later, I was standing in the mansion’s vast backyard with her, dressed as she’d requested and wondering just what we were going to be doing.
“I hear from Jeannie that Veronica has been sulking around all day, requesting that a pool be dug as soon as possible, but if you think we’re helping with that, you’re crazy.”
Bridget laughed, revealing her pearly white teeth, which sparkled in the bright midday sun. “No. No pool digging. This is actually going to be something you’ll enjoy. Being that you’re an animal lover who used to have pets, I think you’ll love it, actually.”
“Well, what are we doing?”
Bridget smiled. “We’re going to go visit some wild animals. But they’re just wild because they actually live in the wild. Most of them used to be house pets, though, back when there was a settlement called Sunny’s Swamp near here a few years ago, and most of them haven’t forgotten their loving, cuddly, house-pet ways.”
Heartbeat accelerating, I was already looking around, trying to spot any sign of these animals. “Take me to them.”
She led me to the forested area at the back of the yard, and we set out down a trail through woods thick with tall bald cypress trees and the occasional magnolia.
“We’ll have to walk maybe a half-mile before we get to them. I think Trevor has shifted too many times near your house, and they can probably smell his lion scent. That’s why they stay in this particular thick spot of woods, by the way. All the lion activity in and around town and the outskirts terrifies them. Of course, they have no way of knowing that our lions wouldn’t hurt them.”
The day was humid and hot, and soon we were both sweating, breathing in the magnolia-scented air rapidly, but we didn’t slow our pace. As we walked along, Bridget told me how she’d stumbled across all the “wild” animals while out on a hike through the woods parallel to town with another friend one day.
“Based on the ratty collars and tags some of the animals still have on, we figured that all the animals came from Sunny’s Swamp when all the residents were killed by the Renards a few years ago, right before Beaumont City was established. Who knows how they all got here, but I guess when they’re scared, animals can travel many miles to get to somewhere they feel safer. And obviously, many of the animals weren’t sterilized.”
“So, how many do you think there are, and does everyone in town know about them?”
“As to how many there are, no clue, because I’ve never seen them all at once. They do seem to tend to kind of stay in one main area, though, and if I had to take a really wild guess, I’d say a hundred? Two hundred? Maybe more. And I have no idea what they eat to keep them alive, but I guess they’re able to catch something , because some of them are at least healthy enough to reproduce. I saw lots of kittens and a few puppies the last time I came back here. Poor things looked half-starved to death, though. But, anyway, as to your second question, some people in town know about the animals, and Aaron and I even adopted one of the tagged cats, a sweet gray cuddler we named Stormy, but no one else in town that I told about the animals seemed very interested in adopting. A lot of people already have pets, and I think everyone thinks these animals are feral after being out here so long, but really, they’re not. Even the descendants of the tagged cats seem pretty docile, like they used to be house pets themselves, even though they weren’t.”
My wheels were already turning, and once we reached the part of the forest where Bridget said the animals seemed to congregate, I already had a loose plan of action. I wanted to take these animals home and help them. I felt absolutely compelled to. I didn’t see any animals, though.
Bridget, who was wearing a large shoulder-strap bag that I had assumed just contained water bottles, now fished around in it, pulled out a large, clear plastic
“I hear from Jeannie that Veronica has been sulking around all day, requesting that a pool be dug as soon as possible, but if you think we’re helping with that, you’re crazy.”
Bridget laughed, revealing her pearly white teeth, which sparkled in the bright midday sun. “No. No pool digging. This is actually going to be something you’ll enjoy. Being that you’re an animal lover who used to have pets, I think you’ll love it, actually.”
“Well, what are we doing?”
Bridget smiled. “We’re going to go visit some wild animals. But they’re just wild because they actually live in the wild. Most of them used to be house pets, though, back when there was a settlement called Sunny’s Swamp near here a few years ago, and most of them haven’t forgotten their loving, cuddly, house-pet ways.”
Heartbeat accelerating, I was already looking around, trying to spot any sign of these animals. “Take me to them.”
She led me to the forested area at the back of the yard, and we set out down a trail through woods thick with tall bald cypress trees and the occasional magnolia.
“We’ll have to walk maybe a half-mile before we get to them. I think Trevor has shifted too many times near your house, and they can probably smell his lion scent. That’s why they stay in this particular thick spot of woods, by the way. All the lion activity in and around town and the outskirts terrifies them. Of course, they have no way of knowing that our lions wouldn’t hurt them.”
The day was humid and hot, and soon we were both sweating, breathing in the magnolia-scented air rapidly, but we didn’t slow our pace. As we walked along, Bridget told me how she’d stumbled across all the “wild” animals while out on a hike through the woods parallel to town with another friend one day.
“Based on the ratty collars and tags some of the animals still have on, we figured that all the animals came from Sunny’s Swamp when all the residents were killed by the Renards a few years ago, right before Beaumont City was established. Who knows how they all got here, but I guess when they’re scared, animals can travel many miles to get to somewhere they feel safer. And obviously, many of the animals weren’t sterilized.”
“So, how many do you think there are, and does everyone in town know about them?”
“As to how many there are, no clue, because I’ve never seen them all at once. They do seem to tend to kind of stay in one main area, though, and if I had to take a really wild guess, I’d say a hundred? Two hundred? Maybe more. And I have no idea what they eat to keep them alive, but I guess they’re able to catch something , because some of them are at least healthy enough to reproduce. I saw lots of kittens and a few puppies the last time I came back here. Poor things looked half-starved to death, though. But, anyway, as to your second question, some people in town know about the animals, and Aaron and I even adopted one of the tagged cats, a sweet gray cuddler we named Stormy, but no one else in town that I told about the animals seemed very interested in adopting. A lot of people already have pets, and I think everyone thinks these animals are feral after being out here so long, but really, they’re not. Even the descendants of the tagged cats seem pretty docile, like they used to be house pets themselves, even though they weren’t.”
My wheels were already turning, and once we reached the part of the forest where Bridget said the animals seemed to congregate, I already had a loose plan of action. I wanted to take these animals home and help them. I felt absolutely compelled to. I didn’t see any animals, though.
Bridget, who was wearing a large shoulder-strap bag that I had assumed just contained water bottles, now fished around in it, pulled out a large, clear plastic
Similar Books
