Free Best Friends by Samantha Glen Page B

Angel Canyon. This time the men came outside to witness her staggering from her car under a huge flat of bedding plants. “Don’t worry,” she laughed a sound akin to chimes in a breeze. “I got the flowers donated.”
    The pink impatiens, yellow daisies, and sunflowers were not all Jana and Raphael had brought. “You tell them,” Raphael said to his wife as they sat around the Formica kitchen table after dinner.
    Jana smiled broadly. “I was ‘tabling’ at the airport and met Wayne Newton, Cher . . .” she began. Everyone smiled. They had all taken their turns sitting behind tables in front of supermarkets and similar locales to raise money for different charitable causes. But Jana explained that the Las Vegas airport was an awesome place. “So many winners.” Then a mischievous look crossed her face. She bent to rummage in the large carryall beside her.
    Suddenly a small raccoon dressed in a black tuxedo and bedecked with gold necklaces popped his head above the table. “Hello,” said the cheeky puppet. “My name is Rocky Raccoon. What’s yours?”
    Jana’s hand walked over to Paul Eckhoff and stuck the puppet’s nose into the architect’s shirt pocket. “Oh dear, nothing here, sorry.” The puppet moved on to Gregory Castle. “Ah ha!! I smell money. Now let’s have a look, Mr. Castle.” Without further ado he pulled Gregory’s wallet from his jeans and extracted three one-dollar bills. The disappointed slump of the puppet’s body had everyone around the table crying with laughter.
    â€œI don’t know how you do that,” Diana said wiping the tears from her eyes.
    â€œWell, I usually strike it a little richer than three dollars,” Jana giggled.
    â€œJana and Rocky have no shame,” her husband declared. “That raccoon has been known to pout until he gets a respectable sum.”
    â€œWith Rocky, people drop ten-dollar chips, fifty-dollar chips, and twenty-dollar bills.” Jana grinned at her husband. “Your turn.”
    With the casualness of a rich uncle about to bestow a great fortune on a favored child, Raphael plucked a white envelope from his pocket and laid it on the table. “For the animals,” he said, smiling. The envelope contained a deposit slip for a few dollars short of $1,000.
    â€œThis is incredible,” Michael said. He and Francis both knew how the influx of animals had strained their budget to the maximum. Jana’s contribution was a godsend.
    â€œWe cashed the chips and put the money in the Foundation’s charitable account as soon as Jana came home,” Raphael said.
    â€œThis is truly incredible,” Michael repeated wonderingly.
    Jana de Peyer blushed with pleasure. The friends had long ago set up a charitable foundation to be able to solicit funds for those causes dear to their hearts. Jana’s “tabling” efforts had been mostly directed toward raising money for terminally ill children. Now she was doing it for the animals.
    It was a good day when Jana and Raphael moved to Las Vegas.
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    The week before Thanksgiving, they received the great news that the Arizona ranch finally had a buyer. The up-front money was frustratingly small, but monthly payments would cover the mortgage on Angel Canyon, and Faith and the rest of the animals could at last move to Utah. It was celebration time.
    Francis, however, was worried. “We’re holding sixty animals and taking in more all the time. Faith has got to be bringing in close to a hundred. We can’t keep caring for that many without a vet close by.”
    Michael shared Francis’s concern. They had gotten pretty good at taking care of any minor problems that might arise with the animals, but for anything more serious, there was no resident veterinarian in Kanab, and Francis had become increasingly frustrated with the erratic schedules of mobile vets who came to town