Homeless

Chapter Fifteen

Sunita runs to the reception room, where the other volunteers wait with the courier from the blood bank. Dr. Mac decided only one of them could join her, and everyone chose Sunita, to the courier’s surprise. Sunita grabs the ice chest of blood and runs back.

She thrusts it into Dr. Gabe’s hands. He connects a bag of dark red blood to a catheter already in Socrates’s foreleg, and within a minute it’s flowing into him.

Sunita asks how they know it’s the right type. Dr. Gabe explains most cats have type A; only Persians or Cornish rexes need typing and matching, since they can have type B or AB. He checks the flow. This will buy them some time.

Dr. Mac comes over. Mittens has been stitched up and taken off anesthesia, though still on the heart monitor. Sunita is tasked with watching her vitals and the kittens.

Sunita watches them in wonder, amazed something so small can be so alive. Newborns don’t open their eyes for days, and their ears lie flat against their heads. They don’t look like much yet, but Sunita is sure Mittens will find them beautiful. She does, too, snug against their mother.

Suddenly Mother bursts in. The vets look up in surprise; a nurse heard on the news that a rabid raccoon attacked Sunita. Dr. Mac turns back to Socrates and lets Sunita explain.

Sunita tells Mother to be quiet since they’re operating. The raccoon got him, not her. When Mother asks if she really saved two small children, Sunita admits she had to; they were trapped, but the raccoon was distracted by the cats, so she got them to safety.

Glancing at the monitor, Sunita asks if Mother would like to see the kittens, mewing against their mom. They were born minutes ago, and Mittens is starting to wake.

She blinks, looks at each of them, and closes her eyes again, exhausted. Her fluffy kittens line her stomach. Sunita wishes she could hold one, but knows they need their mother.

Dr. Mac says Socrates will be fine. He needed two units of blood and stitches, but he’ll be his old self in weeks; they boosted his rabies vaccine and predict a full recovery.

Sunita’s heart thumps as the day’s emotions crash down. She presses her lips together, but her chin quivers. When Dr. Mac asks what’s wrong, Sunita shakes her head and turns to Mother, finally free to cry now that she knows everyone will survive.