Silver Christmas (5 page)

"I'm going to put on my pajamas and lay a
pillow and sleeping bag on the floor here so I can watch."

Owen caught Jennifer's gaze, and they shared
a mutual smile at the accuracy of his prediction about Chloe's
behavior.

"Mama Cat needs to be left alone quietly for
a while. Come on, love." Jennifer took Chloe's arm and stood. "She
has her nice snug box to give birth in, and plenty of food and
water and a litter box out here well away from where the kittens
will be. So she's all set. We'll give her some space now and check
her again after dinner."

They rushed through their meal, Chloe hardly
able to sit still, her gaze constantly going to the hall door,
while all she could talk about was kittens and what she would call
hers.

"You do realize the kittens will belong to
the owner of the cat," Owen said. "Whoever it is might want to keep
them all."

"Don't be silly, Dad. Nobody keeps a whole
litter of kittens. They'll let me keep one."

Owen chuckled. His daughter could not be
deterred. Anyway, she was probably right.

As they returned to the bathroom half an hour
later, Jennifer rested a hand on Chloe's shoulder. "You must stay
quiet and calm when we check Mama Cat again."

Chloe nodded, almost trembling with
excitement.

"Right. Let me go first," Jennifer said.

Owen followed the girls and shut the bathroom
door firmly to keep out Paddy, who was furiously sniffing around.
The bathroom was quiet. Jennifer put a finger to her lips and knelt
by the makeshift cat bed to run her hand over the animal's
belly.

"Mama Cat is in labor," she said softly.
"I'll sit here quietly and keep an eye on things. If anything
happens, I'll call you."

"Go and get changed for bed, Chloe." Owen
forestalled his daughter's objection with a stern expression. He
could foresee a very late night, so it was best she change now.

Jennifer grabbed the chair from the corner of
the bathroom and set it close to the linen closet. Owen went to
load the dishwasher and returned as soon as he was done to find
Chloe changed for bed, kneeling in her sleeping bag beside
Jennifer's chair.

It was so good to see mother and daughter
together, a dream Owen had thought would never come true. He was so
engrossed in watching his daughter with her mum, he nearly missed
the first kitten being born.

"There you are," Jennifer said softly. "Here
comes number one." The little body came out headfirst, breaking its
membrane sac as it was born. The attentive mother immediately
licked her kitten and chewed through the umbilical cord.

"That's the placenta that's come out now. We
need to count those to make sure they're all delivered," Jennifer
said softly.

"Wow." Chloe rose on her knees and leaned
closer to see the tiny kitten. "I can't see what color it is yet.
It looks dark because it's wet."

Owen crouched beside his daughter and put an
arm around her. "Amazing, isn't it?"

"Awesome."

The cat strained for a few minutes then
another kitten was born, and within two hours she had safely
delivered five beautiful babies.

Chloe was wriggling with impatience now. "Can
we pick them up?"

"No. We mustn't disturb them," Jennifer said.
"They need to bond with their mum and start feeding." She crouched
beside the box and palpated the cat's belly. "She's very tired, but
there's one more to come, I think." She sat back on the chair,
elbows on her knees, watching.

The three of them waited quietly for another
ten minutes as Mama Cat strained. "When will it come?" Chloe
said.

"I'm going to have to help with this last
one."

Jennifer had set a tray of things she might
need at her side. She washed her hands and dried them, pulled on
some sterile blue nitrile gloves, and knelt beside the cat to
gently help pull out the final kitten. It emerged suddenly, a tiny
still form in its fetal membrane.

Chloe clutched Owen's arm as Jennifer broke
the sac, peeled it off, and wiped the kitten's face with a soft
clean cloth, using her little finger to clean out its mouth. "Is it
going to be okay, Dad?"

"I don't know, love."

"Hopefully." Jennifer held it in one hand and
rubbed its body with the towel until it gave a plaintive little
cry. She finished wiping it dry, then tied off and cut the cord and
laid the kitten beside its exhausted mother.

She offered Mama Cat some water and food, and
set the adult cat's dishes back outside the box where the kittens
couldn't reach them.

