Stray Horse

by Bonnie Bryant

  “Bullfighting,” Lisa corrected him.

  “Olé!”

  “Tell Stevie and Carole dinner will be ready in about half an hour,” Mrs. Lake said. “And if you see any of our sons, you can give them the same message.”

  “Will do,” Lisa said.

  Mrs. Lake plopped down on the sofa next to her husband, took his hand, and looked at the television. “Now who’s in the lead?” she asked.

  “The guy in the funny hat,” said Mr. Lake.

  The door to Stevie’s room was closed against the clamor that filled the hallway, caused by her brothers’ battalions of jettisoned stuffed animals.

  “Time!” Lisa called, ducking under a flying teddy bear. There was a brief but noticeable truce while she made her way into Stevie’s room. She knew the truce was over by the thud on Stevie’s door as soon as it closed behind her.

  “You made it safely through enemy territory?” Stevie asked.

  “Barely,” Lisa said, slipping her bag off her shoulder and sinking onto the floor. Stevie and Carole each tossed her a pillow for comfort.

  “Well, how was it after we left?” Stevie asked.

  “Awesome,” said Lisa. “I had a great time working with Doc Tock. That place is wonderful. It’s like everybody knows there’s work to be done; they all do it and nobody complains because everyone knows it’s got to be done and it makes a difference. You should have seen the kid who came to pick out a cat. It was like love at first sight.”

  “Which cat did he choose?” Carole asked. She’d seen almost all the animals while making the rounds with Doc Tock.

  “The calico,” said Lisa. “She’s still a kitten, and when their eyes met—well, you just knew it was forever.”

  “I wish I’d been there,” said Carole.

  “Right, like you’d miss a lesson and a hack for all the tea in China,” Stevie said.

  “Horses aren’t the only animals I love,” Carole retorted.

  “But they’re the ones you love best,” Stevie reminded her.

  “No argument,” Carole agreed. “Well, if I couldn’t be there, I’m glad you were.”

  “My parents thought it was great,” Lisa said. “I stopped at home to pick up my stuff on the way here. I told them all about it.”

  “Of course they thought it was great,” said Stevie. “You’re their daughter—their only child living at home. Everything you do is great.”

  “Sort of,” Lisa said. “But anyway, I’m going to go back to CARL every day.”

  “Every day?” said Stevie. “But what about Pine Hollow?”

  “What about horses?” Carole asked.

  “Don’t worry,” Lisa said. “Ill get to Pine Hollow. I love horses, too, you know.”

  “But there’s so much to do at CARL,” Stevie protested. “That’s the point, isn’t it?”

  “You’ll end up spending all your time there,” Stevie said.

  “No, I can do both. I love both places, I’ll get to both places. You can love two places at once, can’t you?”

  “I guess,” said Carole, but in truth she wasn’t at all sure she could ever love any place as much as she loved a stable, any stable, and there was no way she’d ever love any stable as much as she loved Pine Hollow.

  “Don’t worry. You’ll see plenty of me at Pine Hollow,” Lisa told her friends.

  Assured, they turned their talk to horses until the call came up that dinner was ready. Dinner at the Lakes’ was as rambunctious a time as any other. There was a constant threat of food fights. Mr. and Mrs. Lake seemed, to Lisa, to alternate between bemusement and genuine concern for the future of the fruit salad. During everyone’s third helping of pasta, Lisa realized she was really exhausted from her long day. Caring for animals was draining, and she didn’t have the energy to worry about flying melon balls.

  After dinner and cleanup, the girls retreated to Stevie’s room. Lisa won the toss for the cot. She donned her pajamas, unfolded the bed, and put Stevie’s sleeping bag on it. She shimmied into it and rested her head on the pillow.

  Right next to her, Stevie and Carole were having an animated conversation that centered around Joe Novick’s inability to keep his heels down, even though he’d been riding much longer than Lisa, and how Patch must get tired of having his rider unbalanced that way.

