Who: Peter Pevensie and David Nolan What: Peter inquires about volunteering When: Backdated: Tuesday, February 25th. Morning Where: Orange County SPCA Rating: Family Friendly Status: Complete
While Peter was waiting to hear back from Dr. Binx, he’d decided to check out the local SPCA and see about possibly volunteering. After googling it’s location, he’d found out it was in Huntington Beach and figured out how to get there by public transport; he still had to study to get his American driver’s license. When he reached the SPCA, he was surprised that he hadn’t gotten list, considering he was still learning his way around Orange County and headed inside. He wasn’t entirely sure who he would be speaking to about volunteering, but he figured that the best course of action was to approach the front desk, which was what he did.
It was a fairly slow day, David thought. Not that it was ever really busy, but it seemed slower than usual. He felt like all he was doing was listening to the radio and refiling the same papers again and again. When he heard someone come in, he glanced up and smiled.
“Hi, can I help you with something?”
“Yes, hello. My name is Peter Pevensie and I was interested in possibly volunteering.” Whether or not they needed any volunteers, Peter would know that he had put forth the effort and then he would look for other shelters or something that he could volunteer at.
“Yeah?” David actually looked fairly pleased to hear that. He was always a fan of being volunteering or helping where they could, and he knew they’d been needing a few good ones. “That’s great, we can always use more help around here, you know? Hang on, let me get the papers for you.”
Peter smiled at how pleased the man was, glad that this hadn’t been a wasted trip, “I’ve only recently moved here, about a month ago, and I had been planning to come by since, but unpacking took up some time and then the incident last week.” Peter’s English accent was obvious as he spoke, so it wouldn’t be too difficult to figure out where Peter had just moved from.
“I understand that. Well,” David glanced up and shrugged, looking amused, “I’m not really new myself anymore. But that was more or less what I was like when I first moved here, too.” He produced the forms to fill out to apply for volunteering, handing them over with a pen. “I’m David, by the way. I feel like I’m here all the time, so I’m sure we’ll see a lot of each other.”
“We only moved here in January, so everything is still new. I need to make the time to go get my American driver’s license as well.” Peter took the forms from David then extended his hand to the other man to shake, “It’s nice to meet you, David. Are you in charge or simply another volunteer?”
“Oh, well, welcome to Orange County. I hope it hasn’t been too jarring an experience for you.” David shook Peter’s hand. “I do the administration stuff. All the paperwork, the social media, that sort of thing. But I try to volunteer when I have time off. I like getting to know the animals here, it makes helping families adopt them a bit easier.”
“It’s been a fairly smooth move. I was mostly worried about our cat, but he seems to be fine.” Peter had heard all sorts of horror stories about cats who were part of big moves and were never the same as they had been before the move, but he’d brought Aslan to the vet a few weeks earlier to have him checked out and he appeared to be fine so it set Peter’s mind at ease.
“Good to hear it.” And it was. David had seen a few pets come through that just weren’t meshing with the owners anymore after a life change like a move. It was a nice change. “It’s not a bad place, actually. Despite a few strange things now and then. But it grows on you.”
Peter nodded, “He still jumps on us to wake us up to feed him, in the morning and still gets jealous when we’re not showing him enough attention,” Peter smiled and it showed just how fond he was of his cat. “It seems nice so far. Very different than England.” Peter finished filling out the paperwork and passed it back to David, “Are you originally from here?”
“Hmm?” He takes the papers and glances up, then shakes his head. “No, I’m from New York. Wisconsin before that. But this is a good place.” David puts the papers into a mailbox for the volunteer coordinator, then looks back at Peter. “I think that’s it. She’s pretty good at getting back to people, so you’ll probably hear back in a couple of days.”
“My partner and I were in New York for a little while before we settled here. I didn’t see much of it, but I hope to go back someday.” Caspian had, had to take care of some things there after they’d left England so they’d spent a few days in New York while there stuff had been forwarded to the apartment and had been waiting for them to unpack when they got there. “Well, I look forward to hearing back and hope we’ll be working together someday.”
“Agreed. It was nice meeting you, Peter.” David gave him an earnest smile, then turned to answer a phone call.