Kyron, page 8
“She’s trying to patch things up between me and my parents. She told them that I’m here and has them coming for a visit.”
“Ah, so she wants to spread more of that family joy.”
“Yeah.”
“I wonder if that’s some sort of a nesting thing,” she murmured.
“I have no idea,” he muttered, “but, in my world, that would be contrary to the natural order of things.”
Surprised, she looked at him and then chuckled. “Meaning that, in the wild, animals tend to isolate and stay away from family?” He nodded. “And yet lots of animals are tribal or stay together as a group,” she added, “so I’m not sure that particular theory fits. At least not all the time.”
“I haven’t had much chance to get my mind wrapped around what she’s doing, but I fear it will end in disaster, with her very upset, and I’ll get the blame.”
“You’ll get blamed because you’ll be the one who doesn’t cooperate?” she asked, with a knowing look. He glared at her, and she shrugged. “I can’t imagine you buckling under, if some real hard feelings are there,” she murmured.
“You don’t know me at all,” he replied stiffly.
“Nope, and you don’t know me. But I do know that the animals adore you, all of them.” She waved her arm at him. Kyron was completely surrounded by dogs, cats, and ferrets. “And they are a good judge of character,” she noted, with a chuckle.
He raised an eyebrow with a smile.
“So, I’m not sure what the problem is between you and your family, and I’m sorry that there is a problem,” she added, “because life really is far too short. But I get it because I’ve got problems of my own with family too.” She gave a heavy sigh. “My parents are not happy about what I do here with the animals. They all want me to get rid of them and to get a life, which, in their minds, translates to get married and have kids. After all, isn’t that what we’re supposed to do?” she asked in a mocking tone.
“Well, in my case I left town and joined the navy, like my grandfather had done. He’s the only extended family I’ve actually had in my life for a very long time. My parents didn’t get along with him, so they’re not happy that I followed in his footsteps. My brother, on the other hand, followed in my father’s footsteps and went into law enforcement.”
“Your brother’s a cop?” she asked.
He nodded. “Yeah, he is. He’s on the police department here in town.”
“Interesting,” she noted and then shrugged. “It’s not like he’ll know me. I’m not somebody who ever has run-ins with the law.”
“Didn’t think you were,” he replied cheerfully. “But my brother is one of those kinds of people who is always very together. He married his high school sweetheart not long after graduating. Perfect job, perfect wife. The only thing they struggled with was having kids.” He looked down at the floor, then shrugged. “But I suppose now that she’s pregnant, and so far along, all has likely been forgiven in that department too.”
“But not in your case?”
“No, I got badly injured, and that was more of a ‘Hey, I told you so’ moment for my parents.”
Her jaw dropped. “Surely they didn’t say that to you.”
Wondering why he was even telling her any of his business, he went on. “Yeah, they did that and so much more,” he confirmed quietly.
“It’s also hard when you know that your brother is the only favorite,” she added, “but that’s what the word means, isn’t it?”
He stared at her and then chuckled. “That’s exactly what it means, … but, when he’s such an obvious favorite, it makes it very hard to grow up in his shadow. And to know that you’re doing everything they don’t want you to do, just adds to it.”
“Which is why you tend to go rebel even more because some kind of attention is better than none, right?”
“Ah, look at that,” he teased. “Aren’t you quite the philosopher?”
“I don’t know about that, but families are often very messed up and for all the wrong reasons.”
“Is there a right reason?”
“In a way, yes,” she noted. “It sounds like you didn’t do what they wanted you to do, so that is power and control. And you did something they disagreed with, based on somebody they disagreed with, so again it’s power and control. But more than that, it’s probably also a case of love gone awry. If your grandfather was somebody they expected to love and to be loved by, and that wasn’t how it was, they would see it as you crossing to the other side and becoming the enemy instead of family.”
“That’s exactly what happened,” he said, drumming his fingers on the tabletop, as he stared at her. “And they’ve upheld their side of the bargain and basically not talked to me in all these years. In fact, I didn’t phone them when I lost my leg, but one of the doctors called them to let them know I’d been injured. I was awake and stable at the time, so the doc gave me the phone, and my father went on this rampage about how it served me right, how they had told me not to enlist in the first place.”
She sat here and stared at him, with enough compassion in her gaze to encompass another whole rescue of him. But he didn’t want to be part of her rescue. She was a beautiful woman and all that, and they definitely had a connection between them. But he didn’t want to be seen as a charity case, like with her animals, as somebody who needed help. That would never go over well. “Don’t look at me like that.”
“Why not?” she asked. “It sounds like you’ve had it tough for your whole life.”
“Mostly since the accident,” he agreed quietly. “That’s when you find out who the people in your life really are. Like your friends, your family. … Also that’s when things get boiled down, so you can see what really matters in your life.”
“I agree.” She nodded. “Not so different from what I’m doing. No, not to the same extent, of course, but you find out what people are really like. The ones who actually are there to help you achieve your goals, versus the ones who think this is some passing phase that you’ll get over—and hopefully soon.”
