Саманта Сильвер - Busy As A Beaver

Busy as a Beaver Willow Bay Witches #8

Samantha Silver

Blueberry Books Press

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Epilogue

Also by Samantha Silver

About the Author

Chapter 1

“It’s like his butt turns into a water gun every time he farts.”

Yup, just another normal day at the vet clinic.

“How long has this been happening?”

The owner of the ‘water gun’ in question was a large black lab named Cheeseburger, though he went by ‘Burg’ most of the time, after his owner brought him home as a puppy and he promptly managed to climb onto a chair and grab a McDonald’s cheeseburger off the dining table and run off with it.

Now, however, Carol was worried. She was in her early fifties, with curly brown hair that was just starting to go gray, and her brown eyes were wide as she stroked Burg soothingly. “Since last night,” she replied.

“Come on, she could have described it a bit more elegantly than that,” Burg complained, and I smiled. Obviously, in front of their owners, I couldn’t reply to the animals. I figured it would lose me most of my clientele pretty quickly. Not to mention probably get me locked up in an asylum.

“Have you gone to the beach recently?”

“Yes, I was there all of yesterday morning with him picking up trash. So many people leave their junk everywhere these days. I thought I’d get rid of some of it and get some exercise in as well.”

“Good, thank you for doing that,” I replied. “Were you keeping a close eye on Burg? Was he in the water a lot?”

“She doesn’t need to keep an eye on me. I’m a grown dog, and I was having fun.”

Carol managed a grin. “He certainly was. He’s a lab, after all. Loves the water more than anything. So no, I wasn’t really watching him. I just let him off his leash and he more or less followed me the whole way along the water.”

“That’s because the water is way more interesting than the land,” Burg explained. “It moves!”

“So he probably drank a decent amount of it?”

“Almost certainly,” Carol said.

“Of course! It was there, why wouldn’t I?”

I nodded. “Alright. Well, he almost certainly drank way too much seawater.”

“Is that bad?”

“It’s not great, and in the future if you’re going to do the same thing again, I’d try to prevent him from actually drinking much water, if possible. He’s dehydrated, which is what’s causing the, um, squirting. Generally, excessive salt water intake causes diarrhea, so to be honest, it could be worse.”

Carol gave me an embarrassed look. “Thank you so much.”

“Not a problem. If you do take him back to the beach, make sure he’s not drinking too much salt water, and keep a fresh water bottle on hand as well so he stays hydrated, since he’s almost certainly going to get some salt water in his system. Make sure he’s drinking a lot of regular water and if he’s not better in forty-eight hours, please bring him back in.”

“Of course.” Carol nodded. “Thanks again.”

“And don’t worry. This is far from the most embarrassing case I’ve seen this week,” I assured Carol on her way out. She gave me a grateful smile as she made her way towards Karen, the receptionist.

“There’s an emergency patient for you in room two,” she said to me quietly as I slipped behind her to grab a patient file. I raised my eyebrows and went into the back area of the vet clinic, washing my hands quickly before seeing my emergency patient.

“Poor Burg,” Sophie, my vet assistant, laughed as she prepared some samples that were going to be picked up later and taken to the lab. “I heard he had the squirts.”

“Well, it could be worse,” I shrugged. “Generally, it comes out worse than just water when animals that have taken in too much seawater fart.”

“True,” Sophie replied solemnly. “What do you want me to do when I’ve finished up here?”

“I have an emergency in room two,” I said. “I might need you there, so I’ll call you. If not, can you get the back set up for my spay this afternoon?”

“Sure thing,” Sophie nodded. “Good luck in there.”

I nodded and steeled myself for what was about to come. Being a vet, I never knew what was going to greet me when I stepped through the door, and that uncertainty was even stronger when it was an emergency case.

“Gloria!” I exclaimed when I saw my patient. “And Buster. What’s wrong?”

Both of them honestly looked absolutely awful. Buster lay on the table, blood oozing from a wound in his side. Gloria herself had a black eye and a large red gash across her face, and her hair was completely mussed up, like she’d just gotten out of bed.

“I’m fine, don’t worry about me,” Gloria said. “Take care of Buster. He saved my life.”

“Right,” I said, calling to the back for Sophie to come and help. “What happened to him?”

“There was an intruder in my home,” Gloria replied. “I was out getting groceries, and Buster had been outside all day. When I got home, he came up to the car, so I let him in as well. There was a man in there; he attacked me. Buster immediately went after him, and he did such a wonderful job of protecting me, but the man threw him against the side of a cabinet. I managed to scare the man off, but Buster’s hurt. Please, help him.”

“Of course,” I replied as Sophie came into the room. Always the professional, she didn’t react at all to seeing Bee’s best friend bundled up in here like this. She immediately jumped into action.

“I’ll get the X-ray machine ready,” she said, going straight back into the back of the clinic.

“Good,” I said with a nod as I examined Buster’s wounds. “We’re going to take him to the back, Gloria. Why don’t you go to the medical clinic, and when we’re finished with Buster he can stay here until you come back? You need to take care of yourself, too.”

“Not until I know my Buster’s ok,” Gloria replied.

I looked her up and down. She had obviously been hurt, and she needed to be taken care of.

“Look, why don’t I text you updates as I have them?” I said. “You seriously need to be looked at. Tell Karen to take my car and drive you to the clinic. Please.”

Gloria considered my words for a moment. “You’ll text me as soon as you know anything?”

“Of course. Straight away; you’ll be the first to know.”

“Fine.”

“Thank you,” I said, taking a towel and carefully scooping Buster up. “We’re going to do everything we can for Buster. He’s basically family at this point.”

Gloria’s eyes welled up with tears as she thanked me and headed back out into the lobby. I couldn’t believe what had happened to her. A home invasion! Here in Willow Bay, of all places. It was absolutely unheard of.

But for now, I had a cat who was basically family to attend to.

“What happened?” Sophie asked as I brought Buster to the back area on a towel.

“Home invasion,” I replied. “Buster tried to stop the man from attacking Gloria and got thrown into a cabinet. Buster, can you tell me where it hurts?”

“Everywhere,” the cat replied in a piteous voice, and my heart broke for him. But I was a professional, and the best thing I could do for him now was find out why.

“Alright, does anywhere in particular hurt more?”

“My leg. My front right leg.”