Safe At Home. Carolyn McSparren

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      “Have you thought what we’re going to do with her?” Mace asked his son. “We’re certainly not set up for big cats, and she’s got to be under constant supervision.”

      “One thing at a time, Dad.” Pete’s hands made gestures over the cat’s shoulder. “While I’m closing, better give her a massive shot of antibiotics,” he said.

      “Right.” Mace went to a drug cabinet along the wall, pulled a small key off a hook beside it, opened the cabinet and rooted among the bottles and jars. He held one up and squinted at it over the tops of his bifocals. “This ought to do.” Then he pulled a large syringe from a drawer under the cabinet and filled it with milky liquid from the bottle. He returned the remaining medication, carefully locked the cabinet again and hung the key beside it.

      Mace held up a small piece of the lioness’s fur and slid the needle sideways into her neck. She didn’t stir.

      “Shouldn’t she be waking up?” Tala asked.

      “Bite your tongue,” Mace said.

      “The longer she’s out of it, the safer for everybody,” Pete added. “I’d prefer not to give her anything to put her under again if I can help it. Her heartbeat’s a little weak. Big cats can lose a fair amount of blood without too much danger, but we have no way of knowing how much she bled before you found her, and it’s not as though we’ve got a handy donor to give her a transfusion.”

      Mace peered down at the animal. “Neat. Couldn’t have done better myself. Okay, now what?”

      “I’ve still got that old dog kennel you used for the beagles,” Pete said. “Won’t hold her if she decides to climb out over the top, but with that shoulder, I don’t think she’ll feel much like moving for a couple of days. We can hook it together in a few minutes, put down some blankets and a water dish and close up the room.”

      “And pray she doesn’t wake up and destroy the place.”

      Pete glanced at Tala. “You have any idea what you were getting into?”

      “No. But I probably would have done it anyway,” she said. “Only I don’t know how I’ll pay you…”

      “Don’t sweat it,” Mace said, smiling at her over the tops of his glasses. “Don’t often get a chance these days to work on a big cat. Kind of miss it.”

      “We’ll work something out,” Pete said.

      Mace turned to his son. “Come on, boy, let’s find those kennel panels.”

      “Can I help?” Tala asked.

      “Nope. Climb into your truck and shut the doors in case she wakes up before we get back. Leave the windows up.”

      “She wouldn’t hurt me.”

      “Yeah. Right,” Pete said, and looked down at the cat. “Let’s get her on the ground before we leave. Don’t want her coming to and falling off the table onto the concrete.”

      “Get a blanket. We can lay her on that and then slide her onto it when we get the cage set up,” Mace said.

      Thirty minutes later all three of them grabbed the blanket and slid the cat into the kennel. It was six feet high and built of sturdy steel cyclone fencing, but it had no cover, nor was it anchored to the concrete. One good bash by a large furry body could send it crashing to the floor.

      At the moment, however, the cat slept. Pete filled a plastic bucket with water, set it in the corner of the pen and securely fastened the door to the enclosure behind him. “Keep your fingers crossed,” he said.

      “You better get on home,” Mace told Tala kindly. “It’s nearly four in the morning. Your folks’ll be worried about you. Want to call them before you leave?”

      “No one will miss me,” she said, and realized how pitiful she sounded. “I mean, I live alone at the moment.” She fought a yawn. She was suddenly desperately tired, so tired her knees started to give way.

      She felt a sinewy arm around her waist, and grasped Pete’s shoulder.

      “Hey! Don’t pass out now!” he snapped.

      “She’s out on her feet,” Mace said. “No way can you drive home, my dear. Not along the Hollow road.” He turned to his son. “She’d better bed down here for a few hours.”

      “Here?”

      She pulled away from him. “I’ll be fine.”

      “No, Dad’s right. You’re punchy. You’ve got no business driving as far as the gate.” Pete walked off toward the door at the front of the room. “Come on. You can have the sofa. I’d give you the bed, but I’ve messed it up already, and you fit on the sofa better than I would.”

      “I couldn’t—I’ve—you’ve…”

      “I won’t attack you.”

      “Better take him up on it,” Mace said, and kneaded her shoulder gently. “I’ll fix you one of my special caffeine bombs in the morning. That’ll keep you awake until Christmas.”

      She glanced at the lioness. “Do you think maybe she might wake up before I have to leave?”

      “Maybe.”

      That decided her. She nodded.

      “You go on,” Mace said. “I’ll back your truck out and leave it outside by the front door with the keys in it. Don’t want claw marks on it if she gets out.”

      “Right,” Pete said.

      “Oh, and Pete, if you do somehow manage to sleep in, I’ll feed the girls in the morning and check on our patient. I’ll wake you if I need you,” Mace said.

      Pete hunkered down a moment beside the cat, whose great pink tongue lolled between long, white teeth. “She’ll probably wake us up early. If she starts mouthing off inside these metal walls, it’s gonna sound like the hallelujah chorus.”

      Mace yawned and opened the door of Tala’s truck. “Whatever happens to her now, my dear, take it from me, you did a fine job.”

      Pete shepherded her through the door in the far wall that led down a short hall to his quarters.

      “What a sweet man,” she said when the door closed behind them.

      “Tell that to the vet students he’s terrorized over the years.”

      “Vet students?”

      “Yeah. He taught veterinary medicine for twenty-five years. Lived and breathed it. Now he’s retired, he’s terrorizing me.” Pete opened a closet door and pulled out blankets, bedding and a pillow. “Now, we have to get you out of those wet clothes.”

      “I just want a flat place to lie down before I fall down,” she said, looking around. The small living room obviously also served both as office and kitchen.

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