"There you are. Six healthy kittens. You can
have a closer look as long as you don't touch them."

Chloe didn't wait to be told twice. She was
on her knees by the box immediately, gazing down at the tiny mewing
bundles of fur. "They're so adorable, Dad. I want to keep them
all."

Owen chuckled and ruffled her hair. "One,
cocoa puff. If the cat's owner agrees."

"What if we can't find the cat's owner? Can
we keep the mother and a kitten?"

"We'll cross that bridge
if
we get to
it."

"I wish I could pick them up."

"In a few weeks," Jennifer said.

Owen rested a hand on the wall and smiled as
the tiny creatures crawled close to their mother, little mouths
seeking sustenance.

The miracle of life never got old. He'd been
mesmerized when his daughter was born, a life-changing experience.
Since then he'd watched numerous animals give birth, including
hundreds of goats. It would be easy to become blasé about birth
when the does were having kids all the time, but it was always a
magical thing to see new life come into the world.

Now he understood why Jennifer had been so
determined to qualify as a vet and spend her life working with
animals. He loved that part of his job. He'd have probably enjoyed
being a vet himself if he'd bothered to consider a career when he
was younger, instead of wasting his time chasing girls and going to
parties.

Jennifer lay in bed, eyes closed as she tried to
sleep, but the familiar ache in her side throbbed after so much
bending and crouching. A fox barked somewhere in the distance, and
a few moments later an owl hooted right outside her window. She
gave up on sleep and picked up her phone from the nightstand to
check the time.

It was just after one a.m., an hour since
she'd last checked on the cat and her newborn kittens. She'd
intended to look at them every two hours during the night, but
since she was awake, she might as well go and check on them
now.

She hadn't wanted to alarm Chloe, but kitten
number six concerned her. She was smaller than the others, and
although the mother had accepted her and she certainly had enough
nipples to feed a litter of six, the runt of the litter was
sometimes pushed away by the bigger siblings.

Jennifer slipped out of bed and donned the
thick sweater that Owen had loaned her over her nightgown. Putting
her feet in ballet flats, she tiptoed to the bathroom and opened
the door, turning on the recessed lights over the sink rather than
the main light, so as not to startle the feline guests.

"Hey there, Mama Cat. How are you and your
babies doing?"

She crouched beside the box, pressing a hand
to her aching scar, and took note of where each kitten was. Four
were feeding and a fifth was asleep among the others. Little number
six had been pushed to the side of the box near its mother's tail,
away from the warm curve of her body and the hot water bottle under
the bedding.

Jennifer picked up the frail body and the
kitten mewled and wriggled. She touched the tiny pads of its feet
and winced at how cold they were. Six was still okay, but wouldn't
last long if she was chilled and hungry.

Behind her the bathroom door opened, and she
glanced over her shoulder. Owen stepped in, clad in his blue robe.
"Is there a problem?"

"Sorry, I didn't want to wake you." He was up
at six most mornings to check in on the goats' early milking.

She cradled the tiny kitten in her hands,
holding her close and rubbing her to warm her up. "I think we'll
have to bottle-feed Six to start with."

Owen crouched at her side. "That was the last
one born, the one you had to help?"

She nodded.

"I thought that one looked a bit small and
weak."

"She's chilled as well." Jennifer rose to her
feet and Owen did too. "Will you cuddle her to warm her up while I
mix the kitten formula? She needs to be warm before she feeds."
Thank heavens she'd had the foresight to make a quick trip to the
local pet store and pick up some formula and a nursing bottle
earlier.

"No problem." Owen parted the lapels of his
robe and unbuttoned his pajama top, exposing a v-shaped section of
muscular chest.

Jennifer held her breath as he took the
kitten from her hands, eased it inside his top against his skin and
closed his robe, holding the tiny animal close to his warmth. She
pressed her hand to her mouth and blinked, feeling a little warm
herself now.

"Shhh, little one," he said, walking slowly
to and fro, gently rubbing the precious bundle.

