The Nine Kittens of Christmas (2021)

This Christmas is the first in five that Marliee has returned home to Jamestown, OR since she moved to Miami, where she in the interim has completed her residency and opened her own veterinary clinic with her boyfriend of two years, Miles, the only person she knows who is even more driven than her. That drive has its downside in their relationship as they spend more time as business partners than as romantic partners, he, who at the last second, decides not to accompany her to Oregon in having too much work to finish before Christmas. This decision may show Marilee that their relationship has finally hit the end of the road. In Jamestown, Marilee does not expect but does run into her old firefighter boyfriend Zachary in assuming that he would be away for Christmas as he has been for the past several years. While a common work ethic brought Marilee and Miles together, that peripherally is what tore Marilee and Zach apart in he having resisted any change in his life, especially his personal life. What originally did bring them together was their mutual love of cats, namely who "adopted" an initially reluctant Zach, a homeless one named Ambrose. So when Zach finds a box of nine abandoned kittens outside the firehall, he forgoes his Christmas getaway to tend to the kittens, including finding good homes for them. With the town's vet recently having retired, Marilee volunteers to assist Zach with this matter. In spending time together, Marilee and Zach can admit to themselves that there is still a spark between them, Zach who does not know how to show Marilee that he is now open to his life progressing. Factoring into into what happens between them includes Sam, the fire chief, imminently retiring, and Miles having his own thoughts if his and Marilee's relationship, both professional and personal, has truly ended.—Huggo