Raining Cats and Buckleys

By Donna and Abby

 The rain was coming down in torrents.  Sean Buckley held his Sphinx cat, Sheba, close to his chest as he left the studios where he had taped a show with that idiot, Brian Fellow.  Sean was used to weather in San Antonio, which was normally warm and dry!  As he huddled close to Sheba, a hairless feline, he wondered where all the cabs had gone.  He was in a big, cobble-stoned city, but there were no cars anywhere!

The wind picked up, sending a chill down his back. Lifting his shirt, Sean placed Sheba next to his skin, hoping to keep her warm despite the drenching they were both getting. She wriggled against his belly, and he winced when her claw got him.  He had to find shelter!

Looking like some bizarre pregnant woman, Sean scuttled across the street.  Thanks to the storm, it was unusually dark, but the streets were lit, he noticed, by gas-jet lamps.  The flame was covered by glass domes, and did not go out in the storm.  By their light he managed to find a building with a red cross on the door.  Surely they would take him in!

He opened the door, dripping water all over the tiled floor. A pretty woman looked up from where she was sitting. "May I help you?" she asked.

"Yeah," said Sean, looking around.  "I got caught in the rain.  Can I use your phone to call a cab?"  As he spoke, Sheba twisted and clawed him under his shirt, and he winced in pain.

Pearl stood up, looking at the moving shirt curiously. "We don't have phones here. Are you hurt?"

"Not seriously," he said, trying to grin.  Lifting his shirt, he pulled out the wet, angry cat.  "Sheba didn't much like the way I was holding her, but she'd've gotten sick if she stayed in that freezing rain."  He, himself, was drenched and scratched up, but his concern was for the hairless cat!

"Oh!" Pearl said as she went to grab some towels. "Poor little beast! You need Tawny then!" She then sent out a mental message to her sister, who was staying in the living quarters right next door to the clinic.

"Tawny?" asked Sean, thinking of a stripper or something, with that name.  Once Sheba was wrapped in a towel, he swept his sodden hair out of his eyes with his free hand.  Then he sneezed.

Pearl handed him a towel as well, and then pressed the button that rang a bell in the doctor's lounge. As he dried his face off, the door opened, and a tall, red headed woman with the most incredible blue eyes that he had ever seen came in. "Oh my! Look at you!" she said, reaching out to take Sheba from his arms. "I'm Tawny. I'm the animal healer here in Esperanza."

"Hopefully she's okay," said Sean, offering her his hand.  "I tried to keep her warm and dry, but she did not appreciate it."

Tawny nodded as she reached over the cat that was now cuddled next to her chest and shook his hand. Sheba, who normally didn't take to strangers too well, relaxed against her and started to purr loudly.

But before he could say anything more, a hand touched his shoulder. "While she is taking care of your cat, let me take care of you! Can't have either one of you catching pneumonia!" Lillian was looking down her nose at him.  "You both look like drowned - if you excuse the expression - rats.  And did that cat claw you?  There's blood on your shirt.  C'mon, off with it!"

Sean gaped at the doctor.  Then, slowly, he lifted his shirt.  His belly was, in fact, a crisscross of cat scratches.  So far he had seen no males, though, and he was starting to get a little uncomfortable, especially undressing.

The doctor sighed. "Come with me. I'll take care of that for you. Don't worry. Tawny is very good with animals. We are lucky to have her here with us."

Sean cast an imploring glance at Tawny, more because he wanted to show her he was concerned for the cat than anything, but something was pitiful in it, and it looked like he was afraid of what Lillian would do to him.

Tawny looked up at him and smiled. "Wait a minute please, Lillian." She stepped up next to Sean. "She told me that you’re her person and she didn't mean to hurt you. Her name is Sheba, right? What is yours?"

"I didn't know I was her 'person'," Sean smiled.  "Did she tell you that?  I am Sean Buckley, of the San Antonio Feline Society.  SAFS," he said.

"Welcome to Edan, Sean Buckley of the San Antonio Feline Society," she said in a low purr that made him suddenly feel warm all over despite the wet clothes he was wearing.

He was especially warm somewhere "special", and it made him look down at himself out of habit.  When he looked up, thankful his pants were already sodden, his face was tinged pink!

She smiled at him. "Go," she chuckled. "I'll take care of Sheba for you." Tawny stepped aside, and Lillian in a no-nonsense manner, escorted him to an exam room. Sean could not help another look at the pretty fae.  Well, at least they had something in common!  He had devoted his life, thus far, anyway, to felines, and she could talk to cats!