The next morning began a bit later then days that involved me reporting in for patrol duty. Of course, that was because I was assigned to do DARE work and thus didn't need to be at work until close to when the schools opened their doors for the day. For me, that was no big deal and would just be another day for Officer Barnes and I filling in for the DARE officer who had been killed when Bill Williams bombed the station. The big thing that would be starting soon related to end of the last elections.
Wayne Hireman had been a staunch R.A.M. supporter and did his best to keep Beauregard's ideas in a place of power, even after Beauregard, himself, had been arrested. He continued it even after Molly had saved young Megan Jenkins' life when the Mountain Lion attacked her, when that action largely reversed how many of the people in Columbia Falls viewed Molly. Before then, many were afraid that we were dangerous. After Molly attacked a mundane predator to save a kid, when she legally didn't have to, the people began to realize that the differences that were between the humans of the town and Molly were not as drastic as they'd imagined. The would ultimately trigger the race between Tabby Choir and Wayne Hireman for his seat as the School District Superintendent.
The race had been long with its ups and downs. It would largely heal the rifts that had existed between me and Joseph Patten, who had not thought well of me at first. But Hireman's fanaticism was more then enough to get us to put aside our differences. And together, we'd managed to give Tabby the help and advice needed to get the election to go in Tabby's favor. And in the end, it did. Hireman, thanks to his own tricks lost by what could be called a landslide and Tabby would now take over. Officially, her term started on the first, but since school was still out for Christmas Break then, she wouldn't be sworn in or whatever ceremony was done to recognize a new superintendent... if there was one. With school starting up again, I expected that Tabby would be in for her first school board meeting.
As I made my way toward the High School that morning, I hoped she'd do well. I knew that she was better then the man she was replacing. All that was left for her to face was the politics of the position. When I arrived at the High School I met up with Officer Barnes as he got out of his car.
"Back behind a desk," Officer Barnes gave a soft grumble, doing little to hide the fact that he'd rather be on patrol then behind a desk.
"Yes, but it's such a nice desk," I teased him a little, "and besides, you get to spend more time with Megan this way. Build that step-father to daughter bond."
"That's the one good thing about all this," Officer Barnes shrugged and then turned back to his car and reached in for something, "speaking of Megan, she gave me some things she wanted me to give you."
He then handed me a few sheets of paper. A couple of them had crudely drawn orange and black cat-like people. Two were large, with one wearing a pair of shorts and no shirt and one in a bikini, or something like that. Beside them was a smaller orange and black cat-like person in a one piece girl's swimsuit. The picture was completed by two very small orange and black cat-like persons in what looked like a diaper.
"Megan's picturing our cubs?" I asked as I looked at the picture and and then a few more that were fairly similar.
"Yeah... she told me that she lost her blue crayon and couldn't draw your pool for that one on the top," Officer Barnes shrugged, "but she's all shades of excited about you and Molly having cubs."
The last sheet was a piece of notebook paper which included several names on it. Not all of the names were spelled correctly, but they were close enough to guess what she was going for.
"I take it she also wants to name them?" I quipped as I looked at the list and we made it into the DARE office.
"I think she's wanting some friends like her..." Officer Barnes commented, "so, the fact that you and Molly are starting a family, she thinks your cubs will be born ready to play."
I slowly nodded. Things had to be somewhat rough for the girl. While Molly had saved her life, doing so ultimately involved giving her a transfusion of her own blood because the blood loss sustained in the Mountain Lion attack had been enough that she wouldn't have survived transportation to a hospital or clinic without it. That transfusion resulted in her transforming into a tiger-person like Molly and I, with the obvious exception that she didn't grow older then she was. She was a cub, but she was the only cub in Columbia Falls, for the time being. In nature, the only time tigers were truly social was when they were young and with their mother and siblings. And that was something that probably depressed her a little.
She couldn't give her blood to other students to create a sort of "litter" at school, as the law wouldn't allow that. And because of her age and rare blood type, she couldn't get around that by using the loophole of donating blood to save someone else's life. A part of her mind wanted other little tigers to play with, but by rule, that was impossible. So, knowing that Molly and I were starting a family of our own, she would be eager to have playmates that were of her own species.
"Hopefully she'll realize that they won't be able to play with her for a while... and even when they are old enough to play with her..." I sighed, "she'll need to be gentle with them."
"Officer Jenkins and I have been explaining to her on how fragile newborns are," Officer Barnes replied, "I'm sure she'll understand."
I nodded in response.
"How goes your doctor search?" Officer Barnes asked.
"Still figuring things out," I sighed, "I think we'll try a normal clinic... since Molly isn't a mundane tiger, she probably won't deliver like one. And they'd be better suited to handle a hominid pregnancy."
"Hominid?"
"Means human-like," I told him, "anyway, the question is whether or not the local clinic carries an obstetrician. Molly will be checking at the Elementary school and I have my appointment for my booster shots at lunch today... I'll see if Doc Stimson knows anything."
"The clinic won't talk with a Vet on a regular basis," Officer Barnes pointed out.
