The camera people stepped closer to the girls.
The next step, Vee thought, was that she was going to jump up and slug the producer. Poor Esther and Aneta.
Esther sat up straighter. “Now we learn how to make a managed cat colony,” she said crisply.
Yeah, you tell her, Esther! Esther sounded just like the Cat Woman. Which was a good thing. The Cat Woman knew her stuff.
Before Ginger could ask another your-heart-is-broken-how-does-it-feel question, Esther turned to the nearest camera. “We’ll make cat condos for the three cats that escaped and for the one that got away the day we trapped the others.”
That’s a S.A.V.E. Squad girl. Push her and she bounces back! Vee hitched in her chair, waking up the sleeping Buzz between the mitts. Wait until she told Mom and Bill about this.
Ginger goggled at Esther a tiny bit before recovering. Turning to Aneta, she asked, “What about you, Aneta? It must have been heartbreaking to watch the cat you’d worked with for, what was it—several weeks?—escape and disappear.”
Burger Mania, the Twin Terrors, orange drink, and french fries. She’d lock Ginger in. For several hours. Maybe turn out the lights. That would serve Ginger right for making Aneta’s face flush and her eyes fill with tears.
Aneta looked Ginger straight in the eye. “Yes,” she said simply, a single tear tracking down her cheek. Then she explained about the S.A.V.E. Squad. “That is what a Squadder does.”
Ginger signaled the camera people to stop filming. She shook her head with a smile that was both sad and pleased. “Aneta, you answered the tough interview question with a heart blaster and shut me down cold.”
“I am sorry,” Aneta said, alarmed. “I did not mean to be rude.”
Waving a dismissive hand, the producer rose and stepped over to scratch Momma Cat under the chin. “You weren’t. You girls were just being yourselves. The world better watch out with the S.A.V.E. Squad on the loose.”
After the camera people cleaned up and they were headed out the door, Ginger stopped and regarded the girls. “I can’t wait to come back. Who knows the spectacular things you’ll come up with for the festival in a week?” Then she and her crew were out the door. Vee heard Frank and Nadine coming down the hall toward the Cat Room to lock it up.
“Who does know?” Aneta said, innocently, turning to Esther.
“Not us, we’re toast,” Esther said.
“Burnt toast,” Sunny added.
“Without butter,” Vee finished gloomily.
The three girls turned toward her. “Without butter?“
Vee squirmed onto a kitchen stool and dropped her head onto her hands. She couldn’t believe the past couple of hours at the Cat Room. “Did all that really happen?” she asked Bill.
Bill was taking baked potatoes out of the oven. After all this stuff was over, she was going to have to show Bill how to cook something else, like maybe chicken, zucchini, and rice.
“It sure did.” Bill tossed the hot potatoes up and down making little “ooo, ooo, ooh” sounds as he carried them to the granite counter. “So, what’s up now? Your face is showing.”
“Ha, ha,” Vee replied. “Not only did we have the mess of losing all the cats except Buzz and Momma Cat, but the S.A.V.E. Squad needs an emergency sleepover to get ideas for the Great Cat Caper.”
“Which is bad, why?”
“It’s a prodigiously bad weekend for me.”
“Since prodigiously came before bad, I am assuming it’s a double bad?”
“Yeah.”
“Because,” he dragged out the word, “it’s a Dad weekend?” She nodded. Sometimes Bill noticed way more than she thought he did.
He leaned on the counter and waggled his eyebrows. “Then why don’t you ask your dad if you can have the sleepover at his house?”
A-a-a-a-nd then other times he didn’t notice anything. “Are you nuts? It’s prodigiously complicated to be me. You want me to expose my friends to both families?” She leaned forward, eyes intense. “You do know the Twin Terrors live with my dad.”
A broad Bill smile. He stood up to pull objects out of the refrigerator that only
he would add to a potato while Vee considered his suggestion. The Squad had a week before Ginger and the Everything Animal crew returned with more cameras. Right now they had Buzz’s story as a former Dumpster cat turned pet. She hunched her shoulders. Even though the Cat Woman would tend him and Momma Cat at the Cat Room as she did every weekend, Vee already missed him terribly.
“Bill, how do you feel about cats?”
Problems to solve:
1. Where to have the sleepover
2. Come up with “spectacular” ideas for the Great Cat Caper
3. Bring Buzz home to his beanbag spot
“So have the sleepover at one of the other girls’ houses.”
“I can’t. Not since I pitched a fit that Dad forgot to show up for my project. If I don’t go to Dad’s on a Dad Weekend …” She swallowed the rest of the phrase. I can’t say Dad doesn’t spend time with me. She sighed. “Bill, it’s not fun when you’re right.” She slid off the stool and headed toward the phone.
Chapter 21
Math Means Something?
Heather would be delighted. So delighted they would spend Friday night and Saturday night. Vee was embarrassed at Heather’s reaction when the four girls arrived at Dad’s house. Her stepmother came to meet them with outstretched hands and a broad smile. “I’m so happy to meet Vee’s friends!” she said. She hugged each of the girls, hesitated, and then hugged Vee, who endured it.
“So where are Joshua and Jacob?” Sunny asked, pulling a small bag from her duffel. “My brothers sent them a present, to put up with us.”
Wow. Sunny remembered the Twin Terrors’ names? And brought them a present to put up with them? As Heather’s smile grew wider, she called the two boys. No need to wonder where they were coming from. Pounding overhead and then thudding down the stairs, the twins launched themselves at Vee.
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