A Serenade To A Jerk

Chapter 10

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Cat

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“Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.”

- Mark Twain

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I woke up at seven this morning- I hate being up before ten. Needless to say I’m not a morning person. I have heard and believe that if God wanted people to see a sunrise he would have put in the middle of the day.  Now I’m sitting at the kitchen table eating copious amounts of cheap-o cereal. What can I say; I like cheap-o cereal. I had the oldies station playing on the radio; Dick Biondi was playing CCR's Proud Mary.

At any rate, I was sitting between Jason and Corey, who were carrying a conversation around me about their favorite weapons and what they thought the advantages were. Not that I could care less, but I almost jumped in with a few of my own opinions, except that mom (Barb) told me to behave. Talk about a bummer- you would think that you should be able to share your opinions in this day and age but Shifter men tend to be a little behind the women’s lib movement. How irksome! Particularly when most of them don’t know that there are knives that manage to look cool and be deadly at the same time, like the stiletto knife. Well, that’s what you get for being oblivious to the talents of women around you. On that thought I finished my third bowl of cereal, stood up, and put my dishes in the sink. 

“Well fellas, I know that at least one of you has been hired by Preston to ‘protect’ me, so come on, I’ve got work to do.”

“Alright,” they said, in almost-perfect unison.

“Let me give you the grand tour of my job. First off, we start by visiting the animals and shifters who are in animal form. As you know some shifters have a longer period of time that their animal needs to be out or it will affect the health of the human half of their body and psyche. One of the ways that we prevent the animal from taking over the human part of the mind and going feral is to sit and talk to them while they are in their animal form. Many of them leave a list of their animal’s favorite things to hear about, or a book that they would like read to them.

“Today I have three people to talk to, so I’m going to be a while. Why don’t I drop you at the front desk so you can fill in for somebody and get a few brownie points with the community?” As I began to walk away I remembered something about the kennels being short on staff. “Oh! If you’re approached about working in the kennels please ask someone for directions and go help them instead, as they are rather short handed right now.”

A couple hours later and I am finally done! Don’t get me wrong, I love to read to people but it is a little more stressful if you are in a pen with a leopard. I guessed I’d better find the boys and head to the kitchen for some grub; by the time we get there it’ll be lunch time. As I walked over to the volunteer counter, I began thinking about the fight in a couple of days. I sure hoped that they could stop before they kill each other. Beyond that, I hoped they could keep the easy camaraderie that they seemed to have, even though they were enemies. 

Still, I hoped they could stop when the fight is over and not kill each other. The law is very specific on the subject of duels; you may fight in any way that you wish but you cannot kill your opponent. Should you kill your opponent during a duel, you are to be escorted by your second and the witness directly to the elders’ court to be sentenced.