Page 4 of Missiletoe
What was I going to do with him?
Tiny Dude was a lot like a bunny. Maybe I should take him back to the shelter with me until he woke up. I could tuck him in next to the fluffle.
I stood with my tiny bundle as carefully as I could, making sure to keep him wrapped inside my coat with me. Once I had him secure, I carried him back to the shelter.
Trixie opened the door with her mouth, and I took him right to the back room.
“Trixie, can you get the new dog bed that was just donated? Yes, that one. Just drag it over there next to the fluffle. Yes, perfect.”
I placed Tiny Dude on the bed I’d been planning to give to the pregnant cat who would be joining us that evening, but I figured she wouldn’t mind as long as I washed it before giving it to her.
I rearranged him until his small body was curled up inside the bed. It was a perfect fit for him. Without thinking, I reached out to stroke his cheek. It was a mistake, because once I started, I didn’t want to stop.
I forced myself to move away from him because touching strangers in their sleep was an invasion of privacy, but it took more effort to stop than I was proud of.
I gave myself the stink-eye for my uncharacteristic action and then turned my attention to my four-legged companion. “Thanks, Trix, you’re the best.” I pulled a treat from my pocket and tossed it in her direction. She snapped it out of the air and had it swallowed before her paws hit the floor.
Trixie stood watch over our new friend while I fetched him a blanket. After I tucked it around him, she gave it a final tug to show that my efforts hadn’t been up to her standards.
Once my human bunny was settled, Trixie helped me feed the rest of our friends. I know it sounds like I’m just saying she helped me to be nice, but Trixie really did help. She opened the door to the storeroom with her mouth, dragged out bags of dog food, cat food, and rabbit food, and put them in the places I needed them to be. My job was to open the bags and dole out portions to all of our friends.
I didn’t know what breed Trixie was. I’d never seen anything quite like her. Her sleek night-black fur, unreal level of intelligence, and large, lanky body type didn’t fit any single category of dog breed, so I assumed she was probably a mix of multiple ones. But something about her made me feel like she was more than that.
Something truly special.
Trixie wasn’t a shelter dog. She was her own dog and came and went as she pleased. Not that I hadn’t tried to put her in the kennel with the other dogs, but she’d always managed to find her way out the moment my back was turned.
So I let her do her thing. She wasn’t hurting anyone, and she could clearly take care of herself. She also seemed to think she needed to take care of me too.
That was why I wasn’t surprised when she went into full-on protective mode when a small, angry man barreled into the room and snarled, “What did you do with him?” He produced two long-bladed knives seemingly from nowhere, and I could see the tell-tale shadow of darkness around his body. Whenever I saw a person carrying such a heavy shadow, I knew it meant trouble.
Trixie snarled back, and instinctively, I put my body between the angry ball of barely leashed violence and my human bunny. Bunnies and knives didn’t belong anywhere near one another.
All the cats in their cages began to hiss, and the kennel in the next room exploded into a cacophony of furious barks and yips. We were all family at the shelter. No one messed with one of ours, and Angry Tiny Guy didn’t know what he’d just stepped in.
“We don’t allow weapons here,” I said far more calmly than I felt. The knives were really pissing me off, but anger wouldn’t deescalate anything.
The cats and dogs could take care of themselves, but I had bunnies here, human and furred. They had to be protected at all costs. “Take them outside and leave them in the flowerpot under the window. When you come back inside, we can talk.”
“I’m not leaving here without my brother.” The knives didn’t waver, and if anything, the small man’s voice became even more violent. “I know he’s here. I tracked him to this location. Give him to me now, or this entire place will be washed in red.”
“If you’re talking about who I think you’re talking about, I can’t give him to you like this.” I knew the man was after my human bunny, but my bunny had chosen me to sleep on, which meant that, on some level, he’d trusted me to take care of him.
I wouldn’t betray that trust, so I said, “If he’s really your brother, would you want him to see you like this?”
There was a pause, and the man’s face became less fierce with a touch of uncertainty. “He’s seen me like this before. It won’t be a surprise.”
I didn’t know my human bunny. For all I knew, his personality was light years from my impression of him, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that he was a soft, precious thing to be treasured and kept safe. The man in front of me didn’t give off the impression of safety.
Protective, yes. But safe? No. Angry Tiny Guy was as far from safe as anyone I’d ever met, and Trixie and the rest of my animal family agreed with me. He might have had knives, but they wouldn’t be able to counter the countless claws and fangs we had on our side.
When the door to the kennel burst open, and a dozen or so angry canines spilled out, I could see that Angry Tiny Guy finally realized it as well.
“What do you want?” Angry Tiny Guy asked warily. The knives in his hands lowered an inch.
“Put your weapons in the flowerpot under the window outside, then come back inside and we can talk.”
“If you hurt him…”
