How Green Becomes Wood

Cooger stepped out into the hall and made his two phone calls and came back in only about twenty minutes later, "Alright. The vet is able to get all these guys in tomorrow. I had to call one of my clients to reschedule, he was a bit peeved until I explained the kitten drama, now all he wants is pictures of them. The shelter also needs photographs, one of the main employees is going to meet me at the vet tomorrow to finish their in-boarding, so they're all definitely staying at least one night." He tugged lightly at his beard for a moment, "Let's set up the play pen first, we can put it in here."
 
By the time Cooger returned, Lex had made herself comfortable on his bed and had all seven of the kittens on top of and around her. She was smiling and fussing with the long-haired black one as it sat on her chest. She looked up when he finished giving her the run-down. "I think we're good with the play-pen, but if you still want to put one up, don't let me get in your way," she teased.
 
"What, you have a better idea?" Lex grinned. She pointed to the long haired grey kitten. "That one is Toe because she has one tiny, tiny spot on her paw that might actually be something dirty, but it's on her toe tips. This one," she pointed at the smallest of the group, "is Tiger!"
 
"You don't need stripes to be a tiger, do you?" she crooned to the little kitten. "Besides, haven't you heard of giving a child a name of power to give them strength later in life? I bet it'd work for kittens, too!" She smirked at him. "Don't we have kittens to bathe and feed?"
 
"My name is just a fancy stone, and I don't know if you're the one to start talking about how to name a child," He teased heading downstairs to get the supplies. A little while later, he came back up, a play pen under one arm and a bag of supplies in the other. He sat the bag on the bed and then set up the playpen on the floor, moving his good rug out of the way, "We should feed 'em first because they're just gonna make a mess on themselves. But first, I want to lay down pee pads, then a blanket. Then we can put the kittens in and give 'em food and water. I've got cat beds downstairs I still gotta bring up and I need to set up a little box in here but I want to get these babies eating before fussing with that."
 
"Hey, I found them. I think I should get to name them. Would you rather car makes and models?" Lex grumbled. She sat up, sorting out the kittens and putting them back in their box for now before helping Cooger to set up the play pen. "Show me how to feed them?"
 
Cooger went into bag and set out a number of small metal plates with low sides, "They're probably weaned, so I've just got cans of kitten food. We just gotta put it on their platters and then it'll be like pigs at a trough."
 
"I've never seen a pig in a trough, but I get the analogy," Lex remarked. She helped him scoop out the food and spread it around on the plates so that, hopefully, every kitten would have a fair chance at reaching the food. Once the plates were down and ready, she helped him put the kittens down next to the plates and let them have at it.

"Alright, now I really get the analogy," she said after a moment, watching them attack their plates with vigor. "I think they are wearing as much as they are eating. No wonder it was food time first."
 
"Yep," Cooger chuckled, taking a quick picture of all seven of them enjoying their meal, "And they were hungry. It was probably awhile since they last ate, it's not like any of these have an ounce of survival instincts. In the bag I have some bowls, will you fill them with water? They're probably thirsty too, although the wet food has a good amount of water content in it for them. I'm gonna go get the litter box set up while they eat. And I gotta get some towels and the hair dryer."
 
Lex did as asked and tried to make sure the water wasn't too cold before setting it down. Then she crouched down and watched them like a hawk, afraid that one of them might trip and fall in or otherwise endanger themselves in less than an inch of water in a tiny bowl. The water in the bowl quickly turned into something less than sparkling thanks to food-matted fur, but everyone got a good drink between scarfing food.
 
Cooger, well acquainted with kittens, worked calmly around them, setting up the litter box, adding in a few cat beds despite knowing they'd only use the one, and occasionally reaching his hands into the kitten mess and pulling a few screaming ones back so the shyer and tinier ones definitely were still able to eat their fill before setting them back down. "Another good reason to feed them first is because with full bellies they'll be sleepy, just like a human baby," He said, lifting one who was already starting to nod off, "Want to assembly-line this so one of us washes and the other one dries them off?"
 
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