All Creatures Great and Small

By Kasper Quill

Growing up an orphan meant Charlie never celebrated Christmas. He’s committed to making sure his newly adopted cat, Max, doesn’t miss out like he did. Unfortunately, he discovers that giving Max the perfect Christmas might be easier said than done—and not without risk.

Charlie’s landlord, successful and wealthy real estate developer Aemon Scotfield, is charmed by the gorgeous redhead and his shameless alley cat. He finds himself compelled to help orchestrate a memorable celebration for Max—and Charlie—despite the mishaps that seem to just keep coming. As difficult as it will be to pull off the perfect holiday, the real challenge might be walking away when it’s over.

A story from the Dreamspinner Press 2017 Advent Calendar "Stocking Stuffers."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
• Release date: Dec 1, 2017
• ISBN: 9781640803046

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By Kasper Quill

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All Creatures Great and Small

By Kasper Quill

Growing up an orphan meant Charlie never celebrated Christmas. He’s committed to making sure his newly adopted cat, Max, doesn’t miss out like he did. Unfortunately, he discovers that giving Max the perfect Christmas might be easier said than done—and not without risk.

Charlie’s landlord, successful and wealthy real estate developer Aemon Scotfield, is charmed by the gorgeous redhead and his shameless alley cat. He finds himself compelled to help orchestrate a memorable celebration for Max—and Charlie—despite the mishaps that seem to just keep coming. As difficult as it will be to pull off the perfect holiday, the real challenge might be walking away when it’s over.

IT ALL started with the motivational self-help guru.

Twice a year the company I work for brings in a motivational speaker. They all have slogans such as There is no I in Team and Be the Change You Want to Be in the World. They pass out pamphlets covering topics such as "Finding the Me in the Team, Are you giving 110%, Reach for the Starz, or Everything is Figureoutable" (that was the theme from the last seminar, and it drove me crazy).

So, there we were, crammed into a too-small conference room that smelled like leftover pizza from the last motivational meeting, listening to a guy named Kevin talk to us about Leaps of Faith. Mostly we all ignored the guy speaking and leveled up in whatever game we had on our phones. All except for Brenda in Human Resources, who takes notes like there is going to be a test at the end. She’s a brown-nosing goody-two-shoes whom I have hated since she complained to HR that I was rude to her while fixing her computer. In my defense, her complaint was the automatic cup holder on her computer was broke. I had to replace the CD drive.

After listening to Kevin talk in his hyper cheerleader voice for the past two hours, I had started doodling horns and mustaches on the smiling stock-photo faces in the pamphlet when a testimonial caught my eye. Craig was a forty-five-year-old sales manager from Sacramento, California and credited his success to Leaps of Faith. It was the quote underneath his cheerfully smiling photo that really caught my attention.

Some of the greatest accomplishments have come from taking a small leap of faith and doing something outside of my comfort zone. Those small risks have led to great rewards.

Right. What a putz.

I gave Craig the full package deal: horns, mustache, blackened teeth, and black eyes as I tuned Kevin-in-Khakis out.

Four hours later I was wading through a stack of work tickets on my desk. Thankfully most of them seemed to be system updates. It’s a not-so-fun life in the IT department where the majority of our work involves resetting passwords for people who keep forgetting to write them down somewhere safe.

Hey, Charlie, wanna go with us to get sushi for lunch? Sam, my coworker, was propped up against his desk. Sam was born in India before coming to America as a child around forty years ago. His wife Sara is American, and I adore her. She always sends goodies for me in Sam’s lunch box that I have to remember to raid before Sam gets his hands on them. Sara’s cooking is amazing, and the