Page 83 of The Prince of New York

“I’ll take her.” I sought out Monty, who was crouched by a cage, where a white kitty was hard at work trying to meld with his fingers. “I think you’ve been chosen, Monty.”

“My wife is going to kill me when I come home with a cat.”

“Use hand sanitizer before you open the cage,” Domingo requested, pointing at a nearby sanitizer station.

Monty did as told, and the instant he had the cage door open, the white cat rubbed against his legs, purred, and left fur on his slacks. When he picked her up, she did her best to merge with him, purring her little head off.

I retrieved my phone and took a few photos and a short video as evidence that Monty had been chosen and couldn’t leave the cat behind.

Had I been the one receiving the love, I wouldn’t have been able to put her back in the cage, either.

“I feel like we’re going to pick your shelter clean of pets, and I’m not even sorry about it,” I admitted. “If I thought I could get away with clearing you out of cats, I would. But all your senior cats are going home with me, and I’m going to ask that you give us a call whenever you get a senior cat in. We’ll make room at the palace for their retirements.”

“You are signing yourself up for a great deal of grief,” Domingo warned.

“I know. But they will have the hardest time finding a home, and we don’t use our exotic animal wing. We can make a large cat room for them without issue. Outside of the tigers and Isla, we haven’t needed it. I honestly don’t know why the palace evenhasthat wing. It’s never been used until now—and while the tigers have a big room in it, they’re almost never in it.” I shrugged. “We’ll figure it out. My sister can handle the project while I’m in California. I’ll save you from your wife, Monty, but you might need to save me from your wife.”

“You’re much easier to save from my wife than I am to save from my wife, so I’m accepting that offer.”

As I had the wives of all the lead agents in my phone, I sent her a text first, telling her I had a trivial matter to discuss and that everything was fine, waited until she saw the message, and then dialed her number.

“Your Royal Highness,” Sophia greeted. “What’s wrong?”

I rolled my eyes. “Please, call me Ian. There’s going to be something wrong when you get your hands on me, I’m afraid. I took everyone to the animal shelter to pick pets for Danielle and May, and your husband was chosen.”

“Oh dear,” she replied, and a moment later, she giggled. “Who chose him?”

“There was a white kitty that was trying to smoosh her face through her cage to get to his fingers. He made the mistake of releasing the beast. She is currently attempting to merge into his chest, purring to convince him she loves him the best. He is not going to relinquish his kitty. As I’m the party to blame for this, I get to notify you of the situation.”

“I suppose I’ll let you off the hook this time. Are your girls doing okay?”

I checked on Danielle to discover she’d passed out with her cat, and I smiled at the pair. “Danielle is sleeping with her new cat. They’re in the middle of the floor, absolutely in the way, not that anyone cares. May is trying her best to convince an old cat to be friends with her. I selected a friend for May to keep her old cat company. We might make it out alive, although we’re getting a bunch of senior cat hitchhikers. I’m afraid to look in the dog area. If I see any old dogs, they’re coming home with me, and I’m going to have to hire people to help take care of my old dogs.”

“We have five senior dogs that have no real hope of adoption due to health problems,” the vet informed me.

Damn it. “And I’ve been told I’m adopting five senior dogs unlikely to find homes due to health problems. Is that penance enough for the new member of your family?”

“I’ll accept it. Ask if they have any puppies with behavioral problems. I train dogs, and I can handle a problem puppy.”

“I need your most problematic puppy with behavioral problems. Unbeknownst to me, Monty’s wife is a dog trainer, and she wants to take a problem off your hands.”

“I have a bonded pair of puppies.”

“I’m afraid you’re going to have to take two. The puppies are bonded.”

“That’s fine. Tell Monty he has to deal with the food bill because he got charmed by a cat. I’ll get the kennels ready and dig out the cat supplies he’s been hiding in the closet because he really wanted a cat and wasn’t brave enough to ask for one because I have twenty million dogs.”

Someday soon, I would need to meet Monty’s wife in person, as I got the feeling we’d get along quite well—and she might be able to help with the service puppy situation. “I’ll do that. Thanks. I’ll call you if he gets into any additional trouble tonight.”

“Thanks.” She hung up, which spared me from having to do the verbal dance that often irritated me. “You’re busted, Monty. Your stash of cat supplies is known, and she’s preparing for your new arrival.”

“Crap. I really thought I’d hidden that from her.”

“You can’t hide anything from women, Monty. Even I know that.” I checked on May, pleased to see she’d earned enough trust to be able to pet the old cat. “Domingo, how fast can you get us out of here?”

“We’ll register which animals are going to the palace, and I’ll send someone over tomorrow to handle the paperwork. If you won’t be available, I’ll deal with the queen. I can handle her.”

I wished him the best of luck with handling my sister. “That works. I guess we need to see the candidates for the service dogs. I have a palace full of trauma, and the dogs that don’t get assigned someone in the palace will surely be donated to a family in need. If they can’t be used as medical alert dogs, we’ll train for emotional support and basic service tasks.”

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