Laurie Salzer - A Kiss Before Dawn

by Laurie Salzer

  Chris had seen dozens of foals born, but she never grew tired of seeing a mare bring new life into the world. Every foal was a miracle, nothing short of beautiful. This little guy was no exception. His wet black and white coat shimmered as he lay exhausted in the straw. Blood pumped through the umbilical cord that still linked him to his dam.

  Sierra rolled up onto her chest and looked back at her foal. She nickered softly to him, and he responded with his own little voice.

  Chris remained outside the stall. Left alone during the first few hours, mother and baby would get to know each other and form their own unique bond. The relationship would last until weaning at six months and a permanent separation.

  Sierra got to her feet, and as she turned to face her foal, the umbilical cord broke. Lowering her head to sniff the new arrival, she began to lick him dry. Chris smiled. The colt seemed content to stay where he was and just breathe.

  Forty minutes later, Chris watched the newborn struggle to his feet. After several failed attempts, he finally made it and stood unsteadily, breathing hard, his legs apart. Sierra stayed stock-still in the middle of the stall and nickered encouragement. Obeying his instincts, he moved awkwardly to her side, one step at a time. He bumped his head under her belly, searching for the nipple and his first meal.

  Chris grinned at the sounds of suckling. She pushed away from the wall and headed to the feed room to prepare a warm bran mash for the exhausted mare. After that, she would have to wait for Sierra to deliver the afterbirth. Upon examining it, she would join Mary Jo on the cot. It was almost three in the morning, which meant she would sleep less than two hours, but she would take what rest she could get.

  Sierra eagerly ate her warm meal while the colt slept flat out in the deep straw. Chris retrieved the afterbirth. Satisfied it was complete, she put it in a bucket to dispose of later. All seemed well, and she returned to the office. Exhausted, she slid onto the cot and pulled a heavy quilt over herself and Mary Jo, who muttered sleepily and yanked Chris tight against her.

  She slept the rest of the night in Mary Jo’s arms and woke just before dawn.

  Mary Jo was still sound asleep, her arm draped possessively over Chris’s chest, her warm hand cupping Chris’s breast. With great reluctance, Chris slid off the cot and repositioned the quilt over Mary Jo. The dogs reacted to her stirrings by oozing off the cot as well and exiting one by one out their own door.

  While a pot of coffee brewed, Chris decided a hot shower was in order. She stripped naked when she saw steam rising above the shower stall and stepped into the water. She let the hot water stream down her neck and back as she stood, her palms against the wall, her head drooping to her chest. She was exhausted and felt it everywhere. If she leaned a little on the shower walls, she was certain she would fall asleep right there.

  The shower door opened, and a waft of cooler air invaded the hot steam. Arms wrapped around her waist from behind as Mary Jo pushed her naked breasts and stomach against Chris’s back.

  “Thought you could sneak out, huh?” Mary Jo asked.

  Chris turned to face her. Mary Jo began to knead her shoulders and winced in sympathy as she let out an appreciative groan.

  Wrapping Mary Jo in her arms, Chris answered her with a long, lingering kiss. “Good morning, babe. I didn’t want to wake you. You looked so adorable lying there.”

  “Uh-huh. And what was your excuse for not waking me last night?” Mary Jo trailed her fingers over Chris’s stomach.

  “I’m sorry. Sierra didn’t have any complications, and she dropped a beautiful black and white colt.”

  “Yeah, I saw. He’s a beauty. But you still should’ve gotten me up.”

  Chris poured some liquid soap into her hand and began to massage it onto Mary Jo’s skin, starting at the slight indent below her throat and over her collarbone. She continued down over both breasts and noted with mounting desire that, despite the hot water, Mary Jo’s nipples grew hard.

  “Way to change the subject, Martel,” Mary Jo said. “I’ve missed this.” She reached for Chris, obviously eager to do her own version of massage.

  Chris molded their bodies together, her hands searching, caressing, her mouth feasting on Mary Jo’s. As hot water streamed over her skin, she flushed, both from heat and wanton need. Soon she was gasping out her orgasm, feeling Mary Jo climaxing with her. She leaned against the shower wall, panting. She struggled to remain standing on extremely weakened legs and support an equally drained Mary Jo as well.

