Chapter Eight

Returning to update Livvy on what she had learned about the book restoration, which wasn’t much, Kate saw Jeremy Pellman curled in an armchair in a quiet corner. The boy was engrossed in a thick book, his lips moving as he read, but he glanced up and smiled when he saw her.

“Hi, Jeremy. Any squirrel sightings today?” she called as she followed Livvy to her office.

The child shook his head and grinned. “No, but I’m not giving up yet. Mom made me come in out of the heat for a while, though.”

When Livvy gave Kate a quizzical look, Kate told her about seeing Jeremy hand-feeding a squirrel.

Livvy smiled. “Recently, he’s spent a lot of time here. He’s always checking out books about animals and natural phenomena. Very inquisitive mind. I bet his teachers love him.”

“He’s a sweet child,” Kate said. Then in a few sentences, she told Livvy what had transpired during her brief visit to the town-council meeting.

“So do you think we’ll get the money?” Livvy asked with a worried frown. “Those books are going to be terribly damaged if we don’t.”

Kate thought for a moment, mentally counting heads. She nodded. “I can’t be sure, of course, but I think there’s support for it. The cost wasn’t outrageous.”

Livvy closed her eyes. “I hope so. I have plenty of other things to worry about without letting some of our most valuable historical items be ruined.”

“I can stay until suppertime,” Kate told her friend. “Got a job for me?”

Livvy did, and within minutes, Kate found herself involved in another packing assignment. This time she was taping together boxes and taking them to the volunteers who were removing books from the shelves.

For the next two hours, Kate was glad for the mindless task. It gave her time to reflect on everything she had learned that day. At five o’clock, she put down the tape and walked to Livvy’s office, where her friend was going through files and folders.

“I’ve got to head home,” she said. “But I’ll come back tomorrow if you like.”

“We’ll be here at eight,” Livvy told her. She gave her friend a wan smile. “Thanks for your help, Kate.”

But before Kate could answer, she heard a child shouting.

“Mom! Mom!”

Kate stepped out of the office to see Jeremy Pellman calling for his mother.

Kate rushed toward the boy, who had stopped near the front desk and was looking around wildly. “Jeremy! What’s wrong? Are you hurt?”

The child shook his head. “No, not me.” His lip was quivering, and his entire face radiated distress. “I was lying in the grass again, trying to get a squirrel to come to me. One of them’s friendlier than the others. But just as he came out of a hole in the wall, a cat jumped out and grabbed him!”

Jeremy’s mother arrived in time to hear most of his explanation. She knelt before her son and placed gentle hands on his thin shoulders.

“Oh, Jeremy, I’m so sorry. But you know cats are predators. It’s natural for them to go after small, fast-moving creatures. That poor little squirrel probably never knew what hit him.”

“Yes, he did.” Jeremy looked up at his mother as if she was a bit dense. “I jumped on the cat, and he ran away. The squirrel’s right here in my pocket.” He pulled open the chest pocket of the knit shirt he wore. Kate leaned in for a closer look. Sure enough, a small gray squirrel lay curled in the bottom.

“Jeremy Pellman! That squirrel could bite you. Take it outside right now.” Louisa looked horrified.

Kate was taken aback too. Squirrels were cute at a distance, but she had never had any urge to get up close and personal. They were rodents, after all.

“Is he, uh, still alive?” she asked.

“Yes.” Jeremy turned to her, ignoring his mother’s command. “But his leg is hurt. We have to take him to a doctor.”

“Jeremy...” Kate hesitated. “I don’t think there are doctors for squirrels. Veterinarians don’t usually treat wild animals.”

“There’s a wildlife rehab place outside Pine Ridge. You could take it there,” Livvy offered. She had followed Kate out of the office to see what was going on when Jeremy yelled, and now she offered the boy a small box with a lid. “You could put it in here, if we put holes in the lid so he gets plenty of air.”

“Thanks!” Jeremy’s face lit up as he accepted the box.

Louisa said, “Jeremy, we have to pick up your sisters from Grammy soon. We don’t have time to babysit this squirrel.” She took a deep breath. Clearly, it wasn’t easy for her to refuse her son’s pleading gaze. “It’s a wild thing. You’re going to have to let it take its chances outside.”

Undeterred, Jeremy immediately turned and looked up at Kate pleadingly. “Will you take me? We have to save him, Mrs. Hanlon.”

Kate hesitated. She wanted to go home. It was growing late in the day, and her energy level was flagging fast. But still...a squirrel was one of God’s creatures. And what kind of Christian would she be if she refused to help it? Besides, the pleading look in Jeremy’s hopeful gaze was impossible to resist.

“All right,” she said, “but you can go only if your mother gives her permission.”

Louisa looked stricken. “I can’t put you out like this.”

Kate smiled. “You’re not. I’m going to take it to the wildlife center even if Jeremy doesn’t go along.”

“Pleeeease, Mom?”

Louisa finally nodded. “All right.” She looked at Kate. “Do you mind dropping him off at my parents’ afterward? She lives on the east end of Hamilton.”

“That’s not far from our house,” Kate told her. “I’d be happy to.”

“Yay!” Jeremy put the squirrel in the box and covered it with the lid, complete with airholes. He was dancing from foot to foot by the time Kate copied down Louise’s cell number in case of an emergency and retrieved her car keys.

