Busy as a Beaver Read online

  Busy as a Beaver

  Willow Bay Witches #8

  Samantha Silver

  Blueberry Books Press

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Epilogue

  Also by Samantha Silver

  About the Author

  Chapter 1

  “It’s like his butt turns into a water gun every time he farts.”

  Yup, just another normal day at the vet clinic.

  “How long has this been happening?”

  The owner of the ‘water gun’ in question was a large black lab named Cheeseburger, though he went by ‘Burg’ most of the time, after his owner brought him home as a puppy and he promptly managed to climb onto a chair and grab a McDonald’s cheeseburger off the dining table and run off with it.

  Now, however, Carol was worried. She was in her early fifties, with curly brown hair that was just starting to go gray, and her brown eyes were wide as she stroked Burg soothingly. “Since last night,” she replied.

  “Come on, she could have described it a bit more elegantly than that,” Burg complained, and I smiled. Obviously, in front of their owners, I couldn’t reply to the animals. I figured it would lose me most of my clientele pretty quickly. Not to mention probably get me locked up in an asylum.

  “Have you gone to the beach recently?”

  “Yes, I was there all of yesterday morning with him picking up trash. So many people leave their junk everywhere these days. I thought I’d get rid of some of it and get some exercise in as well.”

  “Good, thank you for doing that,” I replied. “Were you keeping a close eye on Burg? Was he in the water a lot?”

  “She doesn’t need to keep an eye on me. I’m a grown dog, and I was having fun.”

  Carol managed a grin. “He certainly was. He’s a lab, after all. Loves the water more than anything. So no, I wasn’t really watching him. I just let him off his leash and he more or less followed me the whole way along the water.”

  “That’s because the water is way more interesting than the land,” Burg explained. “It moves!”

  “So he probably drank a decent amount of it?”

  “Almost certainly,” Carol said.

  “Of course! It was there, why wouldn’t I?”

  I nodded. “Alright. Well, he almost certainly drank way too much seawater.”

  “Is that bad?”

  “It’s not great, and in the future if you’re going to do the same thing again, I’d try to prevent him from actually drinking much water, if possible. He’s dehydrated, which is what’s causing the, um, squirting. Generally, excessive salt water intake causes diarrhea, so to be honest, it could be worse.”

  Carol gave me an embarrassed look. “Thank you so much.”

  “Not a problem. If you do take him back to the beach, make sure he’s not drinking too much salt water, and keep a fresh water bottle on hand as well so he stays hydrated, since he’s almost certainly going to get some salt water in his system. Make sure he’s drinking a lot of regular water and if he’s not better in forty-eight hours, please bring him back in.”

  “Of course.” Carol nodded. “Thanks again.”

  “And don’t worry. This is far from the most embarrassing case I’ve seen this week,” I assured Carol on her way out. She gave me a grateful smile as she made her way towards Karen, the receptionist.

  “There’s an emergency patient for you in room two,” she said to me quietly as I slipped behind her to grab a patient file. I raised my eyebrows and went into the back area of the vet clinic, washing my hands quickly before seeing my emergency patient.

  “Poor Burg,” Sophie, my vet assistant, laughed as she prepared some samples that were going to be picked up later and taken to the lab. “I heard he had the squirts.”

  “Well, it could be worse,” I shrugged. “Generally, it comes out worse than just water when animals that have taken in too much seawater fart.”

  “True,” Sophie replied solemnly. “What do you want me to do when I’ve finished up here?”

  “I have an emergency in room two,” I said. “I might need you there, so I’ll call you. If not, can you get the back set up for my spay this afternoon?”

  “Sure thing,” Sophie nodded. “Good luck in there.”

  I nodded and steeled myself for what was about to come. Being a vet, I never knew what was going to greet me when I stepped through the door, and that uncertainty was even stronger when it was an emergency case.

  “Gloria!” I exclaimed when I saw my patient. “And Buster. What’s wrong?”

  Both of them honestly looked absolutely awful. Buster lay on the table, blood oozing from a wound in his side. Gloria herself had a black eye and a large red gash across her face, and her hair was completely mussed up, like she’d just gotten out of bed.

  “I’m fine, don’t worry about me,” Gloria said. “Take care of Buster. He saved my life.”

  “Right,” I said, calling to the back for Sophie to come and help. “What happened to him?”

  “There was an intruder in my home,” Gloria replied. “I was out getting groceries, and Buster had been outside all day. When I got home, he came up to the car, so I let him in as well. There was a man in there; he attacked me. Buster immediately went after him, and he did such a wonderful job of protecting me, but the man threw him against the side of a cabinet. I managed to scare the man off, but Buster’s hurt. Please, help him.”

  “Of course,” I replied as Sophie came into the room. Always the professional, she didn’t react at all to seeing Bee’s best friend bundled up in here like this. She immediately jumped into action.

  “I’ll get the X-ray machine ready,” she said, going straight back into the back of the clinic.

  “Good,” I said with a nod as I examined Buster’s wounds. “We’re going to take him to the back, Gloria. Why don’t you go to the medical clinic, and when we’re finished with Buster he can stay here until you come back? You need to take care of yourself, too.”

