diff --git a/goal_tools/caching.py b/goal_tools/caching.py
index da80ad3..47b5984 100644
--- a/goal_tools/caching.py
+++ b/goal_tools/caching.py
@@ -29,13 +29,14 @@ class Cache:
 
     """
 
-    def __init__(self, filename):
+    def __init__(self, filename, preload=True):
         self._shelf = shelve.open(filename)
         self._memory = {}
-        LOG.debug('loading cache into RAM')
-        for key in self._shelf:
-            self._memory[key] = self._shelf[key]
-        LOG.debug('loaded %d items from cache', len(self._memory))
+        if preload:
+            LOG.debug('loading cache into RAM')
+            for key in self._shelf:
+                self._memory[key] = self._shelf[key]
+            LOG.debug('loaded %d items from cache', len(self._memory))
         self._data = collections.ChainMap(self._memory, self._shelf)
 
     def __contains__(self, key):
diff --git a/goal_tools/who_helped/cache.py b/goal_tools/who_helped/cache.py
index 7e85670..2917c80 100644
--- a/goal_tools/who_helped/cache.py
+++ b/goal_tools/who_helped/cache.py
@@ -37,7 +37,8 @@ class CacheRemove(command.Command):
         return parser
 
     def take_action(self, parsed_args):
-        del self.app.cache[(parsed_args.type, parsed_args.id)]
+        cache = self.app._load_cache_file(preload=False)
+        del cache[(parsed_args.type, parsed_args.id)]
 
 
 class CacheShow(command.Command):
@@ -57,5 +58,6 @@ class CacheShow(command.Command):
         return parser
 
     def take_action(self, parsed_args):
-        data = self.app.cache[(parsed_args.type, parsed_args.id)]
+        cache = self.app._load_cache_file(preload=False)
+        data = cache[(parsed_args.type, parsed_args.id)]
         pprint.pprint(data)
diff --git a/goal_tools/who_helped/main.py b/goal_tools/who_helped/main.py
index 2d16aaa..86aa5fb 100644
--- a/goal_tools/who_helped/main.py
+++ b/goal_tools/who_helped/main.py
@@ -50,13 +50,21 @@ class WhoHelped(app.App):
     def initialize_app(self, argv):
         # Quiet the urllib3 module output coming out of requests.
         logging.getLogger('urllib3').setLevel(logging.WARNING)
+        self._cache = None
 
-        # Open the cache file.
-        if self.options.cache_file:
-            self.cache = caching.Cache(self.options.cache_file)
-        else:
-            # Use a dictionary for a memory cache.
-            self.cache = {}
+    def _load_cache_file(self, preload=True):
+        return caching.Cache(self.options.cache_file, preload=preload)
+
+    @property
+    def cache(self):
+        if self._cache is None:
+            # Open the cache file.
+            if self.options.cache_file:
+                self._cache = self._load_cache_file()
+            else:
+                # Use a dictionary for a memory cache.
+                self._cache = {}
+        return self._cache
 
 
 def main(argv=sys.argv[1:]):