When Pigs and Parrots Fly (5 page)

If she smiled again,
Sarah thought her face might crack.

Every other year when she'd had a table during Pet Week, she'd given out a few dozen business cards and a handful of brochures and got through a major portion of the current novel she'd been reading.

This year, she'd sent Josh into the nearest drugstore twice to buy paper, and she'd run out again. Before that, she'd been giving people her website address and the phone number to her clinic on pieces of napkins because she'd run out of cards. Her table had a line. Last year, in her donation jar for the animal shelter, she barely had enough coins to cover the bottom. This year, the jar was nearly filled to the top, with bills as well as coins.

She didn't know so many people in Bloomfield had pets. But then again, she hadn't just been handing out her contact information. Everyone who had waited to talk to her had some issue with their pet. Or rather, the pet had some issue with something, and the owner didn't know how to deal with it.

When one of the people in line took the time to read a few paragraphs about the behavioral problem he'd been experiencing with his dog, Sarah leaned toward Josh. “What's going on? How is this happening? Why do all of these people suddenly think I can work wonders with their pets?”

Josh shrugged his shoulders. “Your guess is as good as mine. Just remember, this is Bloomfield where word travels faster than the speed of light. You helped a few people with their pets' problems, and they told a few people, and they told a few people, and so on, and so on, and so on.”

At first, the only pet she could think of that she'd helped was little Enchilada, but then she remembered, just as Josh said, that Enchilada's owner had told two friends, and they'd told two friends . . .

She really didn't understand the theory of the mathematics, but that didn't matter. All that mattered was that she had more and more people asking about behavioral issues.

“I'm not telling them anything they couldn't find in a good book.”

“That doesn't matter. They like the personal attention. Most of all, they like someone telling them they're doing it right, which is something a book can't do.”

She couldn't argue with that.

She was just about to tell Josh that, regardless, she wanted to order more books when the person she'd been speaking to finished reading the selection she'd pointed out.

“This looks good,” he said. “Can I book an appointment with you for a consultation after I try it?”

All Sarah could do was smile at another new client and flip through her appointment book, which fortunately she'd thought ahead and brought. In previous years, she'd booked a maximum of four new appointments for new clients. This year, she'd booked her schedule for a solid two weeks. That didn't include the people who were going to check out her website first, then book their appointment.

After she finished with him, the next in line was a woman with another high-maintenance dog, asking for an appointment. Sarah paged forward. “The next opening I have is just a little over three weeks from now. That's a Thursday at 5:30. Would that work for you?” She poised her pen, ready to write down the name, and she looked up into the woman's face.

The woman's lower lip quivered, her eyes welled up, and a tear rolled down her cheek.

Wiping the tear with her sleeve, she sniffled, “I can't wait that long. I'm so sorry. My landlord is threatening to evict me if I don't deal with this right away. He told me if the noise doesn't stop, I'll have to either give Mimi away or move. I can't do either one. When's the next time you're scheduled to be at Paws and Pals Pets for another dog session?”

“Scheduled? I don't—”

Josh leaned forward, splaying his fingers over the top of her appointment book.

“We don't really have anything scheduled at this present time, but I was thinking that next Tuesday I could keep the store open late and have Cat Hour at six o'clock, and Dog Hour at seven. But I haven't confirmed that with Dr. Faire yet.”

Sarah's head started to spin. “But—”

Before she could complete her sentence, a lady she recognized from the animal shelter jostled her way through the crowd.

The woman extended her hand. “I'm so glad I caught you. I don't know if you remember me, but I'm Donna Sturkenoch from the animal shelter. I've heard about all the good results from your new methods, and I was wondering, since this is raising awareness of animals who are being abandoned to shelters because of problems, if you would be able to help us by hosting a fund-raiser.”

Sarah sucked in a deep breath and blinked a few times to hopefully clear her head. She'd never been involved with a fund-raiser. Andy, as the fire chief, was the one organizations always asked for help, not her. But just as Andy felt strongly about helping to raise money for the hospital foundations, Sarah wanted to raise funds for the animal shelter.

“That would be nice, but I don't know how I could be of any help . . .” She let her voice trail off as she turned to Josh.

He shrugged his shoulders and extended one hand to encompass the crowd still waiting in line to see her. “You're quickly developing quite a following. I've always been a big supporter of the animal shelter. I'd be more than willing to help. If you need space, you can host something at my store. I can keep the store open for a couple of hours to give people a place to go and provide a pet-friendly atmosphere. I'm not going to say that I'll match donations, but I can donate a percentage of any purchases made during the event.”

Sarah's heart pounded. She'd always donated every year to the shelter, but this was her chance to do something that could potentially make a big difference for the animals.

She still didn't understand why people were coming to see her, but she couldn't deny that they did.

Sarah turned to Donna. “I suppose I could help. What would you like me to do?”

Donna's face brightened. “All you have to do is talk to people and sign autographs. We have volunteers who will ask people for pledges.” She turned to Josh. “And thank you so much for your offer to donate part of your sales. That will make a big difference.”

