Page 16 of A Furry Thing Called Love

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Why is there a cat sitting on your kid’s shoulder like a parrot?

Luka

That’s something we’ve given up asking

Luka

What are you up to?

Jordan

Wondering how I ended up with a bird who’s obsessed with goats

Luka

That’s what you get when you have a house goat

Jordan

Luka

…Is Rodey on a leash?

Jordan

Yes, yes he is.All of my animals, aside from Porter, are leash trained.

Luka

Of course they are.

Laughing,I can feel the exasperation in his text.But I am a very responsible menagerie owner, thank you very much.If I thought Porter would let me put a harness on him, I’d have leash broken him the same time I housebroke him.

Jordan

I need to round up the troops.Got an appt soon

Luka

Yeah.Talk to you later.

Lucky for me, my cousin isn’t inherently nosy, like my best friend.I wouldn’t be able to get away with not telling Val all the details about my day—which would include telling them that my “appointment” is with Arlo.I’m…not quite ready to let my family know that we’re…friends.Not that either of us have actually talked about what we’re doing, besides training Millie, in the two weeks it’s been since his fall and trip to the hospital.

I’m doing my best to keep my word and not push.As badly as I want to “mother hen” him—as Luka and Valery call it—I don’t want to push him away either.I've got a chance to have him in my life again, and I’m not throwing that away for anything.

Letting out a whistle, I call Rodey back to me.He hops on the ground, flapping his wings in displeasure.I scoop him up and he wiggles in my grasp until I put him on my shoulder.

Juniper follows in his wake, which makes it easy to herd her to the side of the yard, where I can lock her in her run so she doesn’t get into any unsupervised trouble.

“My baby!”he squawks.

“Yeah, yeah.Say goodbye to your baby, we’re going inside now.”

“Unfair!”he says.“Cruel and unusual!”

I snort.“Drama queen.Come on, Indie!”I call out.

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