Bella followed at a respectful distance on his rounds, weaving silently between shadows of the aviary, the reptile house, and the long corridor that ran behind the lion dens. The staff noticed. “You’ve got yourself a little friend,” one of the keepers teased. Another shook her head: “You know the rules, Ethan. Strays don’t belong here.”
Ethan pretended not to care, but he found himself saving scraps from his lunch, folding an old blanket in the corner of the break room, and leaving a stainless-steel bowl filled with water. Bella accepted each kindness without fuss, as though she’d been waiting her whole life for a place to belong. She was not like other strays.