Page 79 of Always Salty

The second and third popped up near Maven.

“Whoa,” Maven cried when more and more poured out of the tall grass. “They’re everywhere.”

Three of us went back to the cars for the cat carriers.

When we got back, we stuffed them all into eight cat carriers.

They weren’t happy, but they would all find a better home than the fields they were found in.

As we all went back to the cars, I asked, “Do you think we found them all?”

“Probably not,” Brecken admitted. “But we can keep coming back with food and water. Eventually we might get them all.”

Luckily, being in the middle of Dallas, there really weren’t many predators that would take any of the cats out.

After parting in the parking lot and handing off my keys to Nastya, Milena and I climbed into her mom-mobile, a brand new Ford Expedition with huge tires and all sorts of fun features, and headed to the clubhouse.

The cats sang to us the entire way.

“This place still gives me butterflies,” Milena said as we pulled into the closest parking spot we could find.

I smiled at my new sister-in-law. “They love you. They’ve all told me so plenty of times.”

She smiled, and a little bit of the nervousness slid out of her shoulders.

“Let’s get these cats inside and get them some food and water,” I suggested.

Instead of going through the main door, I had her walk with me to the kitchen door that was on the side of the clubhouse.

Mainly, the clubhouse was an open concept place.

But there was a storage room and dirty kitchen off the back of the main kitchen that allowed me to keep the door shut to the main part of the clubhouse. Containing them seemed like it would be a problem if I wasn’t careful.

“Plus, I can set up a couple of litter boxes in here. The club members work on cars and bikes a lot in the back barn, and there are a lot of oil spills. They have kitty litter in there for such occasions. I’ll steal some of that,” I said as we started carting them inside.

When she started letting them out of their cages, I went for the kitty litter and some spare boxes.

When I got inside, it was cat chaos.

“We’re gonna have to find something to do with these cats,” I said as I took them all in. “That one especially can’t be outside anymore.”

It was a Sphynx, and had looked like it’d been put through the ringer over the last few days. The poor little thing had cuts all over her little body from the woods she’d been in.

“I’ll take that one home with me.” Milena smiled. “Cutter will love it.”

“Cutter will love what?” I heard Dima ask.

I smiled when I saw him filling up the door to the kitchen.

“This cat,” I pointed at the naked black cat.

Dima curled his lip up in disgust. “Sure, he’ll definitely love that.”

He took in all the cats, and then cursed when one slipped past him and dashed into the main room.

“That one was a Serval. We could’ve left it behind and it would’ve been able to defend itself and feed itself no problem,” I said. “Don’t let any kids play with it.”

Dima left and forgot to shut the door, so all of the cats started pouring out of the kitchen and into the main room of the clubhouse.

---