  Lisa’s mind wandered. There was vigorous activity going on in the hallway, a continuation of the stuffed animal battle that had begun before dinner. Downstairs, Mr. and Mrs. Lake were playing a contentious game of backgammon. Lisa had seen them at it before. They bet when they played backgammon—a full thousand dollars a game. Lisa had seen the score pad, too. They had a running total that they’d been keeping since before their children were born. Sometimes they were pretty even. The last time Lisa had seen it, Mrs. Lake had been up ninety-eight thousand dollars, but from the sound of Mr. Lake’s victorious cries, the score had evened out considerably that night.

  There was noise everywhere in this house. People argued, threatened, competed. It was very different from Lisa’s house. Things were almost always quiet at the Atwoods’. But even all the noise wasn’t going to keep Lisa awake that night. She slipped into a dreamless sleep while Carole and Stevie compared the jumping styles of Belle and Starlight, a subject that could keep them talking all night long.

  LISA WINCED. No matter how much she cared about the animals at CARL, and no matter how important she knew the work was, it still didn’t make the litter boxes smell any better. But they had to be cleaned, so she was doing it.

  “You’re tireless!” Anita, the receptionist, told her.

  “Not really,” said Lisa. “I mean, I don’t get tired because I know that what I’m doing is important.”

  “I think you’re the first volunteer we’ve ever had who thought cleaning litter boxes was important.”

  “I didn’t say it was fun,” said Lisa.

  “Yes, at least you didn’t say that!” Anita teased. “And when you’re done, I’ve got a treat for you.”

  “What?”

  “Well, there’s a new puppy that came in and he needs to be taken for a walk.”

  “I’m your woman!” Lisa said. One of the things she enjoyed most was taking the dogs for walks. The dogs spent a good part of the day in their cages, so they all liked to get out, and it was good for them. It was especially important for the puppies, who needed to learn to be walked on a leash.

  As quickly as she could, Lisa finished cleaning the litter box and then took Anita up on her offer of walking the puppy. As soon as she clipped the lead on the yellow curly-haired pup’s collar, he started leaping with excitement. Lisa knew he’d been abandoned and wondered how he’d learned so quickly to love leashes. Perhaps it was in the genes, or maybe another dog at CARL had told him about it.

  He leaped happily as they left the building, and he continued to jump with excitement for their promenade on the sidewalk. He paid no attention whatsoever to any instructions Lisa tried to give him about proper walking manners, but they both had fun.

  When their fifteen minutes were up, it took a lot of work on Lisa’s part to convince the puppy to turn around and go back. Lisa was glad he was still pretty small. She just picked him up and turned him in the right direction. That seemed to change the dog’s mind. He began jumping toward his temporary home instead of away from it. Lisa laughed at his eagerness.

  A truck pulled into CARL’s driveway in front of Lisa and the puppy. It was a truck Lisa knew well because it belonged to Judy Barker, Pine Hollow’s vet. That was odd, because there were no horses at CARL, and horses were Judy’s specialty. She’d help out with the small animals or fill in for Doc Tock in an emergency, but as of the last fifteen minutes there were neither any horses nor any emergencies at CARL.

  The puppy was getting stubborn again, perhaps sensing that his freedom was about to be curtailed. Lisa bent down and picked him up. At first he wiggled against her grasp, but as she began to stroke and scratch him gently, he gave up resistance and simply enjoyed the
attention. He was practically purring by the time she slipped him back into his cage.

  “What are you doing here?” Lisa asked Judy. “We don’t have any horses in residence.”

  “I could ask you the same thing,” Judy said. “I was just at Pine Hollow and your friends are taking a jumping class. Shouldn’t you be with them?”

  “I decided to spend a little time helping out here this afternoon,” Lisa explained.

  “And yesterday afternoon and the two days before that,” Anita said. “She’s becoming a permanent fixture— and a welcome one at that!”

  “Thanks,” Lisa said. “I’m mostly having fun with the small animals.”

  “Well, now you’re about to start having fun with a horse,” Judy said. “Angus Rutherford found a stray horse hanging around at the back of his pasture. It was frightening his cattle, so he called me and I told him to bring the fellow over here.”