“Right,” he replied, with a knowing nod. “Actually, I think that’s what my parents had hoped, that it would be a passing phase and that I would come to my senses sooner or later.”
“Preferably before you got injured, I assume.”
“I don’t know. I feel like they really think I deserved it. I think my dad meant exactly what he said back then, up to the present day. And now, thanks to Sandra, I’ll have to listen to them while they’re visiting her and Allen. In their minds, I’m sure they’ll be thinking that I’ll never get married or have a family because, of course, now I’m damaged goods.”
“Wow, I don’t like them already.”
He shook his head. “The odd thing is that most people get along with them really well.”
“But you don’t get to know people, who they are at their core, until you come across something like this, and you see into their souls.”
“Maybe they’ll change. Maybe they have already changed and are somebody different than what I used to know,” he suggested. “Maybe I’m being unfair. I just don’t know anymore.” He sighed. “When it comes to these big emotional issues, you never quite know if it’s you or them who’s having the problem.” Just then he heard an odd bark at the window. He bolted to his feet and stared outside.
“That was Benjie,” she noted quietly, not getting up.
“He’s staring at the back fence though. Look.”
She got up, stood beside him, then nodded. “Yeah, so let’s go see if we can talk to a shepherd.”
“It’s actually a Malinois,” he stated quietly.
She turned toward him, one eyebrow raised.
“Similar,” he said, “but different.”
She laughed. “Got it. Still a dog to me and a dog that needs help. They’re all the same, part and parcel, in the world that I come from. Any animal in need is an animal that I want to help,” she murmured. And, with that, she shoved her feet back into her snow boots. “Let’s go see if we can get close.” And together they trooped outside.
Chapter 5
Miranda stood quietly at the fence line, watching Kyron study the ground around the fence.
“The tracks are fresh,” he stated.
She nodded. “Outside of the snow that’s falling now, we didn’t have any yesterday.”
“Have you put out dog food here?”
“Absolutely,” she confirmed. “And, yes, it’s gone.”
He nodded. “Well, that’s good enough for me.”
“Maybe, but we also have raccoons, coyotes, and who knows what else that could have eaten it,” she explained. He glanced at her, and she shrugged. “Yes, I know. I should only be feeding dogs, particularly in my financial position. I get it, but, if I can’t be sure who’s eating it, how can I be sure who I’m feeding?” she asked, then shrugged again. “To be honest, if it kept the dog fed and nearby, I don’t even care.”
He smiled at her. “You have a big heart.”
“A big heart that’s keeping me broke,” she stated, with a big smile. “But as long as there’s enough to go around, I don’t really care.”
He climbed over the fence, and, when his pant leg rode up, she saw the prosthetic leg underneath. “I don’t suppose your missing leg will endear you more to her, will it?”
“Not particularly,” he replied. “The problem is the other way around. I understand the pain and suffering that I know she went through, and I would have done anything to have spared her that. Hell, I would have done anything to spare that for me,” he said, with a head shake. “Sometimes life is just a bitch and has a mind of its own.”
“I hear you there,” she noted. “And it’s not easy in any way, shape, or form to come back from something like that.”
“No, but it’s not overly hard either though,” he added. “It’s all about attitude.”
She watched as he jumped nimbly down on the other side and into the field behind her place. There didn’t appear to be any pain as he moved. He wandered around a bit there and then stopped when he caught sight of something. “What is it?” she asked.
“Other dog tracks are here,” he noted. “She’s not alone.”
“Well, that’s a good thing though, isn’t it?” And then she thought about it and added, “Or maybe not. A pack of wild dogs roam around here too.”
“Beth won’t survive very long in that kind of environment, I wouldn’t think,” he noted.
“We also don’t know for sure that it’s the wild dogs with the War Dog,” she amended. “It could be a dog from another place nearby or another stray.”
“It’s possible,” he murmured, as he studied the surroundings. “I’ll go for a walk to see what I can make of it. Maybe you should head back in, where you’ll be warm.”
“Well, I’m out here already. How far are you going?” she asked curiously.
“I don’t know. As far as I need to go,” he replied. “I promise I’ll come back in and let you know what I find.”
She watched him steadily for a moment and then nodded. “Please do.” And, with that, she headed toward the house and called her dogs with her, yet kept glancing back, wondering if she should have gone with Kyron. But he seemed to know what he was doing, whereas she felt like she was out of her depth out there.
Tracking was something she would certainly have loved to learn more about, but it wasn’t that easy to just pick up without some help. As it was, she still needed to go check the fences for wear and tear. So, turning her attention to that, she walked along the property line and then went over to the horses to check on how they were doing.
Because they were in the back pasture, she had to throw their hay on a wagon and drag it out to them. As she fed them, cutting the twine on the bale, she popped the loose flakes into their feeder. Then she walked up and down, checking on each of them. She gave them all a cuddle, a quick brush, and checked their hooves to make sure that everything was fine.
When she reached the goat, she laughed. “Hey, Gabby. How’re you doing?” She immediately went meeeh, and Miranda laughed again. “You are a character,” she said affectionately. And Gabby was.