  “Not until I know my Buster’s ok,” Gloria replied.

  I looked her up and down. She had obviously been hurt, and she needed to be taken care of.

  “Look, why don’t I text you updates as I have them?” I said. “You seriously need to be looked at. Tell Karen to take my car and drive you to the clinic. Please.”

  Gloria considered my words for a moment. “You’ll text me as soon as you know anything?”

  “Of course. Straight away; you’ll be the first to know.”

  “Fine.”

  “Thank you,” I said, taking a towel and carefully scooping Buster up. “We’re going to do everything we can for Buster. He’s basically family at this point.”

  Gloria’s eyes welled up with tears as she thanked me and headed back out into the lobby. I couldn’t believe what had happened to her. A home invasion! Here in Willow Bay, of all places. It was absolutely unheard of.

  But for now, I had a cat who was basically family to attend to.

  “What happened?” Sophie asked as I brought Buster to the back area on a towel.

  “Home invasion,” I replied. “Buster tried to stop the man from attacking Gloria and got thrown into a cabinet. Buster, can you
tell me where it hurts?”

  “Everywhere,” the cat replied in a piteous voice, and my heart broke for him. But I was a professional, and the best thing I could do for him now was find out why.

  “Alright, does anywhere in particular hurt more?”

  “My leg. My front right leg.”

  “Ok, we’re going to X-ray the front right leg first,” I said to Sophie. “While you do that, I’m going to get him some painkillers.”

  Sophie nodded and started instructing Buster to stay still while she got him into position. I made my way to the medicine cabinet, unlocked it, and pulled out some NSAIDs and opioids for cats. Buster was obviously in so much pain that opioids were definitely on the table, and by combining their use with NSAIDs I could use lower dosages for both painkillers, which was safer for cats.

  Double-checking I had the dosages right—half a pill of one and a quarter pill of the other—I grabbed a couple of pill pockets, stuffed them with the medicine, and brought them over to Buster, who ate them happily.

  “Ew, what did you put in that?” he asked, scrunching his little face as I heard the familiar beep of the X-ray machine.

  “Medicine. It’ll make you feel better soon.”

  “I can’t believe you’d betray me like that. Don’t you know I’m a hero?”

  It was no wonder Bee and Buster were best friends. They were just like two peas in a pod.

  “I know. And trust me, that was the best treat I could possibly give you. Come on, let me grab you a different one to get the taste out of your mouth.”

  “I’d like some of those sushi treats Bee tells me you keep here,” he said weakly before putting his head back down, and I couldn’t help but smile. Even though he was in a ton of pain, he knew exactly what he wanted.

  I made my way to the box of treats and got him out a few—KittiSushi was a Portland-based company that used the run-off from sushi restaurants, the stuff they would normally throw out, like fish skins, and dried them out to make cat treats. I took out a piece for Buster and brought it over to him, and he munched it up happily.

  “That’s better,” he said softly, almost to himself.

  “Good. Now stay there while I go have a look at your leg,” I said, making my way over to the machine. A quick look at the result told me everything I needed to know: Buster had a hairline fracture in his ulna. That was good news: as far as kitty ‘arm’ bones went, the ulna was less weight-bearing than the radius, which would have been a more difficult fracture to deal with. I knew I could try to put a cast on Buster, but in my experience, cats were incredibly skilled at getting out of casts, and he would need to be sedated to put one on. A splint was another option, but I figured that in this case, a prescription of bed rest for a few weeks while the bones healed was what was on the table.

  Being an active cat, Buster wouldn’t be happy about it, but it would have to be done. I made my way back over to him to give him a more thorough examination. After all, while we had discovered one problem, that didn’t mean there weren’t more lurking inside of him. Hitting that cabinet had obviously been traumatic.

  After a thorough inspection, including a full ultrasound to check for internal bleeding, I discovered that apart from the broken leg and the bleeding wound on his side, Buster was going to be ok. Sophie helped me bandage up his wound, and I went to text Gloria the results.

  Thank you, dear. I’m at the clinic now. I should be released later to come and get him.

  Sure thing. We’ll come and see you as soon as the clinic closes.

  “How is mom doing?” Buster asked weakly as he saw me texting.

  “She’s at the hospital. She’s going to be ok, and so are you,” I told him. “That was very brave, what you did to save her.”

  “It didn’t work, though. He still hit her, and he was asking questions.”

  “Like what?”

  “‘Where is it?’ He kept asking that. ‘Where is it? Where’s the money?’”

  My heart broke for Buster. “Did he find any?”

  “No. Mom doesn’t keep money in the house. She does have jewelry, but I don’t know if he got to it or not. He kept hitting her, and that was when I jumped in. After he threw me against the cabinet, he looked around for the gun, and while he was going that, Mom just grabbed me and ran out the door as fast as she could.”

  “Good,” I told Buster. “You may have saved Gloria’s life.”

  “That sounds about right. I am descended from the ferocious hunters of old, after all.”

