Carrie opened her eyes and tried to get them to focus. Her head felt like it was filled with a swarm of angry bees and she was so nauseous she feared she was going to throw up on herself. She was in just her bra, thong, a cast on her right arm and a bandage around one throbbing ankle.
Finally able to focus, she looked around the room and realized she must be in the wildlife clinic. She was on a cot in a room filled with counter tops and veterinary equipment. A large owl sat on a perch in the corner staring at her with it’s one eye and puffing it’s feathers out, an Opossum with a leg in a cast was in a large cage on the wall to the right and there were several neonatal style incubators on her left.
The entire wall in front of her was one big window covered with some kind of see through netting. She saw Bobbie come out from around the side of the building and head to one of the four big wire enclosures in a cleared area between the clinic and the woods. She was carrying two buckets, and let herself into the enclosure through a double door alcove.
The enclosure was filled with small trees and logs set up so that they resembled a sort of jungle gym and as soon as Bobbie entered young squirrels began to pour from nest boxes situated around the tops of the walls. Bobbie sat the buckets down and held her arms straight out to her sides as the squirrels jumped to her from limbs or ran up her legs. She was covered by a swirling gang of fuzzy tailed cyclones running around her body in all directions.
Carrie could almost hear her laughter as the squirrels realized she had brought food and began to bail off left and right. Some went into the right bucket to come back out with a nut, just to run off and begin to bury it. Others went into the bucket on the left to come out with chunks of fruit or vegetables and run off to find a good place to enjoy their prize. One squirrel smaller than the rest stayed with Bobbie and ran up to her neck burrowing and butting it’s head up under her chin looking for all the world like it was begging for affection.
Bobbie scratched it gently for a moment tucking her chin down close then reached into her pocket and came out with what looked like a 2 ounce baby bottle but the nipple was small and thin. The squirrel immediately flopped onto it’s back on her chest and began nursing on the bottle, holding it in it’s front paws and kicking at it with it’s back feet.
As soon as it was empty Bobbie pulled the bottle away and held the little guy by the scruff of the neck wiping his face with a tissue to rid him of his milk mustache. She then bent to reach into the the bucket and pull out a pecan. She presented it to her little friend and then sat him over on the roof of a nearby nest box. He stuffed the nut, easily half the size of his head, into his jaws and literally squirted into the nest box.
Carrie laid back on the cot and closed her eyes. She was not sure exactly how to handle this situation. She was supposed to be undercover investigating this woman not lying injured in her clinic. Oh, she knew by now that Bobbie was completely innocent and had no idea that there were Native American sites on her land or that they had been plundered recently and the artifacts sold on the black market but that didn’t change why she was here.
In fact, Bobbie Huskey had been investigated and watched on and off for the past 20 years by various government agencies. First there was suspicion because a bright up and coming young computer programmer had suddenly quit her job, sold everything she owned, and started traveling extensively abroad. They had determined that she had simply worked long hours, in windowless rooms, staring at computer screens, just long enough to build up the funds to be able to go into wildlife photography. Then, it seemed she had an uncanny knack for being able to get into countries and their deepest wildernesses when no one else could get the approval of the government. She had been into countries that were not friendly to the U.S. on many occasions and it landed her on a watch list.
