Page 11 of Dove
A few of them ran over to me, probably hoping for more food, but a few of them timidly approached her. I scooped up the black kitten I favored, using Dove’s distraction to gain closer distance. I edged around the front of the car and watched as a few of the kittens rubbed themselves against her leg, purring.
“You can pick them up if you want,” I offered again. The black kitten mewled, swatting at my face.
She glanced up, and a smile curled on her lips as she watched the kitten bat at my nose.
“This one is livelier than the others. He’s a little troublemaker.” I rubbed between his tiny ears, and he attempted to nip at my fingers playfully.
“Could I—” Her voice was soft and hesitant, but she didn’t shy from my gaze when I looked at her expectantly. “Can I hold him?”
I glanced down at our feet, where two kittens gnawed at her shoestrings, and another had curled up for a post-lunch nap in the sun by my boot. The rest had flounced off somewhere else, full and content, likely to find a warm spot to nap. My money was in the loft, surrounded by hay.
“Of course,” I told her, handing the kitten over. His little paws scrambled at my skin before he settled when her hands wrapped around him, cradling him to her chest protectively. He blinked up at her, his green eyes bright against the black of his fur.
He’d been the only black cat in the litter. In a sea of orange and white, he was like a black blight. I’d never taken much stake in silly superstitions; how could the color of a cat bring bad luck? That kind of thing found a person regardless, I more than knew. It was probably the reason he turned out to be my favorite. He was usually the one to follow me around, like a four-legged shadow, and the first to find me when it was feeding time. He liked to climb up my leg and cling to my shoulder if he wanted attention, content to chill there while I puttered around the farm. If he was somehow bad luck embodied, then bad luck was adorable.
She stroked from the top of his head to his tail with two fingers, her smile growing as his eyes dipped lower and lower with each swipe until he was asleep.
As if a napping kitten in her arms was the catalyst for her courage, she met my eyes head on, finally, and introduced herself. “My name’s Dove.”
Her voice was still soft and timid, but it was progress.
Feeling a tug on my jeans, I reached down to scoop up the orange kitten that had been using my pant legs as a scratching post and leaned against the hood of the car.
“I’m Joshua, but you can call me Josh.”
She nodded, continuing her leisurely petting of the slumbering kitten.
“Are all these kittens yours?” she asked, her voice holding a note of envy.
I chuckled. “Are we keeping them, you mean? No. The mother gave birth here on the farm. They’re almost old enough to find homes, then it’ll just be the usual strays running around.”
She frowned, glancing down to the creature in her arms before her worried eyes met mine. “What about their mother? Won’t she be sad they’re gone?”
Oh boy.
“A little,” I admitted. “But they’re meant to grow up and leave, so it won’t be too hard for her. She’ll likely be thankful to be free of these little terrors, they’re quite the handful. She’s already gone most of the time, anyway. She leaves the babysitting to me.”
A small giggle escaped her, and pride puffed in my chest. This wasn’t going too badly.
“Are you excited to live on a farm?” I prodded, trying to break her out of her shell a little further.
It did the opposite, her eyes turning downcast as she shrugged her shoulders tightly.
Way to go, Josh.
“I bet you didn’t have a whole bunch of kitties in the city!” I exclaimed goofily, holding up the sleepy kitten in my hand. It blinked its eyes awake and mewed its displeasure at being jostled.
“Oops. Sorry, buddy.” I patted its sleepy head and cradled it a little closer to my chest.
Her timid smile returned. “We aren’t allowed pets in the apartment. I had a dog once… back at my old home.”
Her voice trailed off, and she turned her focus back to the kitten. My dad had told me she’d lost her father a while back, and the house they’d lived in had been too much for Josie to keep by herself. I couldn’t imagine losing both my dad and my home, how terrifying all that change must have been.
How terrifying moving to another new place with strangers must be.
“We have lots of animals here.” I gestured to the stable across the way, and the chicken coop just beyond that. “I’ll show you sometime, if you’d like.”
Her eyes widened as they followed my movement. Her head trailed from the barn to the pasture, where a few horses were grazing, tails swatting at flies.
