“I’ll just get to work.” April poured herself a cup of coffee and felt like she was floating on air as she carried it over to the shelter side of the business. She could hear the two elderly ladies talking about the music shows Stella and Vivien had attended and the little nickel-and-dime store in town where they had tried on hats and taken each other’s pictures.

“Hello, my pretty babies.” She greeted the animals. “How has no one adopted a single one of you since I left yesterday? Taking care of you is so much fun, I’d do this for free,” she said as she took a sip of her coffee. Then she set it down on a nearby table and opened the first cage. “Someone is going to come along and take you home one of these days. I’ll miss you, but when that happens, you won’t have to stay in a cage all day.”

“Vivien and I talk to them, too,” Stella said as she came into the shelter room. “I’ll start cleaning this end of the cat cages, and we’ll meet in the middle, if that’s all right with you.”

April must have had a quizzical look on her face, because Stella grinned and said, “You’re the boss, honey.”

“No, Maudie is the boss,” April argued.

“Not beyond that door over there.” Stella pointed. “Maudie says that you’re in charge of this place.”

“Oh, my!” April gasped. “This is just my second week.” She felt like a little girl on Christmas morning.

“I got to tell you, girl, this is the cleanest I’ve ever seen this place.” Stella took a small yellow kitten from a cage and set it on the floor. “You’re doing an amazing job.”

“Thanks,” April beamed. “And I love doing it.”

Stella took the water and food dishes out of the cage first, cleaned them well, and refilled them. Then she put in a clean kitty pad. “I expect when Vivien feels up to coming with me that Maudie will want you to spend those days working on the computer stuff. She really hates that. Lucy would be proud of you.”

“I don’t know about that.” A shadow passed over her happiness when she thought of her grandmother.

“Honey, don’t judge Lucy too badly. She had a rough row to hoe.” Stella stopped long enough to hold and pet the little yellow kitten before she put it back in the cage.

“I know,” April said. “I got in on doing some of that hoeing.”

Stella clucked like an old mother hen gathering in her chicks. “Me and Vivien tried to help her, but she was bitter toward Everett by the time your mama was born, and even worse when you came along. He wasn’t a good man,” Stella whispered as if she was sharing something that would bar her chances of ever getting into heaven.