Read Nothing to Fear But Ferrets for Free Online Page B

Sunday—Lexie assisting me, Jeff unavailable, me studying for the ethics exam in my spare time. I also researched ferrets on the Internet. Interesting creatures. A lot of websites suggested people adored them as pets. Their problem, though, was that if they escaped into the wild, they allegedly enjoyed endangered bird species as lunch. Hence, their illegality in California. Why not other states? Good question.
    The following day was Monday. Lexie and I had had such an enjoyable weekend, I asked her after our own early walk, “Do you want to come with me again today?”
    Her black-and-white long-haired tail wagged eloquently as she stood on her hind legs and leaned her furry white paws on my shins. I knew that if she could speak English, her response would be a resounding, “Yes!” So, obeying as if she were the alpha of our pack, I hustled her downstairs and into my Beamer as I prepared to head off.
    My Beamer was a leftover from my days as a successful litigator. I’d treated myself to it from the bonus I’d received after winning my first case for Marden, Sergement and Yurick, the law firm where I’d worked. The case that my mentor and then-lover Bill Sergement, whom I not-so-fondly referred to as “Drill Sergeant,” had all but turned his back on as a big loser. Though we hadn’t been lovers for a long time before I left the firm, Bill had turned his back on me when I’d been accused of handing a confidential memo to the other side in a more recent important case.
    As I mentioned before, my usual penchant was to choose lovers of the loser persuasion.
    In any event, despite some later unanticipated repercussions, the good part of that case almost ten years ago had been my winning my first courtroom combat, followed by the acquisition of the car that had stayed by my side despite my recent bankruptcy. And after its theft and wreck a few months ago, I’d had it restored to near-perfection.
    Now, Lexie and I made my pet-sitting rounds of the day. I even dropped her with Darryl when I got to his neighborhood, so she could spend a few hours fraternizing with friends of the canine kind.
    And then we headed back to our own digs.
    As soon as we exited the Beamer, Lexie started acting excited. Though leashed, she leapt around similarly to the way she had a couple of days ago when the Hummer had hit the house, barking and tugging and behaving in general as if something significant was on her mind.
    And a Cavalier with something on her mind was a dog to be heeded.
    “What is it, Lexie?” I asked, half expecting to hear another rumbling engine of a runaway vehicle on our street.
    But other than distant traffic, the drone of an aircraft overhead, and a few birds, I heard nothing.
    Lexie tugged me toward the back door of the big house.
    “Just a sec,” I said. I pulled her toward the garage, and peeked in a window. Neither Charlotte’s nor Yul’s car was there.
    I headed for the front door, Lexie leading me, and rang the bell. Waited for a while, but no one answered.
    Lexie’s nose, in the air, kept sniffing noisily till she stood up on hind legs and scratched at the door.
    “Lexie, off!” I commanded, not wanting her little doggy nails to chink gouges into my cherished oak front door.
    They didn’t have time to, for that same door swung open with no one behind it. I hadn’t noticed that it was ajar.
    “That’s weird,” I told my canine, who had tautened her leash as she lunged inside.
    Lexie barked, straining on her nylon leash so strongly that I decided to let her lead while I followed. She headed through the entry, past the living room, and down the hall toward the closed-off den. The KEEP OUT tape now dangled down from one side. The door was shut, and Lexie lit into this one, too, with her burrowing paws. It didn’t open for her.
    It did for me, once I turned the knob.
    And stopped with a gasp.
    The ferrets were loose from their cage, and the long little varmints scrambled to stay out of the growling