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Except, he was cold, and there really was a cat who needed help. Or at least it sounded like it.
Another long, painful meow, a sound that made him want to run to the corner and help the poor cat, split the air, and he backed up a step.
“Wow. It’s much louder with the door open,” Eleanor said, still a little out of breath.
“Do you have your phone?”
She got it out without saying anything, switched the flashlight on, and he led her to the corner.
She knelt down, and he slid over a little so she could have an unobscured view. Out of the two of them, he was assuming she had more experience in cats who were giving birth.
“Wow. That’s a huge kitten.” Her voice was low and soft. As he looked, he could see that a kitten’s head was partially out, but the rest of the body seemed to be stuck.
And even though this kitten was still wet with its fur smashed to its head, it was much, much bigger than the other kitten that had already been born and was dry and puffy, nosing around its mama’s belly for its first meal.
“No wonder she’s howling so much.”
She had barely said that when the cat let out another low, keening cry. She got up, shifting like she was uncomfortable, trying to bend around to lick the kitten that was partially out.
“Is it safe to pull kittens?” he asked.
“I have no idea. But it kind of feels like we need to. I’m not sure she can have it on her own.” Eleanor’s voice was filled with concern as she reached her hand out to put a finger on the head of the cat.
The cat must have been semi-tame, at least, or else she was in so much distress that she didn’t care. Franklin thought touching her was rather brave of Eleanor.
“Do you know this cat?” he asked.
“No. But she kind of looks like the one that was hanging around the barn while we were getting ready to decorate. I saw it several times, but I never stopped work to pet it. I do believe the other girls did though.”
“I see.”
“Sometimes barn cats can be pretty wild, but this one seems like a pet that maybe got pregnant and someone didn’t want to deal with it. That happens a lot when you have a farm. People drop off their unwanted animals like somehow you’re better suited to take care of them than they are.”
He didn’t say anything, but that seemed counterintuitive. From what he understood, farmers often had less money than regular people. Sure, they had the ground, but a cat still needed shots and to be fixed, and that cost money.
He shoved those thoughts aside without resolving them as she put two more fingers out and stroked down the head of the cat.
“She’s letting me touch her okay. I... I’m not sure that it’s going to hurt the kitten if I grab a hold of it, but it might already be dead.”
“I know nothing about this.” He felt compelled to tell her that, even though she probably already knew it. It wasn’t that he knew Eleanor that well. He really didn’t. But he knew of her, and he assumed she recognized him since she had come over to ask him to dance.
That was an awkwardness that he didn’t want to have to deal with, but they probably would need to face it before the night was through.
But not now.
The cat gave a keening cry again and shifted, dumping off the first kitten that had been nosing around trying to find a place to nurse.
“I want to help her, but the idea of grabbing a hold of the kitten and pulling is...not a good one,” he mumbled.
“That’s not my favorite idea either, but I don’t know of any others. I think from kind of watching, that as she pushes, I haven’t seen the kitten move out at all. It makes me feel like that’s our only choice.”
“Do you want me to do it?”
“I guess I would prefer that, but I think I’d better. I probably have a little bit more experience with animals than you do. Unless you have experience that I don’t know about?” She looked at him, and even though it was dark behind the glare of the phone flashlight, he could see the hopeful look in her eyes.
“No. I have no experience.”
“That’s what I thought.” She let out a sigh, and then she said, “I’m going to turn the flashlight off for a minute. Just as the door opened, my sister texted me and wanted to make sure that I was okay. I better let her know that I’m good, and then we’ll get to work on this.” She gave a humorless laugh. “And then we’ll work on our other problems.”
