Show and Tell

by Amy Shojai

  Reading her disquiet, Shadow nudged her and picked up his leash. He tried to push it into her hands, implication clear.

  She laughed. "We'll go soon." She gathered the carrier and clothes, and led the way down the narrow hallway to the examining room Robin indicated. If the woman hadn't acted like a jerk, she'd have mopped up the mess herself.

  The kitten stuck paws out of the carrier front once more. "Poor baby, this has been quite an ordeal for you." She crooned and touched the little paw, encouraged when it didn't withdraw. The kitten flinched and yowled when she touched the other bloody paw. "What a brave little cat." It clearly had suckered BeeBo, a confirmed dog guy, into championing its cause. She wondered where he'd found the tiny thing.

  A soft knock on the connecting door made Shadow alert. He cocked his head as the door opened and a young girl peeked around. "September? Hi Shadow." Nikki fell to her knees and opened her arms, and Shadow turned into a blithering idiot dog. He fell on his back, legs splayed and tail waving, making blissful noises in his throat as Nikki rubbed his chest. "Robin said to tell you Doc Eugene's busy, and that I should help. And she said to blame you that I get to mop again." Nikki smoothed her white-blond hair behind each ear, and giggled. "I'd rather mop than muck out the kennels any old day."

  September grinned. "When you work with animals, crappiocca happens." She motioned to her clothes. "I'd give you a hug, but you'd get soaked, too. Can you babysit Shadow and the kitten for me while I get changed?"

  Nikki nodded, and at mention of the cat, left Shadow waving his paws in the air to peer in the carrier. "Aw, what a cutie."

  "That's Fuzzit. Don't let him out, and don't touch him, not until I talk to Doc Eugene, okay? It's sort of a quarantine situation."

  "It's sick?" Nikki peered closer. "He's got a torn claw. Poor baby."

  September gathered up the clothes. "Shadow, wait. Be right back, I'll bring some treats." He stood and shook himself, and whined a soft protest, but didn't argue.

  She rushed to the small bathroom in the rear of the clinic, in a hurry to get inside before Robin interrupted again. Quickly she shucked out of her outerwear, and peeled off wet socks. The dry jeans and old but clean sweatshirt warmed her chilled skin, and a paper towel dried her feet. The work boots would fit loose and probably rub on bare feet but she didn't have a dry pair of socks. She wouldn't have to wear them for long, though, and could change once she got home. September checked the mirror. That explained Robin’s expression when she'd showed up. She washed away streaked makeup. She couldn’t do much with her rat’s nest hair, though.

  She bundled the wet clothes and carried them back to the exam room, surprised to see Nikki playing the show-me game with Shadow.

  Nikki held a cat magazine in one hand and the leash in the other. "This is magazine." She held it out. "This is leash." Shadow cocked his head, and panted happily as she held each an equal distance from her body. "Shadow, show-me LEASH."

  He leaped forward, and nose-poked the leash.

  "Good-boy." Nikki preened. "He did it for me, too."

  "Yes, he's a good boy. By the way, he knows the word book for magazines, books, anything like that, so it's less confusing. Short names work best." She stroked his head. "He's smart, but we have to give him a little help."

  "Can we teach him new words?" Nikki searched the exam room for something else to name.

  "His head will explode soon, he knows so much." The game taught Shadow names of objects. September used show-me more as a way to practice their communication and keep his attention sharp. But people delighted in seeing the trick demonstrated. In practical terms, a service dog learned the names of many objects in order to partner with the human. Although she'd never planned it, more than once the lessons learned in the show-me game had saved her life.

  "I tried to play with my cat Hope, but she won't pay attention long enough. Unless there's food involved."

  September dumped the clothes on a nearby wooden chair. "I've not taught the game to Macy. Cats have shorter attention spans than dogs, and different motivations. And not every dog has the focus or interest, either. All pets are individuals, Nikki."

  "That's for sure." Nikki crossed to the cabinet and pulled open drawers for a likely pair of objects. "Maybe he already knows everything."

  "He likes to play the game anyway. We can use things he already knows." September rummaged in her damp clothes and found the car keys, and drew the dog's attention to her. "Shadow, this is light." She thumbed on the laser light that Macy adored chasing. "And this is sock." She dangled one of the wet socks she'd shed. "Show-me SOCK."