  I neglected to point out that I had once seen Buster and Bee lying together in a ray of sunshine in the lobby for a full six hours without moving an inch.

  “I’m glad you saved her, and I’m glad you’re both going to be ok,” I replied instead. After all, it was the truth. I gave him a few soft pats on the head before loading him up into one of the crates we kept animals in until Gloria could come back and get him.

  Chapter 2

  As soon as the vet clinic closed for the night, Sophie and I packed everything away, got ready for the next day, and decided to stop by the clinic to see how Gloria was doing.

  “I’m going to keep you here for now,” I told Buster. “However, if it turns out Gloria’s spending the night in the clinic, I’m going to come back and take you home, ok?”

  “Why can’t I come with you?” Buster whined.

  “Cats aren’t allowed in the hospital.”

  “Please. I’m cleaner than most humans.”

  “That may be true, but some humans are allergic to you, and it’s not fair to bring a cat into a situation where they’re already not feeling their best.”

  “Isn’t that what you call Darwinism? Anyone who’s allergic to such a majestic creature as myself should be considered inferior anyway.”

  I smiled as I rolled my eyes. Cats certainly had an interesting way of viewing the world.

  “Maybe, but I don’t plan on getting myself kicked out of there, either, for sneaking you in. So stay here and I’ll come back later, either with Gloria or to come and get you.”

  “Fine, but I’m starving here.”

  “You’ll get dinner after I get back.”

  Buster stalked to the back of the cage he was in and turned his back to me, obviously unimpressed with this turn of events.

  Well, he was going to have to get over it. As much as I wanted to sneak him in to see Gloria, I was all too aware that the rules were there for a reason.

  Ten minutes later Sophie and I drove up to the Willow Bay Medical Centre. It wasn’t a full-sized hospital—our small town definitely didn’t warrant that kind of infrastructure—but because of the frequent surfing tourism in the region, and some mountain biking as well, we did have a bit of a miniature emergency room with ten beds, X-ray capabilities, and a CT machine. Anyone requiring more complex emergency care was taken by ambulance or helicopter to Portland, but basic emergency needs could be taken care of here.

  We found Gloria in one of the emergency beds, having her blood pressure taken by a nurse. Her face was covered with a bandage but she smiled as soon as she saw us, her brown eyes shining with questions.

  “How is my little Buster?” she asked as soon as Sophie and I made our way towards her.

  “He’s doing great,” I said to her with a smile. “He’ll have to be kept inside with minimal exercise for at least a month, possibly longer. We’ll re-do the X-rays in three weeks to see how the fracture is healing. Other than that, just make sure to change the bandage on his side daily, and he’ll be fine. How about you? How are you holding up?”

  “So much better now that I know he’s going to be alright,” Gloria said, leaning back into the pillows on the bed.

  “Have you called the police yet?” Sophie asked.

  “One of the nurses did, about ten minutes ago,” Gloria replied. “They wanted to make sure I was taken care of first, but it looks like I’m going to be fine. No broken bones for me, luckily, just a few scrapes and bruises and possibly a very minor concussion from whe
re he hit me over the head.”

  Right on cue, Chief Gary poked his head around the corner. “Hello, Gloria. I got a call that you needed to speak to me?” He glanced over at Sophie and me. “I hope these two haven’t been trying to get in on this investigation before I have.”

  “Of course not,” Sophie replied. “We just came to update Gloria on Buster’s status. He’s got a broken leg, thanks to the monster who did this to her.”

  “Did what to you, exactly?” Chief Gary asked Gloria, pulling out a notepad. “Would you like these two young ladies to leave?”

  “No, it’s fine,” Gloria said. “I like having them around. After all, they’re the ones who saved my Buster. I went out to get groceries this morning, and when I left I let Buster into the yard. He didn’t seem to want to come to the vet clinic today, so I just let him hang around outside while I did my shopping. We do that a lot, after all. I came back around one in the afternoon, and as soon as he saw the car, Buster came running up to it. He was meowing at me, so he must have known something was wrong, but being the silly old woman I am, I just ignored him. As soon as I entered, I knew there was something wrong. I could feel a presence, but before I managed to run, the man came into the room and drew his gun on me. He asked me where it was, where the money was.”

  “Do you keep any money in the house?” Chief Gary asked, and Gloria shook her head vehemently.

  “No, absolutely not. I had a twenty in my purse, but that was it. So I offered that to him, and he called me an idiot and hit me across the face with the base of the gun. That’s what caused this,” she continued, bringing her fingers gingerly to the bandages that covered her face.

  “He asked me again where the money was, and I told him I didn’t have any. He stood over me, and I could have sworn he was going to shoot me, and that was when Buster came flying out of nowhere. He clawed at the man and he shouted in surprise. He dropped his gun, and when he did it went off, but I don’t think the bullet hit anything. He also managed to get a hold of Buster eventually and threw him against the cabinet. When he was free, he looked around for the gun, and in the time it took him to find it, I got up, grabbed Buster, and ran out the door. I didn’t look to see if he came after me. I don’t know if he searched my house. I just took Buster straight over to Angela.”