  As they toweled off, Chris stared at Mary Jo, hungry for more.

  “Stop looking at me like that or we’ll never get anything done today,” Mary Jo said affectionately.

  “Can’t help it. I want you.”

  “You always want me.”

  “Can’t help it. You’re beautiful.”

  “If I didn’t know better, Martel, I’d think you were a sex maniac.”

  “Ah, babe.” Chris clutched her chest in mock pain. “That hurt.”

  Mary Jo closed the distance and kissed her. “Don’t worry. I like that you want me all the time.” She patted Chris’s cheek. “Hurry up and get dressed. I want to check out that baby some more.”

  “Right. Oh, that reminds me,” Chris said, jolted out of arousing thoughts of taking Mary Jo to bed and making passionate love to her all day long. “Would you palpate the Thoroughbreds? They’re heading off to get bred today, and I want to let the stud farm know what their probable ovulation timetable looks like.”

  “Of course. Do you think we can start working in the round pen again when Ramquette gets back?”

  Mary Jo and Ramquette had improved significantly, but as far as Chris was concerned, both needed to sharpen their skills. However, she’d had to put their training on hold for a while. December had been bitter cold with high temperatures in the twenties. She refused to work any horses when it was so cold that it prevented the horse’s muscles from warming up sufficiently, thereby increasing the risk of injury. Although the temperature had gotten warmer recently, she’d further delayed the training due to the necessity of putting the mares under lights to encourage them to begin their heat cycles.

  “Yeah, I think we can give it a try,” Chris replied after a moment’s thought. “Hopefully, Doc will be up and around soon so he can take the load off of you.”

  “Don’t I know it. To this day I can’t figure out how, for all those years, Doc worked his practice by himself.”

  “Donna helped when she could.”

  They finished dressing, and Chris headed out the door with Mary Jo following her. She had just pulled the door closed when she heard the phone ring. She turned around on her heel and returned to the office to answer it. “Went Farm, Chris speaking.”

  Silence.

  “Hello?” Chris heard a click, then nothing but the dial tone. Frowning, she hung up. Weird. That was the third hang up in as many days. She wondered if something was wrong with the line. Dismissing the issue, she hurried back to rejoin Mary Jo and eventually forgot all about it.

  Chapter 24

  The days passed in a flash, turning into busy weeks then two insanely demanding months of foaling and foal heat breeding. Chris plodded through as best she could, and Mary Jo did the same. A reprieve would come shortly.

  Despite Chris’s exhaustion, she was immensely pleased. Twelve healthy foals had been born on the farm, six outside mares had visited Stetson for his services, and all three Thoroughbreds were safely in foal. Top Hat and Ruby were the only pregnant mares currently occupying the foaling stalls. Top Hat was due to foal within the week. Ruby, however, had missed her foaling date and was now three weeks late.

  Chris watched Ruby like a hawk. The poor mare’s belly was greatly distended, and she often saw the foal kicking inside. Finally, much to her relief, the foal turned in the uterus and faced the correct direction. The foal’s new position caused Ruby’s belly to sag to an almost impossible point.

  “Quit your pacing, Chris,” Mary Jo said one evening. “Jesus. You’re
worse than an expectant father.” She was at Chris’s desk trying to enter data from her day’s calls while Chris moved around the room, absently rearranged things, and glanced at the monitors every thirty seconds.

  “I can’t help it,” Chris replied. “Ruby’s never been this late. But she started dripping milk this morning so she’ll probably foal tonight.”

  “Then what’s the problem?”

  “I don’t know. I just have a feeling.” Chris stopped pacing.

  “Babe, don’t worry. I don’t have to be anywhere but here tonight. Doc is on call, and he knows I’m on foal watch with you,” Mary Jo said reassuringly. After saving her work, she turned off the computer.

  Mary Jo’s words did nothing to ease the tension in Chris’s shoulders. Narrowing her eyes, she checked the monitor yet again.

  “Why don’t you take the dogs for a run and work off some of that nervous energy? I’ll keep an eye on things here,” Mary Jo said.