  Shadow pounced forward, and grabbed the soaked material, and then shook it and tossed it in the air. It landed with a soft "splat" on the tile, and Nikki giggled again.

  "Wait, I know." Nikki pulled out a small tablet. "How about this?"

  September took the device, frowning, and tried to think how it appeared to Shadow, and what other objects he already knew might correspond. "Hand me that, too." She pointed, and Nikki passed her the coffee mug from the sink with lettering that spelled, "Real Doctor." She'd bet it had been a joke-gift from the veterinarian's late wife.

  Shadow watched with interest. He already knew that she called all drink containers "cup" so that made it simple. "Shadow, this is cup." She held out the mug and he sniffed it. "This is...tablet." September held the objects, one in each hand, out to her sides. "Show-me CUP." He nose poked the mug, and she didn't move either object. "Good boy. Now, show-me TABLET." He happily touched the tablet, and tried to take it from her.

  "Ew, dog drool." Nikki, delighted, took back her tablet and wiped the surface with her sleeve. She scrounged for something else, opened another drawer, and pulled out a pair of shiny bandage scissors and held them up with a question in her eyes.

  September pointed to a jar of treats on the counter. After all, she'd promised him treats. This would be a real test for him, something new compared to something he wanted. Shadow licked his lips when the treat jar lid clinked, but sat patiently.

  "Shadow. This is treat." September held one in the palm of her right hand. She took the scissors from Nikki in her other hand, and held it carefully, pointed away from the dog. She hesitated, and decided on a name. "This is knife." He glanced quickly at it, and then back to the treat hand. "Shadow, show-me KNIFE."

  He bounced forward, and nose-bumped the scissors and then scooped the treat out of her other hand. Nikki gasped as the scissors took flight and rebounded against the opening door.

  Doc Eugene entered. "Sounds like a party in here." He bent and picked up the scissors.

  "Show-me game." September shrugged an apology.

  "You mean, the show-off game, right, big fellow?" Shadow slicked his ears down and rubbed against the big man, happy with the attention. "Nikki, could you put these away, please? Oh, and these, too." He handed her the bandage scissors along with a pair of bolt cutters. "Thanks, dear. I'll call you if I need you." He watched as the girl scurried out the room. "I should have so much energy."

  "You use bolt cutters in a cardiac practice?" Doc Eugene served as both a general practitioner for dogs and cats, and a veterinary heart specialist. He'd diagnosed Macy's hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

  "Yep. And sadly, not the first time I've needed to use them." He rubbed the back of his neck. "Newly adopted dog came in, only been with the owners a week or so, and he suddenly turned vicious. Snapped at their kids. They were heartbroken, but wanted him euthanized, said they couldn't risk giving him to somebody else."

  September's heart constricted. "Extra furry, right?”

  Voice grim, he added, "We sedated him, and shaved his neck. Found exactly what you'd expect. A puppy size chain collar digging into his skin. Somebody put it on him months ago and didn't bother to remove it when he got big. Had to use bolt cutters to get it off. We cleaned him up, and physically he'll recover. He even wagged his tail, licked my hand after it came off." He pulled off his glasses, polished them. "Amazing the resiliency of pets."

/>   "So the owners? . . ."

  "They're willing to try. My bet is on the dog. Sweet little guy." He cleared his throat, and adjusted his glasses. "Now, Robin said you have another charity case." His smiled at her expression. "Don't let her get to you. She's trying to show me how to turn more of a profit. Is this the kitty? What's the problem?"

  Quickly she told him, and watched his expression darken. "BeeBo was a good man. Who has his dogs?"

  "Animal Control was on the way. I left before they arrived."

  "So the police need a safe place for this kitten until they can collect any evidence?" He frowned. "The isolation room is empty; we can quarantine there."

  "I was told it wouldn't be more than a day, two at the most. Tell Robin the city will pay. And if it's longer, I'll take care of it." September knew BeeBo would have done the same for her.

  "Never mind about the payment." Doc Eugene's expression changed. "Are you all right?"

