Саманта Сильвер: Busy As A Beaver

Betty shook her head sadly as she took the change I handed her. “At least Chief Gary is on the case. He’ll hopefully get to the bottom of it.”

“I hope so,” I replied. “In the meantime, I hope it was just a one-time thing.”

“Oh, absolutely,” Betty nodded in agreement. “I really hope you’re right.”

Before I had time to really think about the case too much, though, I ended up having to deal with my patients for the day.

The first was a cat named Gina who had been spayed three days earlier. Her owner, Sally, a young woman in her mid-twenties who I recognized as a cashier at the local grocery store, came in with her for a normal checkup.

“I’m really worried. I wasn’t sure if I should have called you as an emergency,” Sally said.

“Really? What’s wrong?” I asked, taking a look at the wound. The cat’s stitches seemed to be healing fine, and Sally had a cone on her, so she couldn’t get at them. “I don’t see any sign of infection.”

“Well, she’s been acting extremely lethargic. She won’t move, she won’t eat, she won’t drink, she won’t do anything except lie down. Last night I felt her stomach, and she was breathing super slowly. I think something is wrong. I think she might actually be dying.”

Tears welled in Sally’s eyes as she said this, and my brow furrowed. This definitely wasn’t good, but at the same time, there were no outward signs that might indicate anything was wrong. None that were visible, anyway. After surgery, infection was the most frequent complication. This was certainly strange.

“Has she been eating and drinking?”

“Not at all.”

“Any vomiting or diarrhea?”

“No. She just doesn’t do anything.”

“Are you doing alright, Gina? Are you going to tell us what’s wrong?” I asked as I grabbed my stethoscope, stroking her gently as I pretended to just be speaking with her like a normal human would.

Gina didn’t reply at all. That was definitely strange.

I checked her heart, and while her heartbeat might have been a little bit on the slower side, it certainly wasn’t within a range I would normally worry about.

“Hmm,” I muttered as I began a physical exam. She didn’t seem to have any pain in her body, and she let me touch her paws without a problem. I was very much perplexed.

“You don’t know what’s wrong, do you?” Sally said, biting her lip.

“Don’t worry,” I told her. “I’m not letting you leave here until I know what’s going on with Gina.”

I undid the wrapping around her cone and slipped it off her head; I wanted to get a better look at Gina’s face and ears. As soon as I did, she let out a meow and stood up with a stretch.

“Oh my God! She hasn’t moved that much in over twenty-four hours,” Sally said with a gasp.

“Ah, that’s much better,” Gina said, moving her head from side to side as if stretching it.

I couldn’t help but let a small smile creep to my face as Gina made her way towards Sally and rubbed herself against her.

“You fixed her!” Sally exclaimed. “But what did you do? What was wrong with her?”

“It appears she hated the cone of shame so much she pretended to be dying so that you’d take it off her.”

“Oh…OH!” Sally exclaimed as realization dawned on her. A blush crept up her face. “I’m so sorry! I shouldn’t have brought her in for something so silly. I had no idea. I thought something was seriously wrong with her.”

“Not to worry,” I said with a laugh. “Animals can definitely be tricky little buggers. Anyway, she was due for me to look her over anyway, so it’s fine that you came in.”

“Thank you so much. I didn’t realize that was the whole problem.”

“Not to worry. Luckily, everything seems to be healing up nicely. If you could leave the cone on her when you leave for long periods of time, like when you go to work, that would be ideal. But when you’re home, as long as you can more or less keep an eye on her, I think you should be fine to leave the cone off, so long as she doesn’t bite at the stitches.” I leaned down to face Gina. “You hear that, missy? As long as you’re a good kitty and leave your stitches alone you don’t need the cone much anymore.”

“Fine,” Gina scowled at me.

“That’s right, if you’re naughty, the cone goes back on,” I said in my fake-happy voice that I always used in front of clients who couldn’t know their pet was actually speaking back to me. I handed Sally the cone and had her on her way. I could still hear her apologizing to Karen at the receptionist’s desk, as Karen calmed her down with the knowledge that she was definitely not the first person to come in with an uncooperative cat.

I made my way to the back room to find Sophie giggling. “I can’t believe Gina pretended she was dying so that Sally would take the cone off her.”

“Cats,” I replied with a small smile. They certainly had attitude.

Just as Sally stepped outside, I saw Gloria walking down the street towards us.

Chapter 6

“Gloria!” I exclaimed. “Come in, please.”

“Thank you, dear,” Gloria said to me with a smile. I couldn’t help but notice she walked with a bit of a limp.

“How are you feeling? Please, have a seat. Bee and Buster decided to go out this morning, but Buster ran off without using his injured paw, which was nice to see. I’m sure they’ll be back shortly.”

“A seat would be nice, actually,” Gloria said as she plopped herself down in one of the lobby chairs. “And don’t worry about Buster. In fact, I think a bit of a rest is just what I need.”

“If you’d like I can get Karen to drive you back home after the two cats get back.”

“Oh no, I wouldn’t want to be a bother.”

“I’m happy to do it, ma’am,” Karen said cheerily from behind the counter. “It’s really no trouble at all. You’re only a couple minutes away. I’m glad to see you looking so much better.”

“It’s quite alright, really. The doctors told me I should try to do some light exercise anyway, that sitting around all day would only make things worse. Frankly, I’m more worried about the state of my home.”

“I’m sure it’s all fine,” I assured her, not letting Gloria know that I knew all too well what the inside of her home looked like. “Are you worried about staying in it alone? Is there anyone who can stay with you for a few days?”

Gloria waved a hand away. “Oh, I’m not calling my kids over to stay with me like some scared old woman. I’m sure whoever it was got the fright of his life thanks to Buster, and he won’t be back.”

“Well, good, that’s the right attitude,” Karen said with a smile.

“Is there anything you can think of that might have slipped your mind yesterday?” I asked Gloria quietly a couple of moments later. “Anything that might help give me an idea who did this to you?”

Gloria shook her head slowly. “I’m afraid not, Angela. I thought about it for quite a while yesterday after you left. I’m afraid you know everything I do.”

Slightly disappointed, I suddenly saw Bee and Buster making their way back towards the vet clinic. To my immense relief, Buster was still only using three paws, limping slightly but managing. I was glad; he seemed to understand the importance of staying off the one with the broken ulna.

Five minutes later Gloria and Buster had been reunited, Bee was sulking at the front now that her best friend had gone home, and I was in the back with Sophie as our next patient got settled in one of the exam rooms.

“So no new info, hey?” Sophie asked disappointedly.

“Nope,” I replied. “Honestly, I just don’t know what to do. It kind of feels like we’ve run out of leads before we even started.”