Kate called Paul on her cell phone as they walked to the car. He sounded a bit groggy when he answered the phone.

“’Lo?”

“Hi, honey.” Kate paused. “Did I catch you napping?”

“Forty winks,” he confessed, chuckling. “I just got home.”

“It’s going to be a while before I get there,” she told him. “Jeremy Pellman found an injured squirrel, and he’s talked me into taking him to the wildlife center.”

“Softy.” Paul chuckled.

Kate snorted. “Oh, like you would have turned him down.”

“You’ve got my number.” Paul laughed harder. “Love you. Good luck saving the squirrel.”

“Love you too. Bye.”

Kate put away the cell phone and turned to Jeremy. “Let’s go.”

They’d been driving less than ten minutes when her eagle-eyed navigator pointed to a sign. “There it is!”

The sign read HCWC, and in smaller script below, Harrington County Wildlife Center. Kate turned left onto a gravel drive and followed it through several twists and turns up a rise, into a forest, and partway up a steep hill.

“Good heavens,” she said. “This place is really remote.”

She wasn’t sure she liked being so far out of town. What if another storm blew up? Kate could feel her pulse speed up and her tension level rise at the mere thought, and she forced herself to stop imagining the worst.

As they came around a bend, the drive ended in a circle in front of a small prefabricated home. A riot of bright flowers with lots of reds and oranges among them filled the grass circle, and a merrily bubbling fountain occupied the center. In the trees around the edges of the small swath of green lawn, Kate noted a number of birdfeeders and birdhouses of differing sizes and styles. To the side and behind the house were several smaller wooden buildings with outdoor runs and pens, and one extremely long wire cage.

“They must like hummingbirds,” Jeremy observed. “That’s a butterfly and hummingbird garden.”

As she braked and halted the car, Kate smiled at him. “You know a lot about animals, don’t you?”

He grinned and ducked his head. “I like animals. For my birthday, I want a puppy.”

“When’s your birthday?”

“A week from tomorrow.”

“Oh! Next Tuesday?” Kate said. “And how old will you be? Twelve?” She was pretty certain the child wasn’t that old, but she didn’t want him to think she underestimated his age.

Jeremy shook his head. “No. I’ll be ten.”

“Wow! Double digits,” Kate said. “Pretty exciting, hmm?”

“A puppy would be more exciting,” he said, making her laugh out loud.

They walked to the front door, where another sign welcomed them to the HCWC. Kate tugged open the screen door and stepped inside with Jeremy just a pace behind her.

Almost simultaneously, a woman with long, curly brown hair twinkling with silver strands walked through the same door. “Hi. I’m Elspeth Getty. How can I help you?”

“We have a squirrel that needs help,” Kate said. “I’m Kate Hanlon, and this is Jeremy Pellman.” Each of them shook hands with the woman. “Jeremy has been watching a group of squirrels right outside the Copper Mill Public Library, and one of them was attacked by a cat today. Jeremy managed to get it away from the cat, but it appears to be injured.”

“All right.” Elspeth turned to the counter behind her and picked up a clipboard with a sheet of paper attached. “This is an intake sheet.” She took the box from Jeremy and cautiously opened a corner of the lid. Then, when no squirrel popped out, she opened it wider.

“Oh! A baby. Hmm. Maybe not a baby.” Her brow furrowed briefly, then she said, “Let me do a quick look-see and get it set up in a cage while you fill that out. I’ll be right back.”

Kate sat down on a love seat beside Jeremy as he filled out the information requested. The paper asked a number of questions: where the animal had been found, the names of all who had handled it, whether anyone had touched it with bare hands, what injuries had been observed, and what had happened to the animal, in addition to the usual contact information. Kate hesitated over that for a moment, then told Jeremy to put her name and phone number in the space. Jeremy was too young, and his mother was too busy.

“This would be a fun place to work,” Jeremy observed.

Kate grinned at him. “For you, certainly.”

Elspeth came back into the room then. She held out her hand for the clipboard and glanced over the information. “So it looks like your squirrel has some leg wounds from that cat.”

“Do you think he’ll live?” Jeremy asked anxiously.

Elspeth hesitated. “I hope so, but I won’t make you any promises. Cats often do internal damage to little creatures that doesn’t show on the outside. Still, he looks pretty good, so keep your fingers crossed. You’re a hero,” she said to Jeremy. “You must have been pretty quick to get him away from the cat with so little damage. Usually they’re badly injured or killed when cats get them.” She glanced again at the information they had provided, then continued. “And you’re the only person who touched him, right?”

Jeremy nodded.

Immediately alert, Kate said, “Is that a problem? Could it have rabies?”

Elspeth shook her head. “Squirrels aren’t known to be a rabies virus carrier. Unless he was bitten, just washing his hands thoroughly is all he needs to do. If you want to give me a call in a day or so, I can let you know how the squirrel’s doing. And if he recovers and is releasable, we can take him back to the same place you found him.”

Kate hesitated. “That may not be possible. The library is being closed. I don’t know what the plans are for the building, but they may not welcome a colony of squirrels.”

Elspeth looked alarmed. “You mean you think they might exterminate them?”

“I don’t know what to think,” Kate admitted.

“Could you please let me know the moment you hear about the disposition of the building?” Elspeth asked. “I need to get some more information about this squirrel. There’s something unusual about him.”