  At the kind words, her eyes filled with no warning. "No. I am not all right." She grabbed a tissue from the nearby dispenser, and blew her nose. "I found a man dead."

  He patted her shoulder. "Of course you're upset. Don't worry about the kitten. You take Shadow home and play some Frisbee, why don't you?"

  At the F-word, Shadow tipped his head, and woofed as if in agreement.

  September collected her clothing, Shadow's leash and the car keys, and returned to her car. Her feet slid up and down in the boots. But before she could start the car, her phone rang.

  She saw two missed calls and a text, all from Mom. None were from Combs, and she choked back disappointment. She told herself she didn't want to talk to him anyway. Besides, he had his hands full with the dogfight ring.

  "Yes Mom, sorry I missed your calls."

  "Where are you? The curtain goes up in twenty minutes. I told the director how professional you are, and now you've embarrassed me, and—"

  "Wait? There's a performance today? You said rehearsal."

  "They changed it from a brush up to a performance after the run sold out. The entire cast, orchestra, and crew, not to mention the theater board of directors, are all here. You know how important this is for Steven, too, and for me. I'm the hostess for the after party." Her voice went up a notch. "If I tell them, they can hold curtain for maybe ten minutes. Are you coming or not?"

  Crap. She'd let her family down too many times already. Besides, she didn't have anything better to do. Not like she had a date or anything. "I'll be there."

  Chapter 12

  Nikki crooned to the cat and put her hand against the front of the stainless steel cage. The kitty cheek rubbed and clutched her hand through the bars. "Let's get you a clean spot, okay?" She'd already spread fresh newspaper in the adjacent cage, and quickly opened the door to move the patient away from its soiled temporary home. "Don't be embarrassed, kitty. It's the anesthesia makes you wet the bed, it's not your fault. And your mommy will come pick you up soon, so you can go home."

  She briefly cuddled the cat, but carefully avoided the spay stitches on the sore tummy. Nikki loved volunteering at the clinic on weekends, and had learned bunches from Doc Eugene. Mostly she kept the kennels and cages clean, walked the dogs and played with the cats.

  Ever since Daddy came home from deployment right on time for Christmas, Mommy smiled more and Nikki and her older brother Hank got to do more stuff on their own. Hank wasn't so bossy anymore, either. After all, she'd finally turned ten years old, a very responsible age. Daddy said so.

  For Christmas, she got to keep her rescued kitty, Hope, even though Mommy got sneeze-attacks around cats. And for her birthday a week later, Doc Eugene invited her to come learn how to take care of Hope and other animals on weekends. Today school closed for teacher business or something, so she got the day off and extra time at the clinic. For the first time ever, she got to watch a surgery.

  Mommy thought it'd be gross and didn't want to let her. But Daddy called her his "littlest hero" because of how brave she'd been during the fire. He told Mommy that if she wanted to be an animal doctor, they had better find out now.

  Turned out, it wasn't near as ooky as she expected. Blue paper covered up the prepped pets, with a little open spot for the surgical site. The opening centered on the tummy for the girls, or what Doc Eugene called "nether regions" for the boys. She loved seeing their upside-down kitty faces, so cute under the paper. Doc Eugene showed how to put ointment in the eyes, to help protect them.

  Nikki gathered up urine-soaked paper, wrinkling her nose as she dumped it into the trash. Then she sprayed the cage with a cleaner, wiped it out good, and added more clean newspaper to the bottom.

  "All set in here?" Doc Eugene stuck his head in the door. "Any problems? Everybody waking up okay?"

  "Just finished. Tuxie sure is a stinker, though."

  He walked down the bank of cages, checking each of the five recovering felines. "Remember what I told you about boy cat urine?"

  "Yep. The girl cats think it's kitty cologne." She walked to the sink and used a bunch of liquid soap to get rid of the smell. "But when they get neutered, the smell goes away."

  "Well, it's not as pungent anyway. Cat pee still smells like cat pee." The black and white Tuxie reached out and hooked Doc Eugene's sleeve with his claws, until he stopped and gave the cat some attention. "What did you think of the surgery?"

  "Kind of neat. Hank said I'd pass out from all the blood. But there wasn't hardly any." She'd had worse nosebleeds.

  "I sure didn't want you to pass out."