The woman who had asked when her next dog session would be, as if she'd ever had a dog session in the first place, stepped forward. “Is this going to be soon? I'll be there, and I'll tell all my friends.” Her voice lowered, and she sniffled again. “I need to be able to show my landlord results by the end of the month, or I'm going to get kicked out.”

Quite honestly, Sarah couldn't see that anything she could say or do would make that much difference, but she didn't want to see this woman lose her home, or her dog.

She turned to Josh. “How soon can we do this?”

Donna pulled a tablet device out of her purse and started punching in numbers. “We want to do this while you're still hot, and with the lineup you've got today, we want to get all the people who didn't get a chance to see you here. The sooner, the better.”

Josh shrugged his shoulders. “I know this is short notice, but we're both free Tuesday night.”

Elaine tapped on the tablet. “We can't. All our volunteers are tied up. If you're free Friday, that would probably bring everyone who didn't get a chance to see you tonight.”

Sarah and Josh both looked at the long line of people still waiting to see her.

“I guess so,” she mumbled.

The woman sniffled again. “That would be wonderful. I'll be there.”

Donna smiled. “Friday, then. I'll call the newspaper in the morning, and we'll get some posters put up around town. Thank you so much. I'll see you then.”

Sarah gave Donna a polite smile that she tried to make sincere, and Donna turned and left. The second she was gone, Sarah turned to Josh.

“Why is this happening? I'm not a behavioral expert. All I did was show one man how to control his little dog.”

He shrugged his shoulders. “I don't know, but think of how much good you can do. As long as you tell people you are only making suggestions, that you're not an expert, you'll be fine. I know you certainly won't make any promises you know you can't keep. Think of all the money we can raise for the shelter. The animals need you.”

With the abandoned animals in mind, she couldn't say no.

Josh wrote a note to tape to the table with their last-minute plan to extend his store hours on Friday night and have an open house where Dr. Sarah would be present. The woman with the noisy dog stepped aside and texted madly.

While Sarah spoke to the next person who had been not so patiently waiting, she heard Josh phoning Helen Groves, who owned the bakery. He asked if she would like to donate a couple dozen cookies on Friday evening, allowing them to be sold to add to the contributions for their event.

She turned to Josh again. “What are you doing?”

With no guilt or hesitation, Josh grinned. “Helen loves to be a part of fund-raisers, and people love her cookies. Don't be nervous. It's all under control. Think of Andy. He does fund-raisers all the time.”

“But Andy never pretends to be something he's not.”

Josh broke out into a full belly laugh, causing the last remaining people to stare. “Are you saying that he's really Santa Claus, or that he's really a pirate?

“That's different.”

Josh's face became serious. He reached down and grasped her hands in his. “All that you're promising is that you're a vet, and that's perfectly true. Don't worry. You're good with animals, and you have a heart for them. That's why you became a vet, right?”

She sighed. “I suppose.”

“Then everything will be fine. There are only a few people left waiting to talk to you. I'll start packing up, and I'll take you out for coffee and a donut on the way home.”

Sarah tried to feel the confidence that Josh was trying so hard to instill, but she wasn't sure either of them succeeded.

Her only thought was that, since they didn't have the time to advertise, the crowd would consist of the woman she'd just spoken to and maybe a couple of her friends.

Then all would be fine, and life could go back to normal.

Chapter 4

J
osh's head fell back on the couch and he let his eyes drift shut. He didn't even have the energy to toe off his shoes.

Beside him, the couch jolted as Sarah flopped down beside him. “Where did all those people come from?” she groaned. “Didn't any of them have anything better to do on Friday night than go to the pet store?”

Josh didn't open his eyes. “Most of them knew each other. Some were already friends; some knew each other from dog and cat shows and pet clubs and stuff. I think most of them knew each other from meeting on walks. It turned out to be another social evening for both themselves and their pets.” As if to affirm his words, he could feel the weight of Rufus as the dog laid down on top of Josh's feet, pressing his back against Josh's shins. He smiled at the comforting warmth of his dog.

The evening had been a landslide success. Rufus had even met and played with a bunch of his fuzzy friends that evening. “Besides, they got what they came for, which was a lot of good, free advice and free samples. Not to mention Helen's great cookies. Except they weren't free. But they're worth their weight in gold.”

The couch moved. The jostling followed by one thump told him that Sarah had kicked off one of her sneakers, then a muted sound of what sounded like her sock-covered heel landing on the carpet, like she didn't have the energy to remove the other shoe. At least she'd gotten one more shoe off than he had. “Any idea how much money you raised?” she muttered.

He didn't have the energy to shake his head. “No idea. I've never sold so much in one day.” Not only that, not knowing the scope of what was going to happen, he'd let all his staff go home because he didn't want to pay them overtime. He'd assumed he would mostly socialize with a small number of people, but instead he'd spent most of the evening running between coordinating groups wanting to talk to Sarah, running the cash register, and restocking items that left the shelf almost as quickly as he put them there. He'd made countless trips back and forth to the kitchen, making dozens of pots of coffee and refilling the cookie plate. “I hope I have enough stock left to sell tomorrow. I had a flyer out, and I have a feeling I'm going to be offering a lot of rain checks. Are you hungry?”