  As if on cue, a large farmer’s truck with a horse trailer in tow pulled into CARL’s drive and slowed to a stop.

  “Can you give me a hand, Lisa?” Judy asked. “I have the feeling this guy’s not going to be too enthusiastic about backing down the ramp.”

  Lisa went to the back of the truck and unlatched the door. What she saw inside was a dirty, scraggly, skinny horse, and she felt a catch in her throat.

  “Oh,” she said.

  “Don’t worry,” Judy told her. “We’ll look after this fellow, won’t we?”

  They opened the doors completely, and while Judy slid the ramp out of the back of the trailer, Lisa climbed in to take a closer look at CARL’s newest resident. At first she thought he was mostly mud-colored, but on second look she realized that what she was seeing was mud—and scabs. The horse had a lot of cuts, and his coat was a mess. His mane and tail seemed hopelessly tangled. His ears flattened against his head, indicating that he wasn’t in a mood to trust anyone. Even in the dim light of the trailer, Lisa could see plenty of signs of infestation. It turned her stomach to think how many ticks they were going to find on him.

  “It’s okay, boy,” she said, automatically falling into her habit of talking in a calm voice to an unfamiliar animal. “I think you’re going to like it here, because everybody here is going to like you.” She kept talking and didn’t make any sudden moves until she saw his ears begin to perk up. Then she reached for him slowly and gave him a little pat on his cheek—a place she’d learned most horses find irresistible. It was a good time to give him a treat, but she hadn’t brought any carrots, apple, or sugar with her. She felt around in her jacket pocket and pulled out a piece of her peanut butter and jelly sandwich left over from lunch. It was mashed and unappetizing to her, but it just might be the treat this horse had been dreaming about. She took the mangled mass out of its plastic bag and held it out for the horse’s inspection.

  He sniffed once and then he took it. The sandwich morsel was gone in a flash. The horse’s ears perked up brightly and he looked straight into Lisa’s eyes. The look said only one thing: More!

  Lisa burst out laughing. She patted him again, took hold of his old and very worn halter, clipped a lead line on it, and then began bringing him out of the trailer. He seemed uncertain until Lisa realized that he was lame in one leg and probably hurting in all the others, to say nothing of the rest of him. This was a sick horse that needed a lot of help. But sick as he was, he willingly followed the source of peanut butter and jelly sandwich out of the trailer and onto solid ground.

  “Good job!” said Judy. “What’s your secret?”

  “If I told you, it wouldn’t be a secret,” Lisa joked. “Anyway, this guy and I have found the basis of a beautiful friendship. In his case, it’s food.”

  “Not surprising,” said Judy. “Just look at those ribs.”

  Lisa did and then was sorry she had. In the daylight the horse looked even worse than he had in the dim light of the trailer. She knew that a lot of what looked awful was just superficial—things like mud and scratches. Other things would take longer to fix, and Lisa was glad that Judy would be the one looking after those.

  “Put him in the paddock, will you?” Judy asked.

  Because CARL was a temporary shelter, it didn’t have a real barn. What it could offer a visiting horse was a small paddock with a covered area where the horse could go for protection from bad weather.

  The fact that this horse was wearing a halter meant he had once belonged to someone and had somehow gotten separated from his owner. He had managed to survive in the wild on his own, but the sight of a paddock with a fence, with the promise of plentiful fresh water and the smell of clean hay, lifted his spirits visibly. Lisa let him loose in the little paddock, and he went right over to the water bucket. No surprise after a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, Lisa joked to herself. Too bad she didn’t have some milk for him!

  Once the horse had had some feed and a good long drink of water, Judy began her examination. Lisa helped, as she often did when Judy examined the horses at Pine Hollow. Judy checked the horse’s vital signs: his temperature, heart rate, and breathing. All were normal, and that was really good news. If a horse had a bad internal infection or a disease, its vital signs would be out of whack. The fact that they were normal was the first sure sign that this horse was going to be all right.

  Judy asked Lisa to get a bandage to wrap the swollen leg. Even though Judy hadn’t examined it carefully yet, Lisa knew that it was going to need to be wrapped. She turned and walked quickly in the direction of the main building.

