Page 6

SIX

I carried a broom into Obie's bay, hoping that this would let me sweep the bits of food I tossed in yesterday without having to enter the enclosure. The hellhound instantly hid in the corner, his tail tucked between his legs, and his teeth bared.

"Just me," I said, trying to stick the broom through the bars and realising it was too thick. So much for that plan. I would have to find a different utensil to grab the pieces, maybe one of those grabbers for garbage would do the job.

While I was pondering, I noticed that there were some pieces missing. It was too sporadic for someone to have cleaned it up, so he must've eaten them.

But which ones? It was hard to see from this distance. I needed to visit maintenance and see if they would lend me a grabber. Or...

I turned the broom around and stuck the handle through the rails.

"I'm such an idiot," I muttered as I pulled piece by piece towards me. It was painstakingly slow, and I regretted just tossing everything in without thinking it through. I was paying for it now, but that was that.

Once I retrieved all the pieces, some of which had taken on an unpleasant colour and smell, I grabbed my notebook with the list of different meats and vegetables from my bag. I also put on a glove before I picked up the pieces of meat so I could identify them.

It took a while, but I managed to narrow it down. The pieces of chicken and turkey were missing and surprisingly enough, so was the carrot.

"So not a red meat eater, huh?" I said, surprised by that revelation. Especially because his regular meal had a lot of liver and beef in it. I'd have to talk to someone to get that changed to something with more poultry.

Hopefully, that would help him put on some well-needed weight. Not just that, any animal was easier to handle when their belly was full. Even the biggest, baddest royal sphinx would allow a few belly scratches if they weren't starving.

I threw all the rest of the food away while watching Obie from the corners of my eyes.

He was still glued to the corner, putting as much distance between us as possible, but he didn't have the same hostile vibe.

Whether that was because he was getting used to my presence or people in general was hard to say.

Hopefully, the more time he spent here, the more he would become used to interactions that didn't hurt him.

And if he could understand that we meant no harm, maybe we could establish a bond.

Something made his ears flick up, and he growled. I wondered what that was about until I heard footsteps, and Jacob popped his head around the corner.

"Ah, Charlotte. Just the person I was looking for," he said.

"We've decided that we're going to sedate him to take blood samples. We could try to manually restrain him, but he’s far too strong and dangerous for that.

While he's under, we'll take advantage to give him a full check-up and trim his nails. "

I nodded. "That makes sense."

"But the problem is that trimming, filing, or grinding the nails will cause sparks. So if you can figure out a way we can do it without causing a fire, that would be great."

"You can count on me," I said, sounding more confident than I felt. I had no idea how to do it, but I would just have to figure it out. Maybe if I made them wet or cut his nails under fire-resistant fabric, it would be fine.

Of course, it would be best if I could try it out, but if I could get close enough to Obie to test it, we wouldn't need to sedate him.

I looked up at Jacob. "How similar are Obie's nails to a firesteel? The ones you strike to start a fire when you go camping."

"Very similar, I think. I'm not sure about the exact composition. Why?"

"Testing purposes. I thought maybe I could do some experimenting."

He looked impressed. "Smart. We're sedating him at the end of the week."

That was soon but it gave me a few days to work out how to get Obie's nails cut down to a normal size that wouldn't make his paws curl up.

"Oh, who do I speak to to change his diet? I experimented a little and I think he's more into poultry than red meat," I said, hopeful that he wouldn't be mad at me for my initiative.

"There's no hellhound keeper, so tell Gwen," he responded.

I nodded. "I was also wondering something else. Is the old phoenix habitat still empty?" I asked. "Because if it is, maybe we could move Obie there? If his bloods are fine, at least."

Jacob hummed. "That's an interesting idea, but it's not set up for canines. The soil and enrichment are all wrong. And the barriers might not be strong enough either."

"Can't we enforce those? And I was thinking it could just be temporary, mostly to stop everyone from losing their marbles from the fire alarm going off multiple times a day."

"That's true. Let me think about it and talk to some people after my other rounds." He checked his watch and nodded. "Yeah, I have to move on. But good ideas. Keep it up."

His compliment made me quietly simmer with pride. I knew my methods could be more hands-on than some other veterinarians wanted to be, but that's how I liked it. I wanted to be closely involved with whatever animal I was working with.

Even if it meant that I spent far too much time here.