Larry's Post-Rapture Pet-Sitting Service by Ellen King Rice

Author:Ellen King Rice [Rice, Ellen King]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ellen King Rice
Published: 2020-08-05T00:00:00+00:00

“Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools that don’t have the brains to be honest.”

Benjamin Franklin (1706 – 1790)

Chapter Thirty-three

“The big gray? We could stone him,” Cosmos said.

“Stone him?” Larry winced. “We’re kinda in the rescue business, aren’t we?”

“Not that kind of stone!” Cosmos laughed. She pulled a small baggie from the front pocket of her vet tech scrubs. “This has catnip in it. I meant to leave it with the cats I brought out, but I forgot.”

“We sprinkle some out and he’s happy?” Marcel asked.

“No. Rolling in catnip would make him livelier,” Cosmos said. “But if we mix the catnip with some food and he eats it, we might get five minutes where he’s stoned, and we can pick him up.”

“Worth a try,” Larry said. “We should put him into one of the plastic cat carriers. I don’t think cardboard is going to hold him. Do we try some more tuna?”

“Chicken livers work best,” Cosmos said. “Or pâté.”

“We’re not exactly a pâté household,” Larry said. “Let me look in the pantry. Maybe there’s something good and smelly.”

He found an ancient tin of anchovies. Cosmos ripped open her baggie of catnip and doctored the oily fish. She divided the fish into three cereal bowls.

“Three bowls?” Marcel asked.

“He’ll turn up his nose if we deliver his own serving,” Cosmos said with an easy confidence. “We’ll have better luck if he thinks he’s a hot shot, chasing off a lesser cat.”

It took less than a minute for her prediction to be proven correct A tubby black cat pounced on the first bowl Cosmos set down. He immediately began to eat as the gray cat watched from his ledge.

The three other remaining cats converged as Cosmos walked close to the cat tower. She set the second bowl down and walked away. The gray tom leapt down to land in the cat trio before Cosmos could set down the third bowl.

The gray tom scattered the trio, who quickly regrouped around the last bowl.

Cosmos stepped off the porch and back into the house.

“How long does it take?” Larry asked.

“We should give it a few minutes.”

The television remote was on the floor of the living room, near where Marjorie’s recliner normally sat. Larry picked it up and turned on the television. An ad began.

“Rapture got you worried? Try our all-organic God’s Blessings soda, filled with the goodness of green kale and pomegranate juice. Just $6.99 at your nearest convenience store.”

“Jesus!” Larry said. “Somebody’s making money.”

“Given that the stuff is probably all water and sugar, I think you’re right,” Cosmos said.

“Did you get some lunch?” Larry asked her.

“I’m good.”

“That’s not what I asked. If you don’t eat regularly, you won’t stay healthy.”

Cosmos blushed a bit pink and said, “I’m on a diet. I know I could stand to lose a few pounds.”

“Oh, no! You’re perfect.” Larry’s attention returned to the television screen, so he missed Cosmos’s eye blink and happy, quick smile.

Two television anchors at a desk were on screen. One said, “In Olympia, reporter Soo Min Carlevaro is standing by at the county courthouse.

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