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Five. The Kennel Filled with Beasts and Freaking Wolves

Okay, this dog was not ‘rabid’ in the sense of having rabies. I suppose that might be an offensive accusation in the animal kingdom, so I will clarify. He was just a massive, slavering juggernaut of a doberman who set to barking, and charging, and snapping the second he spotted my cute kitten self. I swatted at his nose and dodged with impressive speed, but I still might have been puppy-chow if it weren’t for my wonderful white knight, Sir Jason, stepping right in between us two sharp-toothed animals and breaking up the fight.

Once he and gangly doberman locked eyes, the dog backed off with ears instantly lowering and barks dying off into a pathetic whine. I give one final compulsive hiss at the bad boy, before butting my head against Jase’s leg, in sore need of comforting. He scoops me up into his arms and smooths down my fully fluffed tail, turning accusing eyes to Nick. “Why is Rex just wandering around the front lobby?”

Nick just shrugs. “Must have gotten out of the kennels somehow.”

“Well did you close the latch on his cage?”

“Thought I did.”

Jase’s eyes narrow, making a closer study of his friend’s red eyes and decidedly delayed and nonchalant reactions to what could have been a deadly situation, at least for some of us kitten-sized victims. “Man, are you stoned again?” he accused. “It’s nine in the morning.”

“And I haven’t had another hit since the sun came up. I am stoned from last night, my day off, thank you very much.”

“If your dad finds out, he’s going to fire your ass.”

“Dad’s only paying me in college credits for a program he insisted on.” Well, that explains baby-face’s most under-qualified participation in this sketchy-ass clinic. “And I wasn’t smoking inside the clinic. I was doing it upstairs in our apartment, so chill.”

“You should really just drop out of med school, Nick,” Jase teased. “Go open up a weed store.”

“Nah. I got zero business sense, you know that.”

“You got zero vet sense either. You just happen to test well. You are also like, the least caring person that I know.”

“And you are a most dutiful slave, doing all my clinic work for me, so I don’t have to bother.” Nick smiled, reaching to grab Rex by the collar and guide him back into the backroom.

Rex snapped at his hand and he jerked back with a curse, so Jase stepped in, raising one finger in commanding point and speaking the single word, “Go.”

Rex’s ears lowered, and he slunk back into his cage without further protest. Jase followed after him, with kitten me still cradled protectively into his shoulder, and firmly threw the latch on the door. “I won’t let them put you down, boy,” was the last thing he whispered to the dog, and Rex’s ears perked up hopefully. “We’ll find you a home.”

What happened to his last home? I wanted to ask, because now I was feeling a little sorry for the gangly terror. Even if he was a devil dog, he still didn’t deserve to be locked up in this dark little backroom of the clinic in cages alongside – holy shit, is that an actual wolf? I tense right up and Jase winces, as my claws go right into his shoulder. “Ah. Okay. Too many predators back here I take it?”

“Yeah, and I need to give that timber wolf a shot,” Nicky interjects. “So put down the cat and work your magic.”

“You’re not measuring out medications while stoned, man,” Jase sighs. “Just wait for Dr. Carson.”

“Come on, man, you read my notes every night. You’ve got as good an education as I do. You can measure the dose yourself.”

“Giving the high school drop out access to the drug cabinet. Bad idea,” Jase jokes, setting me down on the chair at the reception desk out front.

“Just get your GED online and you’d make it into at least a basic vet-tech program,” Nick advises, but Jase just shakes his head.

“You know I can’t do nights man. I can’t even hold down a regular job with the early sunsets here. I think this illegal deal with your dad is just about as close as I can get to a career in this field.”

“Online courses do exist you know,” Nick counters. “You could get fully certified and start an actual practicum here, assuming the patient interactions don’t set off that temper of yours… Know what, nevermind. Stick to doing my work while I try to gather up the nerve to quit this place.”