  Chris sighed. Mary Jo was right. It would be nice to get some fresh air. The full moon hovering in the sky would brighten her walk, and she’d have millions of bright stars as company.

  “All right, you talked me into it,” she said. “I’ll be back in a few minutes. But if you see Ruby start—”

  “Go. I’m a vet, remember? Now get out of here.”

  Chris walked over to Mary Jo and kissed her. “I love you, you know?”

  “Yes. I love you, too. Now go, before I start throwing things at you,” Mary Jo said, chuckling.

  Chris ran out the door. Cedar, Cagney and Sadie danced circles around her as she walked to the end of the barn. They probably had sensed her apprehension all day and lain low, but now her energy had changed, which meant possible fun for them.

  April’s unpredictable weather had laid the groundwork for a mild May. A bright sun had been the dominant force for the past three days, and the ground had begun to warm up. The buds on the trees were green and swollen, ready to burst open and give freedom to newborn leaves. Male birds of all types were in the area once again, scouting for nesting sites and awaiting the arrival of potential mates.

  Chris’s thoughts wandered to Frances. It had been several weeks since she’d visited her. She missed her, but it wouldn’t be long before their weekly breakfasts got back on track. Frances understood how the foaling season gobbled up time and energy, so she patiently waited for Chris to call or make an impromptu visit. In fact, Mary Jo had gone a couple of times and reported she had left Frances content with updates on the foaling and, of course, how Chris was holding up.

  Subtle movement in the brush ahead caught her eye. Signaling the dogs to her side, Chris watched a doe and her spotted fawn step forward. The fawn moved to the doe’s backside. After nudging a few times with an insistent nose, it began to nurse in earnest. Chris didn’t want to disturb the pair, so she turned back the way she’d come.

  “Come on, girls, let’s head back,” she said to the dogs. She’d been gone for about forty minutes and figured it was long enough to make Mary Jo feel better. She would have to control her pacing to keep everybody calm, including herself.

  The office was empty, and the door was ajar. She continued toward the foaling stalls, and her trepidation returned with a vengeance. At last, she joined Mary Jo, who stood leaning against the stall, watching Ruby.

  “Is everything okay?” Chris tried to keep her nervousness in check.

  Mary Jo hesitated a moment before answering, “I think so. When I looked at the monitor, I thought I saw Ruby shaking a little. But I couldn’t tell, so I came down here to see if it happened again.”

  Ruby was standing in the middle of her stall, a hind leg bent under her at rest, her eyes at half-mast. She didn’t appear to be in distress.

  Chris slid the stall door open and moved to the front of the horse. Ruby opened sleepy eyes and watched her approach. The mare lowered her head to Chris’s hand and let her rub her face and ears as she sighed heavily.

  “I know, sweet girl,” Chris murmured. “You need to put that big foal on the ground.”

  With her hand on Ruby’s side, Chris bent low and noted the dripping milk from Ruby’s udder. She stood up and faced Mary Jo. “She’s definitely going to foal tonight.”

  Laying her ears flat against her head, Ruby kicked at her stomach. “She may be having some labor pains right now,” Mary Jo said.

  Worried, Chris looked at Mary Jo for reassurance.

  Mary Jo nodded. “She’ll be fine, sweetheart. What I saw on the monitor may have been a minor stress seizure. We might not see it again, but just in case, I’ll go get my bag.”

  Chris patted Ruby’s neck and moved to the doorway to watch. Mary Jo rubbed Chris’s arm and headed for her truck.

  When Mary Jo returned a few minutes later, Ruby was laying down, groaning as she worked through a contraction. Just as Mary Jo reached the stall, Chris heard the telltale whoosh of the mare’s water breaking. If it weren’t for the concern regarding Ruby’s delivery, she would have been beyond delighted to see the foal being born, but her excitement was short-lived.

  Glancing at Ruby’s rear, Chris saw a tiny hoof, followed by the foal’s nose. She looked at Mary Jo and said, “Oh crap, that isn’t good.”

  Donning a pair of sterile gloves, Mary Jo quickly brushed past Chris and through the open stall door.

  “Easy girl,” Mary Jo said softly as she approached the mare. “I need to help you a little.”