She stared at him, momentarily forgetting
what she was about to do, tender feelings welling up inside her,
almost bringing tears to her eyes. If he was trying to make her
regret leaving him, he was doing a darn good job.

He glanced up, eyebrows raised. "Are you
going to fetch the bottle?"

"Oh. Yes. Of course. Back in a few minutes."
Almost light-headed with conflicting emotions and tiredness,
Jennifer hurried downstairs to be greeted by Owen's two dogs, Zack
and Heidi, as she entered the kitchen.

She patted them both and sent them back to
their beds by the stove, then prepared the kitten formula at the
right temperature. Once done, she hurried upstairs again, hoping
fifteen minutes sharing Owen's body heat would have warmed the
kitten enough that it was ready to feed.

As she approached the bathroom, she could
hear Owen's voice. She paused and listened.

"Hey, little Silver Sixpence, you'll grow
into a strong, healthy cat and have a wonderful life catching mice
in the barn and putting the dogs in their place."

Jennifer chuckled to herself as she pushed on
the door. "So she's called Silver Sixpence, is she?"

Owen cleared his throat and looked a little
embarrassed as he pulled the kitten out of his top and handed her
over.

Jennifer wrapped Sixpence in a soft towel to
keep her warm, and held her on her lap in the correct position to
feed. She dripped a couple of drops of milk on the tiny pink tongue
and smiled when Sixpence latched onto the nipple and started
feeding, her tiny front paws kneading the towel on her lap.

"I estimated her weight at three ounces to
gauge the amount of milk she needs. I need to weigh her tomorrow to
make sure we give her the right quantity for her stomach
capacity."

"We can weigh her on the kitchen scales."
Owen sat on the side of the bathtub and watched.

When she finished feeding Sixpence, she held
the kitten up to her chest and gently rubbed the thin furry back to
burp her.

Owen changed the hot water bottle under the
blankets in the cat bed while Jennifer helped the kitten relieve
itself by rubbing a cotton swab on its back end. Then she laid the
tiny creature in the warm box with her mother, positioning her
among her brothers and sisters with an unclaimed nipple near her
mouth.

"I'm hoping once she's warm, she might find
her mama's nipple and take some milk herself."

As she rose, pain jabbed her side and she
pressed her hand to the place, pausing before she straightened.

"Jenn, are you okay?" Owen was there in an
instant, his arm around her, his hand under her elbow.

"I'm fine. Don't worry."

"You're not fine. Is there something else
wrong that I should know about?"

She stared down at the tiny fluffy bodies
curled close to their mama, a growing sense of helplessness making
her close her eyes. When would she get over this so she could work
again?

Owen turned her gently and drew her close,
and she rested her cheek against his chest, hearing the steady,
reassuring beat of his heart.

"I keep getting phantom pains, and it's
possible I have nerve damage."

Owen's arms tightened around her. "I don't
understand why you were unprotected. Didn't they have armed rangers
to escort you?"

"There are too many men with guns. That's the
problem. I was protecting a baby rhino. They killed her
mother."

"Oh, Jenn."

She felt his warm breath as he pressed a kiss
to her hair. "It's all right. We saved her. She's in the animal
orphanage where I worked."

The pain in her side faded as she recalled
the adorable little creature in the video her coworkers had sent
her while she was in the hospital. She wished she hadn't been hurt,
but at least it hadn't been for nothing.

• • •

Jennifer strolled along the gravel path beside Owen,
her head and hands warm in a wool cap and mittens decorated with
snowflakes that she'd borrowed from Chloe. It was clear and cold,
the bare tree branches of the majestic oaks and horse chestnuts
dotted across the parkland stark against the wintry blue sky.

Owen worked every morning in the estate
office and came back to the house at lunchtime. After lunch, they'd
fallen into the habit of walking the dogs together before he
returned to the office. She'd started to look forward to this time
of the day.

During the past week, she'd lived her life in
two-hour chunks between the alerts on her phone to check on the
kittens. It was lovely to get out of the house, away from her
laptop and the issue of finding a new job, and clear her head with
a walk in the fresh air. When she was walking with Owen, the pains
in her side didn't trouble her.