Nick held open the door to the backroom, and the wolves and Rex and the injured hawks in the higher cages all instantly went off, barking and screeching at the sight of him. Jase just shook his head, stepping out in front of Nick. The animals all instantly quieted and Jase shot a patronizing look to his friend. “You really should find another line of work, Nick. Though I can’t really picture you conducting honest business. They say you can’t trust a person your dog doesn’t like…”

Their words trailed off as the door clicked shut, and I try to sprint through that gap, not wanting to be stranded alone in the lobby here in case some other patient comes in with, god-forbid, another wounded wolf. I come up to the closed door and rake my nails along the base in frustration, but the vet interns either can’t hear or do not care, because no one comes to let me in.

I give an angry huff, then look back to the computer desk. I jump up onto the table and give the mouse a nudge to dismiss the screen-saver. It’s on the login screen. Great. No chance I can figure out the password. These young vets have not left any convenient post-its lying taped to the monitor to aid us cat-burglars in getting past PC security. No chance I can type any meaningful messages either, since this screen conceals all inputted letters as those little black dots.

I type “MynameisCassithehuman. Pleasetalktome!!!” anyhow, in sheer frustration, punching it in with one claw, letter by letter, then just adding on the exclamation marks in the hopes somebody will sense my desperation.

Jase comes out of the backroom a few minutes later, sees me standing on the keyboard, and just gives a little smile, callously deleting my black-dotted message without another thought. “You’re gonna lock us out, kitty.” He paused. “Though I should stop calling you kitty, huh?” Yes, you should. I am a human being, and my name is Cassi! “You don’t have a name tag, but let’s see… Shadow. You look like a Shadow.”

I give a stern “Rowr!” and he blinks, cocking his head.

“Don’t like that one? Well how about Kit? Or Onyx—” I cut him off with increasingly angry, rising shrieks with every cliche pet name he offers me, until finally Nick comes storming out, slamming the heavy door to the kennels to drown out the clamor of barking.

“What’s with all the yowling?” he boredly complains. “You’re setting off the dogs again.”

“Miss Kitty,” Cassi. “does not like any of the names I’ve been proposing.”

“Okay, weird. It is also weird your compulsive need to give a name to every stray that gets dumped on our doorstep. ‘Rex’ is just nameless ten year old doberman in truth, and Miss Kitty there is not going to come when you call her, regardless of what little nickname you give her.”

“I know she has a real name and a real owner out there.” Jase sighs. “And I fully intend to give her back to them. I’ll put up some flyers downtown tomorrow, and we can post her picture on the clinic’s website.”

“Ah yes, right on the home page,” Nick mocked. “We treat wild animals and strays, but have you seen this lost kitten? Perfectly healthy, but caged up right alongside our wolves. She’d be better off at the humane society.”

“I am not going to keep her in the kennels,” Jase scoffs, and I feel a knot of tension bleed from my chest. “She is staying upstairs with us, until we can contact her owner. Though…” He gives a nervous swallow, pushing a hand through his hair.

“What is it?” Nick asks, with glazed eyes suddenly serious.

“I did find… blood, out in those woods, and I think… Whoever this cat’s owner was, I think Michael might have eaten her.”

“You’re shitting me!”

“Well it would not be the first person he has eaten, okay?” Jase snaps, looking downright sick to his stomach. “A girl wandering alone out there… that is far too exactly his tastes.”

“Let’s hope he at least disposed of the whole body then,” Nick offers, and Jase glares at him in outrage.

“Don’t look at me like that, and stop taking everything so personal, like it is your job to defend this whole city from your cursed family of wolfmen. You have nothing to feel guilty for here. I mean, it’s not like you ate anyone right?”

“Of course not!”

“Well then, just keep up with the self-control, and I will allow you to keep that cat up in our loft.”

“You’re a callous bastard sometimes, you know that?” Jase mutters. Then he scoops me up against his chest again, stroking me softly, as if in need of the comfort.

I hang there compliantly and give a consolatory purr. I’m a little too busy trying to process everything I’ve just overheard though to make it enthusiastic. It is clear to me now that Nick knows his friend Jason is a werewolf. His father, the head doctor in this clinic, seems to know as well from the implications, and I find myself wondering just how welcoming and eclectic this dilapidated vet’s office really is. Maybe they rescue and treat the supernatural beasties along with the more natural wild-life.

Maybe there’s a good chance more werewolves are going to start showing up here in the more heavy duty cages hidden down in the basement once the full moon rises tonight.

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