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Bronte was also the reason he’d built stables a few feet away from the main building when horses started showing up malnourished and on the brink of death.
“How are the kids handling cleaning day?”
Gavin shook his head, smirking as he crossed his arms over his chest. “Some of them whined about not being able to play instead, but they’re fine.”
“Any of them seem promising to bring on full-time?”
While Gavin might own and run the shelter, Bronte was the one that thought about the long-term effects of the business. She was always coming up with ideas to raise funds, ways to increase adoptions and how to entice people to volunteer at the shelter for a week or more.
“Maybe.”
Bronte nudged him her sneakers and Gavin swatted her leg away. “What’s going on with you?”
“Nothing.”
“So you’re not angry or moody or whatever right now?”
“Just sleep deprived, that’s all,” he grumbled, rubbing a hand over his face. He was more than sleep deprived, but if he told Bronte about Ginny and everything from their past, she would make it her mission to get involved.
“So…is now a bad time to tell you that we’ve exceeded the number of animals we’re allowed to keep?”
Gavin groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose. “By how much?”
“Twelve percent, at the very least.”
“Fuck.” Pushing off the fence, Gavin dropped his hands to his hips and looked out at the dogs running around happily. He thought he’d been doing a good job of keeping the numbers down, of ensuring they got adopted and found their forever homes. Apparently not. “Our last adoption drive was a shit show, so what else can we do?”
“Maybe we need to be more aggressive about it.”
Looking back at Bronte, Gavin frowned. “We’re notforcingpeople to adopt animals, Bronte.”
“Oooh, using yourboss voicedoesn’t scare me. It’s sexy though,” she replied with a smirk.
Gavin rolled his eyes and tipped his head back. “What do you suggest then?”
“Couple of thoughts,” Bronte started and he heard her huff before the sound of her feet hitting the ground reached him. Then Bronte was standing beside him. “We see if any of our volunteers have ideas or suggestions. Ask your family for some more help or maybe even pay someone to organize an event for us or something.”
Nodding, Gavin considered those ideas. His family would jump at the chance to help, but he needed something for them to help with. Even with the Rhodes family name being well known amongst pet owners and folks who owned farms, it wasn’t always easy to have a successful adoption drive. Their last one had been a gathering of people who ate all their food and drank all the free booze, not even paying attention to the animals they were there to see.
“Ask the crew for their thoughts and suggestions, you and I can go through them over the weekend and then we’ll speak to my folks.”
Bronte acknowledged his suggestion by bumping her shoulder against his. But when she stayed silent, Gavin glanced at her and arched an eyebrow. “What?”
“We also need to talk about the Henderson puppies.”
A defeated sigh escaped him and Gavin nodded. The mother and pups that had been abandoned before Christmas weren’t doing so good. They’d rescued eight puppies, but only five survived and the mother was dehydrated and hypothermic. Spencer had come by and made sure that everyone was going to be okay, but it was still touch and go for a while. Four of the puppies were getting healthy, while the fifth one was still struggling.
“Finish up here and we can check on them,” he told Bronte and then headed back inside. Blinking to let his eyes adjust to the duller lights indoors, Gavin flipped his cap around, adjusting the snapback against his hair. One of the volunteers was at the front desk, filling up paperwork, so he walked to the back to check on everyone else. The cages looked clean and the whole room smelled better than it had that morning.
“You guys done?” Their heads bobbed in unison and Gavin smiled, eyes going over the work they’d done. “Looks good, you can head on outside and help round up the dogs.”
Everyone cheered as they filed out of the room and Gavin followed them out. Bronte appeared around the corner, cradling a puppy that fit into one hand. It was the tiniest of the litter and other than the slow rising and falling of its body, it looked like it wasn’t going to make it. Rubbing the puppy’s head with his thumb, Gavin sighed. This was why he never wanted to be a vet, because seeing animals in this kind of distress was painful. They couldn’t eventellyou what was wrong or how they were feeling, you just had to figure it out for them.
“I’ll make an appointment with Spencer.”
Gavin smirked at Bronte’s obvious crush on his brother. “Ask him to come here.”
Her lips turned down. “Why can’t I take her to the hospital?”
