Thursday March 27, 2025

Dandy's Discovery, Scene 6 (final scene)

Welcome, I’m Mary Louisa Locke, the author of the USA Today best-selling Victorian San Francisco Mystery series and the Caelestis Science Fiction series. In this daily newsletter, I reflect on my life as an indie author trying to age gracefully. Occasionally, I will also publish some of my shorter fiction in this newsletter to read for free.

Daily Diary, Day 1667:

Brief check-in: Yesterday, and again today, very cloudy. This is my busy day with noon zoom meeting, followed by a phone meeting. Will probably not get full 60 minutes of walking in, but probably good to ease back a bit.

Today, you are getting the sixth and final scene in Dandy’s Discovery, the sixth short story in my Victorian San Francisco mystery series, and I hope you all enjoyed it. If you would like to first read the short posts I did on why I wrote this short story, and historical tidbits on both dogs and cats as pets in the Victorian era, click HERE, or HERE.

Dandy’s Discovery
by M. Louisa Locke
Copyright 2020

Scene 6:

Three weeks later, Annie and her sister-in-law Laura sat holding two of the three gray tabby kittens in their laps. Laura said, “Be careful. Their little sharp claws can snag material so easily. My mother was forever scolding me for ruining my dresses.”

Annie smiled at Laura, who had become the resident expert on kittens. Evidently, a childhood watching barn cats have litter after litter meant Laura not only knew that the kittens were about a week old when Dandy discovered them, but she also knew that when they opened their eyes, which they did a few days later, that it would take at least a week for their true eye color to show.

She had also reassured everyone that the fact that the mother cat kept using the ivy to climb in and out of the room, leaving the kittens alone for brief periods of time, didn’t mean she was a bad mother. Instead, she was hunting for food for herself, so she could properly nurse her greedy little offspring.

Annie carefully put the kitten she was holding down on the floor and said, “So you think that it will be all right to start giving the kittens away in two weeks? Mrs. Ashburton has already asked if she could have one. As you know, Emmaline has been reading to her a couple of afternoons a week, and, I gather, sold the poor woman on the idea that she definitely needed a cat. Oh, and Tilly’s aunt has agreed to take one, as well as Mr. Chapman.”

Laura laughed and said, “That was enterprising of the children to find people they know to take the cats. Did they ask for visiting privileges? However, I do know how important it was to me, when we had to give kittens away, to know they were going to good homes. But, yes, they should be ready to go in two weeks. From my experience, the mother cat is pretty fed up with them by that time. You can tell she’s started weaning them already, only nursing once or twice a day. And they are keeping down the milk and mashed-up meat and fish scraps you are giving them.”

“And you don’t mind waiting until then to start moving into this room?”

Laura had cautioned that if they attempted to move the kittens from this room, say, down to the kitchen, either the mother might abandon them or she might try to remove them from the kitchen and hide them away somewhere outside the house.

As a result, mother and kittens continued to stay in the wardrobe in the nest made of cotton batting and an old dishtowel the mother had stolen from somewhere. And the mother continued to use the ivy to come in and out of the room.

Annie said, “You’ve been so good-natured about putting up with all the extra baby stuff in your room, I hate to delay the move any longer.”

“Oh no, as I’ve told you, I would be glad to postpone moving until my break at Thanksgiving. Then I’ll have the time to do the move properly, and you don’t seem all that anxious to move Abigail out of your room any time soon.”

Annie shrugged. She knew that Laura was worried about her and the difficulty she’d been having getting back to work. Annie had started to do a little client work in the past month…a very little. Maybe Thanksgiving was a good goal for her to set for herself, as well as for Laura.

Laura said, “I know I’m not around much, but am I right to think that these kittens have really brought Emmaline out of her shell? When I stick my head in to check on them in the evening, she’s downright chatty. She was always pleasant, but reserved.”

“They’ve definitely made a difference. She even brought two friends home with her from school this week to see the kittens. I was so pleased. She does her homework in here in the afternoons and when the boys are out selling newspapers during the weekend, and she doesn’t seem to mind when the kittens crawl all over her.”

“I hope she won’t be too upset when it’s time to give them away.”

“She quite understands we can’t keep them all, but I’ve said we can keep one.”

“And Mrs. O’Rourke agrees? I know she’d been hesitant to replace Queenie.”

“Oh yes, the rat scare convinced her. She agrees with you that the mother cat won’t ever be completely tame, although I do hope she will stick around the house if we put out an occasional bowl of milk for her and let her sleep in the kitchen when winter comes. But Beatrice sees the benefit of letting one of the kittens become the permanent house cat.”

“I’m glad. We always had one indoor cat, even though my father thought cats really should stay in the barn. But Mother said there was nothing more comforting than having a warm, purring cat in her lap.”

Annie smiled. Nate had said the same thing to her. She said, “Beatrice and Emmaline have even chosen which kitten to keep and given him a name.”

“Really?”

“Yes, they have agreed that they want the black one with the white on the chest and front paws.”

Laura laughed and said, “That’s a good choice. Since he’s not all black, he won’t remind Beatrice too much of Queenie, and he will be a matched set with our Dandy.”

They both looked at the floor where Dandy sat, patiently letting the four kittens crawl all over him. Much to everyone’s surprise, he’d seemed to take a paternal interest in the kittens from the first, asking to be let into the room whenever the mother cat was gone out to hunt. Somehow, he always knew when that happened. Which was a mystery in itself. And Laura was correct; when the black cat grew up, he and Dandy would make a handsome pair.

Annie had an anxious thought, and she said, “You’re sure he’s a male?”

“Absolutely.”

“That’s good,” Annie said and laughed. “You see, Emmaline and Beatrice have decided to name him Prince, and I’m not sure they would be at all happy if they had to change that to Princess.” The End

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