A Sanctuary

Chapter 2

A thought briefly flutters through the back of my mind - he actually stopped and listened. Of course that could just be chalked up to the fact that I startled him. I sigh as I jerked myself away from the enclosure, I can feel his eyes as he watches me. I mumble and grumble to myself about the location of the keys - momentarily forgetting where I had stuffed them. I pause in my search for my keys entirely slapping myself since they are in my dress pocket.

I turn quickly walking down the creepy hall - nothing all of the things that need to be remodeled. This is going to cost a lot of money. Maybe I can combine my practice and the sanctuary? Make it profitable. To many thoughts start to pile into my head as I am walking through the sanctuary. All of it attempting to overwhelm me - I am still dumbfounded.

I go outside and grab my bag from my jeep along with some other things. Noticing the keys to the place and paperwork, sitting in the mailbox that hangs from the door. Great - I grab the paperwork along with the keys, and the rest of the mail. Walking back to the enclosure I notice the wolf sitting patiently with his head cocked. Reading over the paperwork, I realize that she put my name on this when she lost all of her money. I roll my eyes - scratching my head as I look it over once more, double checking.

Walking over to the sink - turning it on. I watch as a mucky water falls from the faucet. "Great, the plumbing needs to be redone also." Turning I look towards the wolf again, and grimace at his enclosure. "Your room doesn't even look fit for a puppy, nevertheless a full grown wolf." I walked to the door, and listen to his whimper, as if he doesn't want me to leave, poor baby!

"Don't worry handsome, I just need to go grab a jug of water from my jeep, I'll be right back, I promise!" I try and sooth from the door. I can't help but notice how intelligent he is for a wolf. Rushing outdoors I pull out my phone and call a plumber, who I hope can help me. I walk back into the room still on the phone. The woman who I am attempting to make an appointment with keeps me on the phone longer than I want. She is a major chatterbox; but from the sounds of it is really sweet.

Hanging up I nod, with a slight smile, one thing down. "Ok handsome, can I come and take a look at your bandages?" I ask softly as I pull the keys out to unlock the cage, bringing the water and my bag of supplies in with me - I make sure to close the door. Dropping the bag gently, I make sure to watch him as I walk over to his bowl. I shake my head, I can't use that, It's disgusting with dirt and grim caked on to the sides of it. One thought pops into my head - I already know that I don't have a bowl or anything to hold water in my bag. I can't believe that I am about to try this - desperate times call for desperate measures I suppose.

I walk over to him, slowly, and stick my hand out for him to sniff. I watch as he sniffs my hand before licking and nuzzling my hand making me giggle at his rough tongue. "Ok Handsome, your water dish is filthy, so your going to have to make the best out of my hand. I'm sorry." I open the water jug, and slowly poor water into my hand, allowing him to drink. What surprises me is that he is so comfortable. He is a wild wolf after all - at least I believe he is. I smile as I shake my hand getting the water droplets off.

"Let's take a look and your bandages, ok?" I ask, making him look at me a little funny. I opened my bag - pulling out a cloth for him to lay on, unfolding it. I watch with amazement as he lays down, instantly, placing his paw on my knee. I stroke his fur, loving the soft texture of it. I pull out what I need and I am shocked to see how deep the wounds are. Pulling out a needle, I feel bad knowing that I am going to have to sedate him. Hopefully there are no hard feelings. Because I can already tell that that would be extremely bad - for me that is.

"Sorry handsome, but I need to do this, I hope you forgive me." I whisper as I slide the needle into his vein, hearing his hurt whine makes me wince. I move and lift his head into my lap as I stroke his fur, I normally don't feel so bad. But it's like I'm hurting myself doing this to him. Leaning forward I soothe him as I kiss his closing eyes, whispering a goodnight.

I back up and immediately get to work, cleaning and working on his wounds, stitching and wrapping them properly. I sigh as I clean up the materials I used, looking around I can already tell that I need to clean another room for him to stay in. This room just won't work - no matter how hard I try to make it work. It would be like putting a square block in a round hole. I swear my mind wanders too much; especially in times of stress.

Shaking my head I head out into the hall, determined to find a more suitable room. I find an enclosure with in the building that will work just fine for now. I work as quick as I can, cleaning the enclosure, and getting a clean bowl for water and food. I open the window a smidge, feeling as hot as it is in here he must be miserable. I make sure that I make a bed, at least one for the meantime. I try not to dwell too much on the thought; knowing that I will need to buy one later.

It takes a little longer than I had hoped - I get back to the handsome wolf, and try to think of how to move him. Because he is very large, now that I think of it, he is bigger than a regular wolf. That's kind of strange, but who knows. I grab a cart and slowly drag the padding that I had laid down early and positioned his body on the cart so that I can move him. Wincing when I hit a bump or anything of the sort. Like I said earlier, I feel as if I am hurting myself when I harm him.

After some major finagling I finally managed to get him into his new enclosure. I smile and almost shout for joy, but stop myself with a soft giggle instead. I kiss his snout as I go to move towards the door, locking it. I look back at the enclosure and smile a bit, at least this way he can have more space, and he has a window! I'd much rather him outside though. I walk out and get to work, trying to fix the AC. But that doesn't work. I let my head drop, hitting the wall - a painful thud sounds out into the room.

I am almost to the point of not wanting to know everything that is broken. Everything so far has seemed either to be deteriorating so bad - or broken and in need of repair. It just doesn't seem like I can win in this situation. And isn't that just wonderful; I hate to seem like such a debbie downer, but I mean come on! Can't a girl catch a break, sheesh!