Cat Nap Read Online Free

out of Jane, who gently stroked his leg.
    “There wasn’t all that much snow on the ground when I got up in the morning,” Sunny said. “But we have a couple of neighbors who really don’t want to find themselves stuck in their driveways.”
    “It looks as if Shadow might have walked across one of those drives and picked up a few grains of ice melt between his pads. Hey, didn’t your dad deliver rock salt back in the day?”
    “Oh yeah, he drove truckloads of salt all over New England before his heart attack. In the old days, they shipped the stuff here from India. Now I hear it comes from Chile,” Sunny replied.
    Jane nodded, her expression grave, but her smile returned as she took Shadow’s paw again. “Well, the stuff you get in most stores now is more chemically active than plain old salt. Sometimes it can even crack the pads on a cat or dog’s paw. We usually close those up with a bit of superglue, believe it or not.”
    She looked up at Sunny. “No sign of that here. On the other hand, while the pads on a cat’s paw are pretty tough, the flesh between them is more sensitive. Getting this stuff caught in there is like having a pebble in your shoe, except it’s not only getting stuck between your toes but burning them, too.”
    “Is there a way to fix it?” Sunny couldn’t keep the anxious tone out of her voice.
    “There’s a nice, simple home remedy you can try,” Jane said. “Just warm up a little mineral oil and work it in around the pads. I’ll show you.” She stepped over to a counter, picked up a bottle of mineral oil, and went to the built-in sink, running the hot water.
    After holding the bottle under the stream of water for a couple of minutes, Jane opened the bottle, let a drop of oil fall on her wrist, and nodded. “Just right.”
    She poured a little oil into her hand and returned to the exam table. “Could I see that paw again, Shadow?”
    Shadow immediately obliged, and Jane rested his paw in the pool of warm oil she’d collected in her palm.
    The cat gave a little mew of surprise and then settled into purring.
    “So, that feels better?” Jane said, gently massaging the oil into and between the pads on his paw. She looked over at Sunny. “See what I’m going?”
    Sunny nodded. “Looks as if he’s really enjoying it.”
    “Yeah, do this every day for a week, and he should be as good as new.” Jane ran her free hand down Shadow’s back as he sat quietly, still trustingly giving her his paw. She smiled gently down at the cat. “It’s nice that something so simple can help a patient get better. This time on Saturday—well, after office hours—is when folks would bring in their pets to be put to sleep.”
    Her smiled faded as she looked into Shadow’s upturned face. “Sometimes it’s necessary, or even merciful. But it’s a part of the job I’ve never enjoyed. There hasn’t been one in this office since I went off on my own. When I worked with my ex-husband, Martin, I always let him take care of that side of the business. He didn’t mind. Maybe that should have given me a hint of things to come.” Jane raised her eyes to look at Sunny. “I saw you over at the bar in the Redbrick last night. You probably saw how things have worked out with Martin these days.”
    “That was Martin?” Sunny said in surprise. “He’s very good-looking.” The words came out before Sunny really thought about them. Her teeth clicked together as she shut her mouth a little too late.
    Jane’s lips quirked as she ran a finger from between Shadow’s ears all the way down his back. “Yeah, Martin’s a handsome guy, and an excellent vet—but a piss-poor excuse for a human being.”
    She gave Sunny an embarrassed smile when she looked at her again. “He could charm the pants off anyone, and he certainly did it with me. We were married less than a year after I apprenticed with him. Problem was, Martin also used the same magic on a lot of the women who brought their pets in for