  "It's way more complicated than I thought." Nikki smoothed her special veterinary assistant smock, powder blue with cartoon cats, dogs and bunnies on it. "You got to weigh them, figure out how much sedation to put in the shot, then get them ready."

  "What else?"

  "Put on a heart monitor and...put that tube thingy down their neck."

  "Intubate, right. And?"

  "Hook up the gas anesthesia. Put them on a heating pad. Then you got to scrub in." She ticked each item off on her fingers. "Can I do that sometime? Wash really good and put on gloves and gown and mask and all?"

  "You think you'd like that? Help with surgeries someday?"

  "Not only help. I want to DO the surgeries and be a vet."

  Doc Eugene walked to the door. "You keep that focus, Nikki, and it'll happen."

  She fairly glowed. Nikki pulled her tablet out and activated her favorite app, and quickly posted an update to the private Show And Tell group of a bunch of kids from all over. Somehow, it was easier showing and telling stuff to strangers than people you saw every day. Nikki shared everything with the group, especially happy stuff. Almost immediately she got several "likes" and started to post a picture of Tuxie when Robin stuck her head in the door.

  "Nikki, stop messing around and go walk the dogs." Robin spoke with a broad West Texas drawl that got on Nikki's nerves.

  "I just got finished." Nikki hunched her shoulders and stuck the device back in her backpack. She liked the dogs well enough, but Robin always made sure Nikki got the truly nasty kennels to clean. As much as she admired Doc Eugene, she disliked the new office manager he'd hired. She was all cotton candy sweet in front of the veterinarian, batting her heavily made up eyes and swinging her hips, but morphed into a tyrant dishing out scut jobs as soon as he turned his back. Nikki ducked past the big woman who nearly blocked the doorway, and turned toward the dog kennels on the other side of the building.

  Nikki nearly reached the far door before Robin stopped her again. "Have you soaked the instruments? I showed you how to get them ready for the autoclave. If I have to tell you every single thing, I might as well do it myself."

  Then why don't you? But Nikki didn't dare voice the words. She suspected Robin tried to get Nikki fired. She didn’t know why Robin hated her. "Do you want me to walk dogs, clean kennels, or do instruments?" She tried to make her voice soothing the way she talked to her skittish cat Hope.

  "Don't take that tone with me, young lady." Robin’s eyebrow
piercing bobbed up and down. "You smart mouth me, and I don't care how much Eugene likes you, your narrow little butt is gone, charity case and all."

  "What do you mean? I'm a volunteer. I just want to learn stuff."

  "I just want to learn stuff." Robin mimicked her with baby talk. "Give me a break. I work my butt off, and take any overtime I can get to cover rent and make car payments, buy groceries, pay off loans. You waltz in here, spend a couple hours a week petting puppies and kitties—”

  "Well duh. I’m a kid. My parents don't make me pay for food, except special snacks I get from my allowance." Nikki covered her mouth, tickled at the thought. "And I can't drive, so why would I want a car?" She couldn't help rolling her eyes.

  “I wanted tickets to that sold out musical, but you whined and cajoled and Eugene gave his tickets to you. It’s your day to volunteer, but I have to work." She stomped down the hallway toward her, and it was all Nikki could do to hold her ground. Robin stuck her face close, and her fierce whispers smelled of beef jerky and Dr. Pepper. "When you work for free he doesn’t have to pay me overtime. And on top of that, he gives you all your cat food and meds and even the spay surgery for free. For free."

  Nikki started to deny it. She'd seen Daddy give Doc Eugene money for Hope's care. But she also remembered her parents argued over the cost. Was it true? Had she embarrassed Daddy? But that meant she needed to work even harder to pay and make it up to Doc Eugene, never mind what Robin-the-Rat said. She drew up her chest and stood tall and proud, the way Daddy said soldiers stood, and never took any guff. "We're not a charity case either."

  "Just go clean up the dog poop. That's all you're good for." Robin stalked away, opened the door to the front reception area, and closed the door.

  Blinking furiously, Nikki whirled and banged through the door to the dog room. A Chihuahua yelped in surprise, and a big black mutt recovering from anesthesia lifted his head, tried to stagger to his feet, and instead banged his tail against the floor.