Page 22 of A New Family at Puddleduck Farm (Puddleduck Farm #6)

One afternoon, a few days after they’d seen the lights at Blenheim Palace, Phoebe was in reception at Puddleduck Vets when a man dressed in jeans and a ski jacket called in to ask if they had any kittens needing a home.

Phoebe was instantly on the alert. Maggie had always been wary of rehoming animals too close to Christmas.

‘The last thing we want is for them to become unwanted presents,’ she’d said to Phoebe and Natasha plenty of times.

‘So we need to be extra thorough with home checks if we’re anywhere near the festive season.

Make sure people are rehoming them for the right reasons.

Also that they’re planning on keeping the animal themselves and not giving it to someone else. ’

‘You’re not actually in the right place,’ Phoebe told the prospective kitten re-homer. ‘We’re Puddleduck Vets. You need Puddleduck Pets. You need to go back across the yard and you’ll see a sign on the barn door. You should find someone in there. Ask for Natasha.’

‘Cheers, love.’

As soon as he’d left, Phoebe phoned Natasha’s mobile and told her about Mr Ski Jacket. ‘He seemed OK, but there was something just a little bit off about him. I can’t really put my finger on it, but I wanted to warn you.’

‘Thanks. Forewarned is forearmed. I’ll keep an eye out.’

Phoebe disconnected the call but then she started second-guessing herself. Perhaps she was being oversensitive. She was quite tired. The man was probably very nice.

She got on with afternoon surgery and put him out of her mind. It was great being back at work three days a week. It was enough time for her to feel she knew what was going on in her practice but it meant she could spend a lot of time with Lily too.

At the end of that day, they’d finished tidying up and Phoebe was about to lock up when Natasha appeared on the other side of the glass door. She opened it and peered round. ‘Hi, Phoebe, I was hoping I’d catch you.’

Her face was grim.

‘Is everything OK?’ Phoebe was instantly on full alert. As were Marcus and Jenna, both of whom had been about to leave.

‘Well, yes, it is, but I just wanted to give you an update on that bloke you sent across earlier.’

‘The one who wanted a kitten?’ Phoebe had almost forgotten him.

‘Kittens, plural,’ Natasha informed them.

‘That’s what alerted me that there was something fishy going on.

He said his daughter had recently lost two cats to old age and he was keen to replace them for her.

He said he was quite happy to take more if we had more because she loved cats so much and she’d got plenty of room because she has a farm.

That’s when alarm bells started ringing.

Not many people want to rehome more than two kittens.

And I didn’t buy the daughter story. Most farms have cats already – they often have ferals, and they’re certainly not looking for more. ’

‘We have three tabby kittens, don’t we?’ Phoebe pricked up her ears.

‘Yeah, we do,’ Marcus confirmed. ‘There were four in the litter but one’s already reserved.’

‘He must have already been nosing around in the cattery and seen them,’ Natasha continued.

‘Anyway, like I said, I didn’t buy the daughter story.

It didn’t ring true, so I told him we didn’t have any.

Then he started arguing and saying he thought I was mistaken.

He’d definitely seen some very pretty kittens that he was sure his daughter would love.

I let him take me down there to point them out, and then I said I thought they were already reserved but I’d check if he could let me have his contact details. He gave me a mobile number and went.’

Marcus looked at her in concern. ‘What happened next?’

‘I thought I’d do a spot of research so I looked at cats for sale online and would you believe he had an advert running for three Savannah kittens for sale.

Same mobile number as he’d given me. There were photos and everything, and get this…

’ Natasha bristled with indignation. ‘The photos were of our kittens. It looked from the photos like he’d even got them out of the pen.

I don’t know how he managed that. It couldn’t have been today.

I’ve been here all day. I’d have seen him hanging around. ’

‘Maybe it wasn’t him who took the photos,’ Phoebe said.

‘We’ve had a few people interested in those kittens because they’re so pretty with that silvery fur.

On Saturday one of the volunteers got them out to show to a woman who’s rehomed from us before.

I think she was taking photos. She might have put them on her social media.

Who knows? She probably thought she was helping. ’

Marcus swore under his breath and then apologised.

‘Don’t apologise.’ Phoebe bit her lip. ‘I’d like to wring that bloke’s neck. How dare he? And they’re not Savannah kittens anyway, they’re tabby.’

Jenna intervened. ‘Savannahs are bigger but the colour isn’t that different.

You could get your tabbies and your Savannahs mixed up if you didn’t know the difference.

Tabbies are more stripy and Savannahs are spotty but they can be similar, especially when they’re that silvery colour that ours are.

They can look the same to the uninitiated.

Although the price tag’s not. How much was he trying to sell them for? ’

‘Five hundred pounds each,’ Natasha said. ‘Look, I’ll show you.’ She got out her phone and scrolled through it. A couple of minutes later she shook her head. ‘The advert’s gone. He must have known I was onto him.’

‘Thank goodness you were.’ There was a sour taste in Phoebe’s mouth. ‘I wonder if there’s anything we can do. I’m not sure it’s a police matter, is it? Has he actually broken any laws?’

