Homeless
Chapter Six
That evening, the kids head to Brenna’s house for dinner, pulling up to a roomy log cabin surrounded on three sides by a nature preserve, its garden blooming and bird feeders swinging from the branches. It’s hard to believe they’re still in the suburbs. Sunita says it reminds her of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House in the Big Woods, while David compares it to the forest home in the “Angry Beavers.” Brenna’s mom says she calls it the Hundred-Acre Wood, since Brenna used to think Pooh Bear and Tigger lived next door.
Sunita likes Mrs. Lake, whose chestnut-brown hair has silver strands; she works at the retirement community where Sunita’s grandfather lives. Brenna hops out to give a tour, starting with two small cabins near the house. One is her dad’s carpentry workshop, its walls lined with neatly organized tools, a couple of woodworking machines, and some finished chairs under the window, the air thick with sawdust.
Next, Brenna shows them the barn, where the Lakes, licensed wildlife rehabilitators, nurse injured wild animals back to health, something Brenna is proud of. She warns they can’t stay long or talk loudly, since her parents don’t want the animals getting used to humans. Only a woodchuck and a baby fox are there now. The fox, hit by a cart on a golf course, still hasn’t settled in.
The kids file silently past empty pens to a hollow log where the woodchuck hides, out of sight. In the next pen, the baby fox skitters into a corner at the sight of them, his bandaged back leg tucked in. Sunita longs to hold him and stroke his red fur, but Brenna whispers it’s already time to go.
The Lakes have set up a card table alongside their kitchen table so everyone can fit. Brenna introduces her father, cheerful and bushy-bearded with one pierced ear, and her brothers, Sage and Jayvee, who look just like him minus the beard.
Brenna calls Poe, and a large black crow, Edgar Allan Poe Crow, hops into the kitchen. He’s her buddy; she tosses him a piece of hamburger roll, which he snaps up and gulps down. A gunshot last year damaged Poe’s wing so badly he can’t fly any real distance, making him the only animal the Lakes have let stay permanently.
Over hamburgers and homemade potato salad, Brenna tells her parents about Socrates’s disappearance and what they found by the railroad tracks. Mrs. Lake reassures them that Dr. MacKenzie’s smart, independent cat will come home in a day or two, though Maggie worries an infected wound could sap his energy. Mr. Lake says it’s too soon to worry, since it’s only been a few hours. Mrs. Lake adds that the size of the stray colony, bigger than she’d realized, proves the area is a good place to live. Sunita wishes they could rescue them all and take one home herself, but Sage argues the strays have survived fine without help so far.
Sunita insists it isn’t fair for the cats to live that way. Mr. Lake says it’s hard to know when people should interfere with wild animals, since some of the colony may not be truly wild, just dependent on the food people leave out. Sage suggests that without that food, the cats would return to hunting for themselves. Zoe sides with Sunita, that the cats deserve better. Brenna’s father mentions people who’ve brought feral cats home and tamed them, though the cats stayed too nervous to be petted or held. Zoe wonders if Socrates is actually feral, since only Gran and Sunita can get near him.
When Maggie asks about the tuxedo cat’s kittens, Brenna’s mother explains that kittens raised outdoors turn feral, and once cats start reproducing unchecked, little can be done. Brenna’s father adds that nature handles overpopulation on its own: food runs out, and the weakest die, which makes euthanizing them more humane.
Sunita brings up the TVSR program Dr. Mac told her about, and Mrs. Lake agrees it makes sense, since the cats are released back where they were found. Sunita still hates the idea of leaving them to fend for themselves and wants to find them homes instead, but Sage insists a wild animal is a wild animal.
As the conversation continues, Sunita’s mind wanders to Tiger. She can start working with him tomorrow; feral-raised cats just need patience and understanding. Dr. Mac once found Socrates wandering the yard as a tiny kitten, and maybe he was feral, too. If she brought him around, she can do the same for Tiger and the others. She’s sure of it.