Рита Браун - Probable Claws

“Well, I went to Denison.” Anne beamed at Harry. “Not Ivy League but I am proud of my alma mater.”

“Back to Richmond.” Lisa tapped the architecture books. “It’s estimated that four hundred thousand people will move to the city in the next ten years. Where are we going to put them so they won’t destroy natural habitats?”

“How about on riverboats?” Harry remarked.

“Why would anyone live on a boat?” Pewter, tired of being in the store, grumbled.

“Maybe they like to fish.” Tucker was practical.

“Houseboats can be pretty,” Mrs. Murphy said. “Remember that old movie Harry and Fair watched? Houseboat. ”

“Hollywood.” Pewter sniffed. “Of course the boat looked good. They need to make more movies about cats.”

Slyly, Tucker responded, “I’m sure they’re planning that right now.”

Pewter bared her fangs. Harry saw it just in time. “Don’t you dare. I’ll never bring you in this store again.”

“Bother.” But Pewter did close her mouth.

Anne put a bow on the large paper bag. “Here. You can reuse it.” She handed it to Lisa.

“I can.”

“I don’t see any presents for me,” Pewter complained.

“You don’t read,” the corgi fired at her.

“You can’t read. At least I can.” The fat gray cat sniffed.

“Oh, patting at the pages of a book or the computer screen isn’t reading,” Tucker replied.

That fast, Pewter boxed the corgi’s upright ears. “Don’t you insult me, you illiterate cur.”

“Stop it. We’ll get thrown out of the store. I like it here,” Mrs. Murphy told them.

Both Harry and Lisa carried their treasures in large shopping bags. Harry followed Lisa and Raynell to the Nature First office down the hall from Over the Moon, as they were both located in a new commercial building.

“Hello, Felipe,” Lisa called to the number two man in the organization.

Looking up from his computer, he said, “What a haul. You must have bought out the store. You, too, Raynell, but you showed a little more restraint. Oh, hello, Harry, and your posse, too.” He smiled at the pets.

“I’m here!” A nine-week-old Irish wolfhound puppy, already substantial, raced out from Lisa’s office.

Pewter puffed up. “Don’t touch me!”

The puppy stopped cold.

“Just ignore her,” Tucker counseled the youngster. “Who are you?”

“Pirate. Lisa bought me and she is taking me to work but I have to be quiet and I have to ask to go to the bathroom.”

“Good idea,” commented Mrs. Murphy, who knew how big the Irish wolfhound would grow to be.

Harry set her bag on a corner table, knelt down. “Hello, puppy. Aren’t you beautiful.”

Pirate ambled right over, placed his head in Harry’s hand. “You are a nice person. And you’re walking with Lisa, you have to be a nice person. I start school after Christmas. I have a new collar and leash.”

“Lisa, he’s beautiful. When did you decide to have a dog?”

“I’ve been thinking about it. I live alone. I like dogs but I was always on the go. Now that I’m settled I thought this is the time. Well, come on, let me show you what Gary’s done.”

Raynell ducked into a small office near the front door.

The two walked through the changes Gary had made, which mostly involved moving or angling walls. Clever. His alterations brought in more light, taking full advantage of the many windows in the new building. Although an architect, he also guided Lisa and Felipe to interesting furniture, comfortable chairs in natural colors. Gorgeous photographs of Virginia’s wonders covered the walls: the falls in Richmond, the Chesapeake Bay, the Blue Ridge Mountains, the bridges of Norfolk and Virginia Beach that ran over to the long spit of land, the Eastern Shore. The combination of bridges and tunnels traversing the bay were an engineering wonder. Then again, Virginia was home to one of the Eight Engineering Wonders of the World, the four tunnels that Claudius Crozet dug out of the Blue Ridge Mountains for the new form of transportation, railroads. He had no dynamite. It was all done by hand. Two of the tunnels remained in service. The other two were being reclaimed and rehabilitated as part of a walking tour. Another large photograph of a bald eagle soaring over the James River, sun glistening off his wings, had pride of place when you walked into Lisa’s office.

“This is wonderful,” Harry exclaimed.

“We’re almost done. Gary wants to come make sure the cabinets fit in. You simply touch the front of them and they open.”

“No kidding.” Harry reached out, pressed the front and sure enough the cabinet opened noiselessly.

“They’re enameled. That was expensive but it looks fabulous,” Lisa enthused.

“Do you like puppies?” Pirate asked Mrs. Murphy.

“I do as long as you don’t slobber on me,” the tiger answered.

“Puppies are disgusting. They poop, they pee, they slobber, they throw up, they chew. Ugh!” Pewter bared her fangs.

“Ignore her,” Tucker again told the puppy.

“Do you live with her?” Pirate wondered.

“I don’t have a choice.”

“You would be bored without me. Bored to tears. You have no new thoughts. You rely on me.” Pewter lifted a paw to lick it, languidly.

“What about the other kitty?” the large puppy inquired.

“We’re friends.” Tucker smiled as Mrs. Murphy came over to sit with the corgi while the humans babbled on.

Lisa was showing Harry her revitalized office. Sleek, the only knickknacks were little rubber dinosaurs and some detailed decoys.

The bookshelves, also enameled, reflected light. Behind a row of dinosaur and raptor books two long black legs poked out. Harry, ever curious, peeked behind the books, jumped back.

“Lifelike! What’s a rubber tarantula doing here?”

“I actually had Mildred, I call her Mildred, on the shelf, but Raynell hates spiders, so I sort of hid her.”

“I hate spiders, too,” Pewter pronounced.

Pirate asked, “Why?”

“Too many legs. If you walk into a web it takes time to clean it off. Those strands are sticky,” Pewter said.

“Oh.” The big-little puppy, wide-eyed, looked at the fat cat, who was always happy to be the authority.

Harry, now back at the entrance door, knelt to again pet the puppy. “Lisa, the best friends come on four feet.”

“I believe it.”

“Bye,” Tucker and Mrs. Murphy said to the puppy while Pewter strolled out in front of everyone.

“Come back. We can play!” Pirate wagged his tail.

“We’ll try. Wish we could drive.” Mrs. Murphy laughed.

“Merry Christmas, Lisa. Merry Christmas, Felipe and Raynell.”

“You, too,” they called back.

The four hurried to Harry’s Volvo station wagon as it began to sleet, now turning to snow. The precipitation wasn’t heavy but it was cold. Harry wanted to get home before the roads turned slick as an eel.

“Turn on the heater,” Pewter demanded.

“She will. You have a fur coat. She doesn’t,” Tucker reminded the fatty.

“Humans lack fur, claws, sharp teeth. They are so slow. I mean they can’t run. Hearing, pfft. But their eyes are good.” Pewter added something positive.

“Look at it this way, Pewter. She can use the can opener. We can’t,” Mrs. Murphy said.

“There is that,” Pewter agreed as the snow fell a bit more heavily.