‘Passing off ordinary kittens as a specialist breed might be fraud,’ Marcus said. ‘But I can’t see the police being in a hurry to rush out and arrest him. Besides which, we don’t even have any evidence, do we? If the advert’s gone. Did you screenshot it?’

‘No, unfortunately, I didn’t. I was too cross, babe.

’ Natasha’s dark eyes flashed with annoyance.

‘I wish I’d looked as soon as he’d gone but I didn’t have time.

It’s been mad busy today. I don’t think he even gave me his real name, annoyingly.

When I asked him he said Jukes, or it may have been Dukes.

I asked him to repeat it but he said no need, he’d be answering the phone anyway. ’

‘Don’t beat yourself up,’ Marcus said. ‘It’s brilliant that you thought something was off.’

‘I might not have done if Phoebe hadn’t been suspicious.’ Natasha sighed.

‘Teamwork,’ Phoebe said. ‘I’m with Marcus.

Don’t beat yourself up. I’m not sure there is anything we can do.

But I’ll have a word with Maggie and see if she’s come across anything like this before.

I’ll also give Jade at Duck Pond Rescue a ring.

It’s definitely worth getting the word out to other sanctuaries in the area. ’

She bit her lip. The day had taken on a darker tone.

The fact that someone had come into the rescue pretending they wanted to rehome kittens, when their plan was to sell them off online, made her feel sick.

She and Natasha and Maggie and everyone else who worked at Puddleduck Pets did everything they could to ensure their animals went to really good homes.

Selling animals online, especially just before Christmas, was the opposite of that.

Sam was equally horrified when she told him about it.

‘As soon as Lily’s in bed, I’m going to phone round the local rescues,’ she told him.

‘I’ll help you. I’ll have a word with Ma and Pa tomorrow. We can put the word out with customers too.’

Phoebe didn’t manage to get hold of Jade that night, but she left a message, and the following afternoon, Jade phoned her back.

She was as horrified as Phoebe had been.

‘Although we shouldn’t be that surprised, should we? There are scammers everywhere these days. Especially at this time of year.’

‘I know. I’m hoping he was a one-off, although we have had some kittens going missing in this area too. Which could be a coincidence, I suppose. Have you heard of anything like that?’

‘Not directly, no, but you’re right. Maybe there is a link. No smoke without fire. If I hear of anything suspicious around here, I’ll let you know.’

‘Thanks. We’ve been trying to work out if he was actually doing anything illegal. I don’t mean by pretending the kittens were something they weren’t, I mean by pretending he was rehoming animals, but then selling them on.’

‘Well, that I can help you with. Have you heard of Lucy’s Law? It was brought in around Covid time. It bans the third-party sale of puppies and kittens, which makes it illegal to sell them before a certain age unless you’re the breeder. So he’d definitely have been breaking that.’

‘Thanks, yes, that does ring a bell.’

‘But at least he didn’t get away with it.

And nasty though it is, it does sound like he was just someone who saw the opportunity for a scam and went for it.

He can’t have been that bright either. Because one of his potential buyers might have spotted they weren’t buying a Savannah and reported him to the police. ’

‘By which time he’d have been long gone.’

‘Yes, that’s true. Well, hopefully it’s a one-off. Thanks for letting me know anyway. I’ll pass it on to everyone I speak to.’ Jade paused. ‘How’s motherhood going?’

‘Brilliant, fantastic. Tiring.’

‘Every new mother says that, I reckon,’ Jade said happily.

Phoebe could hear the smile in her voice. ‘Did the lurcher puppies get good homes?’ she asked, glad they were back on the positive.

‘Oh, yes. They got the best. Ben’s got one of them.

He’s Finn’s little boy. Finn’s dad has one, and Dawn, my right-hand woman, has the other one.

So they’re all very close to home and I shall see them all regularly too which is brilliant.

Two of them have been named after artists, Banksy and Monet.

Ben named them. Although he’s called his little girl Chocko, which does actually really suit her. ’

‘That’s fantastic news. If ever you’re anywhere near this way, I’d love to see one or any of them.’

‘If ever we’re over that way, we will be sure to pop by.’

It was great to end the conversation on a high, and Phoebe was relieved that Jade, like her, had thought that Mr Smarmy Ski Jacket was just an opportunist scammer, rather than anything more sinister.

She updated Natasha and her staff at the practice, and she was keen to compare notes with Sam. But he was working at Hendrie’s. They could catch up when he came in.

Phoebe took Lily back to the house, where they played a game of peekaboo. Lily was getting brighter and more vocal by the day. And although Phoebe knew she wasn’t going to start saying proper words for a few more months yet, she’d bought a game to get her off on the right footing.

The game involved flashcards with pictures of animals and people on them, and Lily loved it. She mostly shouted out Doh, or Moh, or Bo at the different cards but she was quite consistent.

Sam had said he was sure Lily’s first word would be ‘donkey’, but Phoebe was determined to make sure Lily’s first word was ‘Daddy’, and she’d decided it was never too soon to practise.

By the time they’d finished the game, it was gone six and Sam still wasn’t back from work.

That was unusual. He was rarely late, and if he planned to be he usually messaged or called her.

Maybe he’d had to run an errand for his parents which had taken longer than expected.

Phoebe decided she wouldn’t start worrying just yet.

Sam would probably walk in full of apologies any minute.