  “Ouch!” Judy yipped.

  “What was that?” Lisa asked, turning around.

  Judy had backed away from the horse and was looking a little annoyed at him.

  “Not so friendly after all,” she said. “He just kicked me.” She rubbed her shin. “Not that it’s the first time a horse has kicked me, but this guy seemed pretty cooperative.”

  “Want me to stay?”

  “No, I’ll be okay. I have to do this myself,” Judy said. Lisa suspected that was a veterinarian’s equivalent of getting back on the horse after being thrown. For riders, that was a way of overcoming their fear by facing it.

  Lisa paused to watch, wanting to be sure the horse and vet were both okay. As soon as Judy reached toward the horse’s head, Lisa could see his leg muscles tense up. He was going to kick again. Judy saw it, too, and withdrew her hand.

  “He was okay until you started to leave,” Judy said to Lisa.

  “Well, I didn’t prod him with any instruments,” she said jokingly.

  “Make me the bad guy, huh?” Judy retorted.

  “I think I’ve got an idea,” Lisa told her. “Wait just a minute.”

  She hurried into the main building, where there was a whole shelf stocked with animal treats. She found a small supply of carrots—most of them had already been eaten by the raccoon—and an apple.

  She brought them out, along with the leg bandage, and stayed by the horse’s head, giving him occasional treats while Judy examined every inch of him and took blood samples.

  When she was done, Judy gave the horse a pat. He almost nipped her, but Lisa got a carrot into his mouth in the nick of time.

  “He’s not well-mannered,” said Judy. “And while I’m glad to have you save me from a feisty horse, it’s not really a good idea to give him treats while he’s behaving badly. It’s like you’re rewarding the bad behavior.”

  “It’s his first day here and he must be scared to death,” Lisa said.

  “You’re right, but be careful around him. I don’t think you should groom him.”

  That was just what Lisa had been planning to do next. “He’s going to feel much better when he’s clean,” she pleaded.

  “And I’m going to feel better if you don’t end up in the hospital,” said Judy.

  “Okay, but at least let me give it a try. You can give him treats for a few minutes while I groom him.”

  Judy sighed. “Okay,” she said. “Well just see how he behaves. The first kick and we’re both out
of here.”

  Lisa didn’t wait for Judy to have second thoughts. She hurried over to the storage area where she knew the horse equipment was kept and brought back a grooming bucket. The horse didn’t want Judy to hold his halter. He made that very clear. But he didn’t mind when Lisa clipped the lead line back on and gave that to the vet.

  He watched suspiciously when Lisa put the bucket down nearby. His ears went back on his head.

  “Lisa …,” Judy began.

  “I’m okay,” she said. And then she began talking to the horse again. She showed him the soft brush she was going to begin with and let him sniff it. She even let him take a little bite at it. She could tell it didn’t taste good; the disappointment was visible in his look. The horse must have figured out it was harmless and, Lisa thought, he probably recognized it.

  Gently she began stroking his coat, beginning with the dried mud. It was painstaking work because there were so many cuts and scrapes that it would have been easy for her to hurt him unintentionally. Whenever she recognized a raw spot, she simply brushed around it. There would be plenty of time in the future to get him really clean. For now, superficial would do.

  “You’re amazing,” said Judy, speaking quietly. “Doc Tock told me what you did with the owl the other day, and now he’s healthy and quite tame. It’s like you can speak to them.”

  “I learned a lot of this from you,” Lisa said as she continued working.

  “Well, I must be a better teacher than I realized,” Judy said.

  “The owl was just luck,” Lisa said. “And patience. This guy and I have a real bond, though.”

  “That secret?” Judy asked.

  “I guess,” said Lisa. She stood back and took a look at what she’d accomplished so far. She was surprised to discover that in spite of the mud, the cuts, and the visible ribs, she was working on a rather handsome horse. He was a light chestnut with a blaze and white socks on three legs. It might be socks on four legs, but there was still too much dirt on one of his ankles to be sure. The light color was very distinct, and it made Lisa smile.