"You never know," I sighed.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"Well, it's good to see you again, Officer Wayne," Doc Stimson said to me as he came into the clinic room I was in at that moment.
It was around lunchtime and I had left the High School after a quiet morning to go to my appointment for the booster shots that I needed. And it was important that Molly and I received these vaccinations. Leon had long ago found that Animal People couldn't catch many diseases that they'd caught as humans. This meant that things like the common cold, and for some species of Animal People, things like the flu wouldn't be a problem anymore. But, that didn't mean that other diseases could be caught, mainly the diseases that were common to the specific animal family that the person had joined when he or she became an Animal Person.
For Molly and I, that revolved around the various diseases that plagued cats in general and the Bengal Tiger specifically. Most of the ones that we received vaccinations for were the various diseases that domestic cats were vulnerable to. The other major vaccination that Molly and I typically received was for Rabies, which every animal was vulnerable to. The vaccinations that Molly and I didn't received were all the ones that were normally found in the wild of India. According to what I had learned from Doc Stimson when I got my first set of shots, those specific diseases were not present in North America among the various zoo and circus tigers. The other one was Canine Distemper.
On first thought, that would seem odd that that would be worthy of mention. Canine Distemper was a disease that was common among dogs. But a few years back, scientists in Africa had witnessed the dying off of a large portion of the continent's Lion population. One air tour group had even spotted a lone male Lion acting strangely. Scientists found the Lion dead, and ran an autopsy. The results came back with only one cause of death: Canine Distemper. Now, because Tigers and Lions were so closely related, I had learned that Doc Stimson had originally had some concerns about that as well. But in the course of the phone calls he made to see what vaccinations I would need, he'd picked up that Tigers hadn't been afflicted by Canine Distemper to the same degree that Lions were, and since most dogs in America were vaccinated against the disease, Doc Stimson decided against that vaccination for me.
"It's good to be here," I shrugged, "better here then out slobbering in some delirium..."
"True, true," Doc Stimson chuckled and began getting the first shot ready, "So, how have things been with you and Molly? A couple of ranchers came in just before Christmas with some animal related issues and made the comment that there was a lot of noise out in your neck of the woods. Roars and such."
I looked a little embarrassed at that, though I couldn't figure out why.
"Molly was in heat at the time," I said weakly, "and we were starting a family."
"Oh... congratulations," Doc Stimson commented, "were you successful?"
"We believe so," I shrugged, "Though we'll need to wait until the twenty-fifth of this month to confirm that medically that she is pregnant. All we have right now is instinct."
"Not a bad thing to trust on these things, I'd suppose," Doc Stimson said, "There is some care that vets to do to help pregnant cats, but for the most part, most of that is done by the mother cat. And to a certain extent... even humans could probably go through their pregnancies without seeing a doctor..."
"The number of complications, miscarriages, and/or stillbirths would probably increase that way," I commented as he stuck me with the first set of boosters that I needed to receive.
Doc Stimson nodded, "and canceling out those is why human doctors do a lot of those monthly check ups with human women. I'd even advise you and Molly to use an obstetrician for her pregnancy. Our work with pets isn't quite as close or as intensive as what they would do to care for the pregnancy simply because there is so much that a mundane animal can do on its own to care for its own pregnancy."
"And Molly and I had agreed to see an obstetrician," I nodded, "for precisely that reason."
"Good to hear," Doc Stimson answered as he readied the next needle.
"The issue at hand is whether or not the local clinic has an obstetrician on staff," I commented, "I was actually kinda wondering if you knew if they did."
Doc Stimson then sighed heavily as he gave me the next shot and then pulled the needle out.
"I don't know for certain," Doc Stimson sighed, "but hold on..."
I watched as he pulled out a cell-phone. He quickly dialed a number. I heard a woman's voice faintly answer on the other end.
"Hello?"
"Hey, Fannie, this Doc Stimson, I'm sorry to disturb you on your day off, but I got a patient here that you might be able to help."
"What's his question?" the woman, Fannie, asked back, "is this for a pet?"
"No, for his wife, actually," Doc Stimson replied, "just a subject of conversation that came up during the appointment."
"Oh..."
"Where have you been going for your obstetrician appointments?" Doc Stimson asked, "he thinks his wife may be pregnant and wants to know where to go."
"Tell him congratulations, I guess," Fannie answered, "and that I'm afraid he'd have to go to Kalispell for those appointments. The Columbia Falls clinic doesn't carry one. They might give him and his wife the referral to see an obstetrician, but they don't carry one. Also, the guy I see in Kalispell is only there on select days and emergencies... such as when someone's water breaks... and when that happens he gets there as quick as he can."
"I see," Doc Stimson replied, "Sorry to bother you."
"Oh, I don't mind, sir," Fannie answered, "it's better then sitting around looking at my swollen feet!"
And with that, Doc Stimson hung up after a quick goodbye.
"It would appear, Officer Wayne that you and your wife will need to go to Kalispell," he said slowly.
"I heard," I sighed.
That would create its own problems, but they were fairly easy problems to solve. It would mean that Molly and I would need to start doing some research for a vehicle that we could both ride in.