Cassie grabbed her MZ bike, threw on her helmet, and headed for the GPS location locked into her phone. Mom, what the hell are you up to?  Why aren't you at home in bed or getting dressed? She threaded through a series of small beach towns, leaning forward on the bike's handles, decreasing wind shear. The bike revved as she tore down the road, feeling momentarily cleansed of worries On a motorcycle, she was alive- it was the only time she felt free. Everything came alive in a sweeping 360 degree wide panorama. And her bike saved her money. No highway robbery at the gas tank.

She rounded the corner onto Landry street. No sign of her mother. She pulled over and shot off a text.

Where R U?

No response. She gritted her teeth.

A minute later, Alley- next to theater. Hurry!

Although her mother couldn't remember to eat or pay her bills, when it came to rescuing critters, Bridgitte had an uncanny ability to use modern technology. A sneaking suspicion about her mother's emergency creeped up on her. Please, God. Not another stray.

She found her mother, a Granny Clampet bag women wearing a taffeta skirt covered in violets, kneeling on the ground next to a tattered cardboard box.

"Mom, what're you doing? Why are you up so early?" She glanced at the time 7:am. She needed to be at work by eight.

"I couldn't sleep. Simone called me. Someone dumped these poor babies in the alley."

Cassie sighed. "Of course she did." A prostitute with a heart of gold, Simone was nowhere in sight. She heard whimpering. Looking into the tattered cardboard box, she wasn't surprised to see three filthy, squirming puppies. Frowning, she swallowed her irritation. They looked part Chihuahua and part badger.

"I can't carry all of them. The wheel came off my market basket." Her mother cradled the foundlings individually, as if the puppies were newborn princes. The ugly mange covered dogs stared up at their savior clearly in love. One had yellow gunk coating an eye. All of them were covered with sores, one dog uglier and sicker than the next.

"Mom, I don't think you should be handling them. They look sick."

"Please, honey. They need help or they're going to die." Bridgitte's bright blue eyes bored into Cassie's heart.

"Alright, alright. Stop with the puppy eyes. Leave your basket. I'll pick it up after work." Her mom pushed the black wire carriage up against the graffiti colored brick wall.

"If I help you, do you promise to bring these canines to the shelter. You know you can't have any more pets in your apartment. You're a hair's breath from being evicted right now.

"Yes." Bridgitte's smile was dazzling. The doctor had mentioned early dementia, but Cassie suspected it was malnutrition. An artist, her mother didn't cook, often forgotten from to eat.

Cassie unzipped her jacket and made a sling, then threw her lean muscular leg over the seat. "Here, give them to me. Her nose wrinkling at the ripe smell, she slipped the three whimpering puppies into her windbreaker and made sure they were secure. "I have to go to work. Hop on." Bridgette's silvery hair flew behind them like a veil as Cassie rounded the corner back to Oceanside.