Gabby was always with the horses, bonded in many ways that humans couldn’t even contemplate, and was one of the most well-behaved goats Miranda had ever seen. That was saying a lot because, at least in her experience, goats could be pretty rough to handle. They had a sense of humor and a mind-set that got them into trouble twenty-four hours a day.
But Gabby was easy to keep, and that’s one of the reasons Miranda was working so hard to give Gabby a decent life here, so she could stay. This was another one of the many animals that she had originally looked at finding a foster home for, then gave it up, because Gabby was getting on in years. If she didn’t adjust well, rehoming could be really hard on her, and that wasn’t a chance Miranda wanted to take with the older goat.
She needed to check in with the vet about the llama, when she got back to the house. Doug would need to run blood tests on the llama because it seemed like she was under the weather. She was looking slightly better today though.
Miranda had built a lean-to just before winter hit this year. She walked over and checked it, happy to see that it was still standing, though just barely. If it came down, it wouldn’t hurt anything, since there was no substance to it, but it was one of the things she definitely needed to sort out. The trouble with building anything back here in a more permanent form was that she would lose the investment if her neighbor sold his property.
What Miranda really needed was acreage for herself, where she could move all the animals. But that just wasn’t likely to happen. If she were wishing, she might as well wish for a lottery ticket, so she could have the life she really wanted. She didn’t know about keeping her jobs, as long as she was dreaming, because so many of the animals were those that needed extra care.
Back in the house, she checked on the cats. She had two diabetics, and both needed shots. With that done, she checked on the other animals, then turned her attention to the coffeepot. Sadly it was empty, and, since she allowed herself only one pot a day, that meant she was done. With a philosophical shrug, she headed to her office and the mounds of paperwork she always had to deal with.
As she sat here, she wondered if it really was possible or beneficial to go through the process of becoming a legitimate charity. She wasn’t even sure that charity was the right description and wondered if it even fit for a rescue like hers. With that in mind, she thought about who she could ask. Immediately she picked up the phone and called a woman she knew, who ran a cat rescue.
“Hey, it’s Miranda. I was just wondering about the legal status of you calling yourself a rescue and how I should be handling that.” What followed was a lesson on taxation and how the state and the federal government defined the use of funds donated for animals. By the time the call was over, Miranda was armed with a lot of information and a clear path forward. One that could make her life a whole lot easier—or at least allow her to solicit and to accept tax-deductible contributions and to take advantage of other benefits afforded to charitable organizations with nonprofit status. She knew people would feel a lot more comfortable donating if she were properly registered.
The woman had also given her the name of the lawyer who had set it all up for her cat rescue. When Miranda phoned and got his answering service, she explained what her dilemma was and that she was wondering what the approximate cost would be to set her up properly. With the promise that the message would be forwarded and the legal aid receptionist would call her back with an estimate, Miranda felt good to have made at least a bit of progress. That done, she got up and headed to her bedroom, where she stripped her bed and put in a load of laundry.
The dogs and cats kept her bed completely covered in hair. She had an old mattress on the floor, where several of the dogs slept, but the rest of them tended to take over her bed. That also meant that she had to do laundry on a regular basis, just to keep the bed somewhat hair free. That was almost impossible, but what did she expect?
When she heard a series of whistles, she looked out the big window in her bedroom. Kyron stood outside her fence again, his hand cupped around his mouth, but the whistles weren’t something that she recognized. She watched to see if he got any response, and she thought she saw some movement in the underbrush. She wasn’t sure at this distance. However, she hoped that the dog was probably out there listening, just unsure of what kind of reception she’d get. And, with that, Miranda’s heart broke a little more.
“The poor thing,” she whispered. “That’s not what’s supposed to happen to animals that have spent their lives in service for us.” Miranda shook her head, hating that somebody actually did this to Beth. Miranda didn’t know what the circumstances were, but it was hard not to judge others in a situation like this. Particularly after seeing the disgusting way people could just drop off their animals without a care. As soon as money or any effort was required, they just couldn’t be bothered.
Even as she watched, she thought she saw something behind one of the trees. She wanted to call out and to let Kyron know, but that stillness to him told her that he was already aware. She watched in amazement as two dogs stepped forward. Both of them in sync, both of them together, yet standing just far enough behind him, as if thinking he didn’t know they were there. She put a hand to her mouth as she watched, her heart slamming in her chest, as he slowly crouched down, still with his back to them, until he began to pivot in slow motion, then quietly called out.
“Hey, Beth,” he whispered. “Beth,” he called out softly, “come here, girl.” Her tail wagged, and he smiled gently. “I know. It’s been tough, hasn’t it?”
The other dog stuck very close to Beth, almost leaning into her. Kyron studied it for a moment. A shepherd, larger, and, yet in a way, maybe more dependent. He wasn’t sure what the scenario was. He reached out a hand and called again, “Come here, Beth. Come over here, girl.” He didn’t want to use too many commands that would set her back, in case whatever had been there before had been part of her problem. He just kept talking to her in a calm, quiet voice. “It’s all right, girl. It’s okay.”
