Kentucky's Best

Chapter 17

Harry is sitting in his office 2 days later going over the days cases when his door slams open and a very upset Rose is standing there. Jumping up Harry walks to her. "Rose, what is it?" He asks just as Marty runs in to find out what's going on also.

"Andrew just called, from the Louisville zoo. Their main vet there wants to put Waikiki down, Harry we can't let him do that. We know there is nothing wrong with him." Rose cries. "We were just there. Andrew is going to hold him off until we get there. Please we have to save him." Rose begs.

Nodding, Harry turn to Marty. "Don't worry I'll take care of things here. Go, save that cat." Marty says.

Harry grabs Rose's hand and they take off, when they get to his truck Harry sees Louis sitting in his cruise car. "Hurry up, I'm giving you police escort. That way you can get there quicker." Louis grins as he flips on his lights and siren.

Smiling, Harry and Rose jump into Harry's truck and take off following Louis. With him leading the way the 30 minute drive was cut down to 15 minutes. Once parked in the employee parking area the 3 of them run to the back entrance straight to Waikiki enclosure. The closer Harry, Rose and Louis the louder the yelling voices got. Running through the door Rose sees the zoo vet standing there with a tranquilizer gun in his hand, he brings it up to take aim.
"No!" Rose screams, knowing it's not tranquilizers in that gun. Harry and Rose run in opposite directions, him for the guy with the gun, her for the cage door so she can get to the cat she's come to love.

Harry grabs the gun and jerks it so it's pointing up just as the vet pulls the trigger, Harry looks up and sees the dart sticking in the ceiling. He then looks toward Rose and sees her in the cage with Waikiki with her arms around his neck. With a sigh Harry pushes the guy toward Louis.
"Hold him." He snaps, he then walks calmly into the cage with Rose and right up to the huge cat and kneels down. "Is he okay?" Harry asks Rose.

"He's a little stressed, but he's starting to calm down now. Why don't you pet him too, that might help." Rose says.

Harry reaches in his pocket and takes out Waikiki's favorite treat and feeds it to him then runs his hand between his ears, scratching as he did. Louis stood and watched as Harry and Rose treated this wild, huge cat as if it was a small house pet. Then suddenly everyone in the room could hear the loud purring come from the beast causing Harry and Rose to laugh.
"You big baby." Rose laughs as she pets the cat even more. Everyone watches in awe as the cat sits up and pulls both Harry and Rose into what looks like a hug, making them laugh even more.

Andrew smiles then turns and looks at the guy beside him. "Williams, you're fired. We have put up with your brutal ways of treating our animals for years now. I think we have just found a better way." Andrew says. "Dr. Styles, do you think you and your partner will take the job?" He asks.

"Absolutely." Harry says. "Just let us know what type of schedule you usually have and we'll work it out." Harry grins.

"We'll send everything to your office in the next few days, but first we have another problem we need to address first." Andrew says.

"And that would be?" Rose asks.

"Waikiki is old and the other big cats are picking on him. We can't put him in the larger enclosure with them anymore, they will attack him." Andrew tell them. "We need a safe home for him to go to."

Rose look over at Harry. Harry throws his hands up. "Give me a few days to build an enclosure at home for him. I'll turn one of our arenas into a home for him, then we will come get him." Harry says then laughs when Rose squeals and attacks him with hugs and kisses. Waikiki even licks him with his rough feline tongue.

It took Harry and Louis 3 days to get Waikiki's new enclosure built, after seeing what he did, Louis decided he was going to help out as much as he could to get this animal to safety. One day on the way to Rose and Harry's place Louis saw a tree that had been blown over during a storm, calling in some of him many friends he got them to help him move it onto a flatbed truck and hauled out to Rose's. When they saw them coming up the drive, with Louis, leading the way Rose bursts into tears, Harry hugs her and smiles, Steph claps her hands and Anne and Gemma just look at the 3 of them fondly. Once they got the tree in place and the last of the fencing in place Harry announces that Waikiki's home is ready.

Harry rolls over the next morning to sees Rose hugging his daughter close to he, both of them still sound asleep, or so he thought. Just as he was about to quietly slip from the bed to put on the morning coffee he hears.
"I love you."

Rolling back over Harry reaches across Steph to swipe Rose hair out of her eyes. "I love you too." Harry replies.

"Was you going to put coffee on?" Rose asks with a grin.

"I was, but now that I know you're awake I think I'll stay in here and snuggle with the 2 of you longer." Harry says. "Mom knows how to make coffee." He chuckles.

"Daddy you need to learn to whisper." Stephanie giggles as she kisses Harry's cheek.

"Oh really? And what if I was trying to wake you up so we can go get your new pet Waiki?" Harry laughs, when Steph starts sitting up quickly.

"Well let's go." Steph says. "IHOP is waiting." She sassed causing the adults to laugh.

"You heard her daddy, IHOP is waiting." Rose giggles, slapping Harry's ass.