Chapter 7

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                                     Sidney 


I got breakfast for my pets together as the trespassing idiots drove off, then I settled into making some food for myself. I made up a batch of scrambled eggs with mushrooms and sausage, before gobbling them down with my morning coffee. It was still early by the time I had everything together, letting the dogs out after getting changed, but after letting them back in I just decided to head for the sanctuary. I got there about ten minutes before six and since I knew the feeding routine from yesterday I got straight to work. It took about 45 minutes to feed all of them and then it was really just waiting around until the afternoon feed and cage cleaning. 


So since no one else was around and I had finished the morning feedings, I decided to go ahead and pay a visit to a special resident. Spartan gave his same low warning growl at my approach, but didn't charge towards me when I entered his cage for the second time, he just snarled from a distance. "You know Spartan, that won't work on me. You can try to scare me away all you want, but I'm not going to give up like everybody else. I'm not the enemy here, I would never hurt you." I spoke gently to him, he perked his ears up at me and sat down as far away from me as he could. 


He watched me warily for the next hour as I spoke to him in a gentle tone and kept my place on his cage floor, we stayed that way until I heard the car approach. "Alright big guy, I'll be back later." I murmured as I slowly exited the cage before Gavin's car pulled into view. "About time you show up Streaks, I finished the morning feedings an hour ago." I puffed towards him as he slammed his car door shut behind him. "Yeah sorry I'm late, there was a call that came in and I had to make a pit stop first." Gavin sighed out and his tone had me tilting my head at him out of curiosity.


 "What kind of call?" I hummed out as he opened the back door of his car and pulled out a covered box. "The kind that hisses." Gavin raised as he flipped the box open with a smug look. I could tell he expected me to be afraid of what was inside but I couldn't help but stare in curiosity. I slowly reached in to pick up the inhabitant of the box as Gavin gaped at me in shock, I slowly and gently studied the large corn snake in my hands. "He's kind of cute, so what kind of call was he again?" I hummed, I gently let the healthy looking snake slip gently through my hands as he tested the air with his tongue. 


"Somebody found him in their garden and thought he was poisonous and called, I figured I'd get him out of there before they chopped him to pieces." Gavin muttered. "Smart move." I nodded my agreement as I took him over to a nearby wood pile and let him disappear inside. "Quick release too." Gavin chuckled out as I looked to him curiously. "Now we have some real work to do, these cages won't clean themselves." I stated back as I gave him a pointed look, he blushed but quickly joined me in getting to work. 


I found the squirrels to be fairly entertaining as they jumped around the enclosure, some even came down to sit on my shoulder while I cleaned the cage floor. Once everything was cleaned up we got to work on the afternoon feedings, and after finishing my half I went to sit inside Spartan's cage again. This time he snarled but sat down with a huff when he realized I was keeping my distance like I had this morning. When Gavin noticed I was in he wolf dogs enclosure he tried to reason with me to get out before giving up and storming off to continue his chores. 


I spent another hour just sitting and talking quietly with the anxious male as he watched me uncertainly, after half an hour he actually calmed down enough to lay down on his half of the cage. I was just talking randomly and telling him about my own pets, how I thought he would love Tyson and Ollie. I just kept talking to him out loud in a calm voice and slowly I noticed he was relaxing in my presence, until the clear approach of another car at our backs had him jumping to his feet with a low grumbled warning. "Easy big guy, I won't let anyone hurt you." I tried to sooth but the calm had been broken, he was back to frantic and wary.

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