End of the Race (14 page)

I miss petting the cats and kittens at the animal shelter back in Pittsburgh. This one reminds me of Moonshine, the orange tabby at the shelter. He was always a bit cautious, too. Before we moved here I volunteered there two days a week, helping clean up after the animals, washing their water and food dishes, petting and playing with the cats and kittens mostly, but sometimes the dogs and puppies, too. I helped get the animals socialized and friendly around people so they would have a better chance of being adopted.

“Where do you live?” I ask the tabby. “Do you have a home?”

He looks up at me as if he’s about to tell me something important.

“Meow.”

As soon as we get the hardware store Mom and Dad
bought all set up and open for business, I really want to volunteer at the shelter here in Ambler, too. I even got a recommendation letter from my supervisor back in Pittsburgh like Dad suggested. When the Ambler shelter sees my letter, I’m sure they’ll let me volunteer.

The cat’s purr gets louder and louder.

And I was excited to see that there’s a veterinary clinic two blocks down the street. Maybe I’ll make a copy of my letter to show the vets there, too. If I’m going to be a veterinarian someday, I have to get more experience, especially since we’ve never had any family pets of our own. Mom promised that we could finally get a pet once we’d settled in, but now she acts like it’s the last thing on her mind.

Mom doesn’t understand how much I love animals, how good I am with them, and how being around animals makes me less nervous. But Dad gets it. He’s an animal lover, too. He loves to see them, pet them, and he talks to them, just like me. Mom is a worrier. She worries about germs, safety, and how expensive a pet might be. And she never seems to relax around animals or enjoy petting them like Dad and I do.

The tabby comes closer and circles me, leaning his body against my ankles and legs, then comes back around to my hands for more petting.