Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 69895 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69895 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Outside you could get a bit of peace and quiet from the humans, but there was always something to be done. The huge garden where most of their produce grew always needed weeding, the goats needed milking, the eggs needed collecting, the beehives needed tending. They were nearly self-sufficient, but it only worked if everyone pitched in.
Bram, on the other hand, had been in his glory. He would tell anyone who asked with absolutely certainty that he’d had the greatest childhood on record. Thistle’d had a great childhood too, but his essential desire for order and peace often ran up against the material and human realities of their family system. He could practically hear Thistle’s sigh of relief at this place’s order, organization, and peace.
In the middle of what was likely intended to be a dining room was a large adjustable drafting table at standing height. Next to it, a rack held pieces of paper and a wall-mounted shelf sported pencils, pens, rulers, protractors, and other supplies galore. It was like walking into a posh stationery store.
Zachary slid the large sheet of paper that was on the drafting table into one of the waiting cubbies in the rack and replaced it with a fresh piece.
“Okay. What are you thinking?”
The truth was that Bram hadn’t thought about the aesthetics of the cat shelters at all, only their function.
“I thought maybe I could tell you what they need and then we could figure out the outside? What they look like doesn’t actually matter. The cats won’t care.”
He smiled, thinking this would make Zachary’s job of showing him how to draw a plan easier.
But Zachary’s face fell.
“Oh,” he said. “Sure. Well, if you just want boxes or whatever...”
“I don’t... Well, would you want to come up with some ideas for the design?” Bram asked. He didn’t want to make work for Zachary, but the man had seemed so excited for a moment.
“Yeah?” Zachary asked, eyes lighting up again. “Yes, absolutely.” He smiled. “Okay, gimme the specs.”
Bram described the necessities that Rye had told him about—the temperature that needed to be maintained, the softness of the bedding—but beyond that, Bram was happy to let Zachary’s imagination run wild.
Bram could see in Zachary’s face the moment when Zachary began to imagine how the shelters could look.
“Where are they going to?”
“Oh, I’m not sure. Rye mentioned putting some in the woods and some around town.”
Zachary nodded. He reached for a pencil—the sleekest pencil Bram had ever seen: silver and mechanical, it fit perfectly in Zachary’s fingers.
His lines were fluid and precise, an image emerging as Bram watched.
It looked like a tree stump on its side, the circular end open and bedding inside.
“Camouflaged so that predators don’t find the cats while they’re sleeping. But once the cats know it’s there they can find it again.”
“How would you make the outside?” Bram asked.
Papier-mâché would break down over the winter and any kind of clay or moldable material would take a lot of work to make twenty-some.
Zachary looked at him strangely, like it was obvious.
“I’d use a log.”
Bram grinned, then laughed at himself.
“It’s really cool. And I think I know someone we can get the logs from. They’ll need to be large enough to fit the cats and dry enough to hollow out. Then I could waterproof them.”
Zachary nodded absently but he was already sketching again. Something that looked like a bread box, then something that looked kind of like a bookshelf...
Zachary blew out a breath and screwed up the paper.
“What? What were those?”
“They’re horribly cheesy.”
Bram had a suspicion that what was cheesy to Zachary might just possibly be cute by others’ standards.
“I’d still like to know.”
Zachary sighed heavily and smoothed out the paper.
“Okay, you mentioned Rye wanting some around town. I was thinking about how people hate stray animals because they think they’re dirty and disease-ridden. But people love cute animal videos because the animals are no threat, and they love shop animals because they seem to belong there. So what if some of the local businesses had the cat shelters near their shops. And they were themed to match. A toolbox one at Matheson’s Hardware. A bread box one at Sue’s bakery.”
His eyes had lit up as he described the idea, even after condemning it for being cheesy, but now he faltered and shrugged.
Bram put his hand on the drawing before Zachary could crumple it again.
“I think that’s adorable as hell.” Zachary’s mouth softened and he blinked, eyes wide. “We could even see if the shops would want to sponsor the boxes—like put a little collection box for bedding and cat food and stuff in the corner of their stores?”
“Sure,” Zachary said, shrugging. “I’ll leave that part to you and Rye. When he was starting the cat shelter he and the Mathesons got every single person in town to help out somehow.” His lip curled.