“Jackson is right. Anyone can fake a résumé. What I’m interested in is someone who loves animals and will work hard.” Maudie led April into her office.
“I can do that for sure.” April glanced around the small room. A laptop computer sat on an old, scarred oak desk right in front of her. The office chair behind it looked like it had come out of a 1920s movie, and the only other seat in the room was a padded wingback chair that was covered in a floral tapestry and had a cat curled up on it.
“Jackson described you perfectly. Have a seat.” Maudie pointed to the chair where the biggest cat April had ever seen was sleeping. The critter opened one eye and looked at her like he was daring her to touch him.
Was this a test to see if she could get along with a big, lazy cat? If so, she sure hoped that cat liked to be awakened.
“I love cats.” April scooped him up in her arms and sat down. She buried her face in his thick fur and then put him in her lap and kept petting him. Not only was the cat a huge boy, but his big, loud purr matched his size.
“You’re hired,” Maudie said. “Can you go to work right now?”
April jerked her head up and stared at Maudie, who looked even smaller in the chair behind the desk. Surely she hadn’t heard the woman right. “You don’t need to ask me any questions about my past employment or anything?”
“Nope, Willie there is my test, and you passed it. I don’t care about the past. My only concern is whether you like animals. The last person who applied for the job refused to touch Willie and sneezed three times. Can’t have someone with allergies working with animals all day. She came in here wearing a fancy little suit and high-heeled shoes. I don’t know what she thought she would be doing here,” Maudie chuckled. “You’re wearing the right clothes for a place like this.”
“I can start right now.” April thought about pinching herself to see if she was dreaming.
“Good. The shelter is through that door.” Maudie pointed. “Just put Willie back on his chair and go to work. Be here at twelve thirty every day and stay until five thirty, when we close up shop. I’ll pay you minimum wage until Friday. If you still want to stay after this week, I’ll increase it by a dollar an hour after that. Do we have a deal?”
“Yes, ma’am.” April nodded. “What do you want me to do first?”
“I haven’t been in the shelter since Saturday night. You’ll see what you need to do.” Maudie smiled. “I imagine that you’re thinkin’ I’m out of my mind, hiring a person on the way they treat my cat, but I’m a good judge of character. I’ve been wrong a few times, and when I am, I admit it, fire the person I hired, and get on with life. I speak my mind. I don’t pussyfoot around things, and if you don’t like me at the end of the day, you know where the door is. But for now I’m glad to have you, April. I’ve got a feeling you and I are going to get along just fine. Leave the door open. Willie likes to go visit his buddies.”
April gave the cat a kiss on the top of his head, got to her feet, and put him back in his chair. “Thank you, Miz Maudie. I appreciate this job more than you’ll ever know.”
“You are very welcome. Now I’ve got to go check on a couple of cats that got their little testicles removed this morning. I’ll holler at you about three, and we’ll have a fifteen-minute break. Do you like coffee, tea, or maybe a soda pop?”
“Sweet tea is my drink of choice.” April headed toward the closed door.
“Mine, too. See you in a bit.” Maudie disappeared through a door on the other side of the office.
The stench of dirty cages met April when she walked into the large room. If it hadn’t been air-conditioned, it could have been much worse—that’s what she told herself. Two dozen cages on one side of the room held cats that were meowing at the top of their lungs. Half that many cages on the other side held puppies and small dogs. April crossed the floor, opened the cabinet doors on the far end, and took stock of what all was available. Pads to put in the cages, food and water, but nothing was organized. She could fill water bowls from the stainless-steel sink at the end of the cabinets, but the dish soap was on a shelf beside the extra bowls. When she got finished with the cleaning, she fully intended to get the place put to rights.
“All right. Let’s get to work.” She opened the first cage and decided to move the little orange kitten in it over to the only empty cage in the place. “You can stay in here, darlin’ baby, while I clean up your apartment. Has it been a long weekend?” she crooned to the kitten as she carried it over to its temporary cage.
She talked to each animal as she carefully took it from its cage, and by midafternoon she had finished cleaning the cages. She grabbed a broom in the corner and was busy sweeping the floor when Maudie arrived with two bottles of sweet tea in her hands. She handed one to April and motioned her back into the office.
“Have a seat.” Maudie pointed to the chair again. “Willie is sleeping under the desk right now. You’ve really done good. The shelter looks clean, and the animals seem happier than I’ve seen them in a while. Are you a cat and dog whisperer?” She twisted the cap off her tea and took a long drink.
“I’ve teased folks about that,” April said. “I just love animals. I think they know when you’re afraid of them or don’t like them. I’m so glad that Jackson told me about this job.”
Maudie raised an eyebrow. “You got a little crush on Jackson?”
“Not me,” April answered. “My life is in too big of a mess for guys right now.”
“Smart girl.” Maudie nodded. “And a hard worker. I remember Lucy talking about you grandchildren when she brought Waylon in for his shots. You’re the oldest, right?”
“No, that would be Nessa. Then Flynn was born the very next month. I came last, but we were all born within four months of each other,” April explained.
“Then your mother was the sixteen-year-old that died when you were just a few days old. The baby of the O’Riley family, right?” Maudie asked.
“Yes, ma’am,” April answered. “My mother was the youngest child. Uncle Isaac was the oldest, and he’s the preacher. Uncle Matthew is in the middle, and he’s Flynn’s father.”
“She talked about Isaac more than Matthew,” Maudie said.
“Do you have children?” April asked.
“No, I don’t. My sweet husband, who was also a vet, and I were married for thirty years. He’s been gone for thirty years now. We wanted a big family, but the good Lord never saw fit to give us children. Maybe that’s why we loved working with animals so much. If you love them, they know it, and”—a grin covered her face—“they never talk back.”
“You got that right,” April chuckled.
“It’s hard to believe that now he’s been gone for thirty years.” The grin faded as Maudie sighed, no doubt remembering the good times she’d had with her husband. “I never remarried. I figured that once you’ve had steak, it’s kind of hard to go back to bologna.”
“Amen to that.” April smiled and pointed to the clock. “Break time is over. I’m going to scrub the floor in the shelter and then get the cabinets all put to rights, unless you’ve got something else for me to do?”