  Chris watched with guarded concern as Mary Jo crouched next to Ruby and gently inserted her hand into the mare’s vulva, next to the protruding hoof. “Can I help?” she asked.

  “Just come in, steady her head, and talk to her. I need her to slow her contractions down so I can push the head back enough to find the other foot. She might relax if you talk to her.”

  As Mary Jo pushed the little head back, fighting the contractions, Chris spoke almost inaudibly to Ruby. “Take it easy for a minute, big girl. Let Cav help you out.”

  “Okay, I need to just go in a little farther.” Mary Jo grunted, apparently from the pressure of Ruby’s contractions on her arm. “Yes. I’ve managed to grab that elusive hoof and pull it forward. And I’ve got the head.”

  Within minutes, a liver and white foal lay in the straw.

  Ruby lay still in the straw and didn’t make any effort to greet her new foal. Without warning, her entire body convulsed in a seizure. The mare’s eyes remain fixed, pupils dilated, and then they rolled up, showing the whites. Sweat covered her entire body and began running down into the wet and bloody straw.

  “Cav, something’s wrong,” Chris said as despair washed over her. A rush of worry made her head buzz.

  “I was anticipating this.” Mary Jo rapidly drew a syringe of Valium and injected it into Ruby’s jugular vein. The seizure stopped as abruptly as it began. Ruby’s tense muscles relaxed, and her labored breathing returned to normal. Soon, she was able to rise up on her chest. When enough of her strength returned, she struggled to her feet and turned to sniff and lick her foal.

  Standing back to watch mother and baby meet each other, Chris asked, “What do you think caused that?” Her entire body felt weak with relief.

  “When a mare goes past her due date, the foal continues to grow, displacing intestines and other organs. When the mare gives birth, all that stuff comes rushing back and it can cause a severe amount of pain. That can cause a stress seizure.”

  Chris turned to Mary Jo and opened her arms in invitation. “I’m so glad you were here. I’ve never seen anything like that.”

  Mary Jo hugged Chris tight, careful to hold her gloved hands away. “I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. Especially when my baby was being born.” She snapped off her gloves and gently brushed Chris’s cheek with the back of her hand. “Ruby should be okay. We just have to monitor her for the next twelve hours to make sure she doesn’t colic. If she doesn’t, then we know everything moved back into the right place.”

  The colt nickered to his dam. Chris turned to look. He
was already trying to stand. His legs were incredibly long and gangly, painted white right up past his knees and hocks. A wide white blaze on both sides of his glacial blue eyes stopped just short of mulishly long ears.

  “Beautiful,” Mary Jo said, staring at her colt.

  “Yeah,” Chris replied, but she wasn’t looking at the horses. She only had eyes for her lady veterinarian.

  The next day, in order to finish her morning chores early, Chris got up sooner than usual, begrudgingly leaving her lover sound asleep in her bed. Following the usual feeding and stall mucking, she’d taken the temperatures of all the foals, recorded them, and medicated a two-week-old filly with a touch of diarrhea.

  Mary Jo came out to the barn just as Chris finished, but had to leave to go to her apartment for a change of clothes. After a quick kiss, she promised to meet Chris at Frances’s place for breakfast.

  In the office, Chris leaned back in her chair, feeling quite pleased as the computer uploaded and sent the last foal’s medical record to its owner. She glanced up at the monitors. Seeing nothing amiss, she turned off the laptop, headed for the door, and whistled for the dogs. She had jogged halfway down the aisle before the office door closed behind her. She heard the phone ringing but decided to let the answering machine take care of it.

  Clearly sensing Chris’s excitement, Cedar, Cagney, and Sadie ran to her with expectant eyes, their tongues lolling. The Labs danced around Chris as she walked, and Sadie ran back and forth, alternately jumping and bouncing against Chris’s legs with her front paws.

  “Come on, get in the truck. We’re going to see Frances and Daisy today.” Chris laughed as the dogs launched through the open barn door and raced toward the vehicle.

  She missed Frances terribly. Fortunately, there was only one more horse due to foal on the farm, and it looked as if it would be a week or more before Top Hat was ready. Since Top Hat was a bit temperamental, she had moved the mare to the foaling stall two weeks earlier so she could settle in comfortably.