Vetted

by K'Anne Meinel

  “One of the clients has a horse we might have to bring here, so I can keep a closer watch on it,” Fiona mentioned sleepily from where she was sitting. “We need a couch,” she added in a murmur.

  “Why don’t you go upstairs and sleep on the bed?” Allyssa commented to her. It was only eight and it was dark out, but her wife had gotten a phone call at five that morning and had gotten in her truck and gone to the call without breakfast. Allyssa had made a note to pick up protein bars on their next shopping trip into town. She’d keep them here in the cabin and make sure to stock the truck so Fiona had something to put inside her on her long drives.

  “Are you coming up?” she asked as she rose and stretched.

  “I’m tweaking the connection from our blog so it appears on the website and on the various social media sites. That way I don’t have to post on each individual one,” she explained.

  Fiona looked at her blankly. “How do you know how to do all that?” she asked, wonderingly.

  Allyssa shrugged. “Some of it I learned in my classes at college and some was trial and error on here. I read a lot,” she explained, trying to excuse the hours she spent on the computer when her wife was away. Still, it was netting results and Fiona was getting busier and busier as spring approached and farmers and ranchers realized the convenience of having another vet around. Fiona wasn’t the only one, and already one of the vets had met with her and asked how she had become established so quickly. She’d explained with a laugh that she had a dedicated marketing consultant in the form of her wife.

  Looking at the various boxes that were still in the corner of the cabin, Fiona remembered something that had been niggling at the back of her mind. “We’re going to have to order some more prednisone from the supplier. I used the last of it up on that old mare of Harry Jenkins’,” she explained and gestured from the boxes to the papers she had handed her wife.

  “Won’t they get suspicious when we order so much of that kind of stuff?” She knew it was the type of drug that some took as a recreational drug, but she was coming to find out it was also used to treat many things. She carefully documented and wrote up Fiona’s nearly illiterate notes, having her explain everything to her so it was all clear to anyone who might audit their files.

  “No, as a vet they don’t call it prednisone, but...” she thought for a moment for the name the supplier used and told her wife. “Please include that in our weekly order.”

  The weekly order went out on Monday and by Wednesday or Thursday Fiona could pick it up in Sweetwater at the post office. Margaret would call when it came into the small town. Not knowing if it was important or not, she frequently called her customers to come pick up boxes that were delivered. They weren’t ordering enough that a truck could bring it out to the ranch, not yet.

  “Eventually, you’ll have to go pick this stuff up too,” Fiona mentioned to the increasingly reclusive Allyssa.

  “I know, I know. There are things we need around here, like that couch. I need you to pick up a trailer or something when you see a good deal.”

  “A trailer or something,” she mused as she headed for the small bathroom they now had in the closet in the corner of the cabin. It was very basic, containing a very small sink and the toilet they had purchased. They could take spritz baths, but no showers. As she came out from her nightly ritual of brushing her teeth she asked, “How about I get a horse trailer so we can use it to move stock too?”

  “Just so long as you wash out my trailer after every use,” Allyssa wrinkled her nose as she teased her wife.

  “Your trailer, eh?” she smiled as she came over to give her a kiss goodnight. She wished she could do more, but she was too tired and that was one of the casualties of becoming busier and busier … their evolving sex life.

  “Yes. Mind yourself, missy,” she said affectionately as she tapped her forefinger on the doctor’s nose.

  Fiona laughed, enjoying the byplay as she headed up the stairs to their bedroom. It was all so small, but Allyssa tried hard to make it cozy, and she was succeeding. Fiona was so proud of her. She talked about her with all her clients, bragging on her skills if they happened to mention the website, the blog, or social media. Not knowing what places looked like around the area, she included articles on the side of her blog or website that might interest her readers, and those around who had heard about it were signing up and following the ‘Herriot’s Happenings’ blog. Fiona was so proud of what she was accomplishing in a relatively short time. She was also happy at how very busy she was becoming.

  As spring came to the foothills, the animals in their burgeoning growth had a plethora of illnesses, pains, and whatever a vet would be called for. The cell phone that Fiona finally got rarely worked with all the hills and valleys she went into. The CB radio wasn’t much better, so she learned to check in when she was on a high ridge, and if the phone didn’t work the CB might. Still, many messages were passed to her from clients amused at how resourceful her wife was at tracking her down. Many were curious about this wife, not caring in the least that this new vet, a native of the area, was a lesbian. She knew her job, talked their language, and was personable and caring, and as the bills came in they saw her rates were reasonable. That’s what they wanted.

  Allyssa knew she could no longer hibernate out at the ranch and began making twice weekly runs into Sweetwater to pick up the mail and a few odds and ends at the market. Once Fiona found them a slightly beat-up horse trailer they could afford, she’d attach it to the back of the Cherokee, turn off the overdrive, and go searching for things for their home. Fiona found herself coming home to help wrangle a used couch, the chairs already in place. And much to her surprise, Allyssa found a bed frame that fit perfectly in the small space of the loft. They had to baptize that and her appreciative lovemaking thrilled the younger woman who was learning so much about herself, her body, and her wife. She enjoyed herself enormously when her wife wasn’t too tired to make love. She’d never realized that two women living in close proximity would begin to cycle together, their mood swings and the whole process. It was fascinating and annoying at the same time.

  “This horse is worth more than our trucks combined,” Fiona explained as she led the limping mare into the impeccably clean barn. She was their only occupant in the large and richly appointed behemoth.

  “What’s so valuable about her?”

  “She has some fancy name out of whoseit and whatsit,” the doctor claimed as she calmed the high-spirited mare. “However, she won’t settle down and I can’t seem to treat that infection,” she pointed to the swollen leg. “It isn’t healing,” she added, obviously frustrated. “I’m hoping a completely different environment and watching her closely will do it. You should have seen the client...” she began to tell the tale.

  “Eric Grayson?” Allyssa put in to show she was paying attention and knew who the expensive mare belonged to.

  “Yeah, that’s him. You should have seen his face when I told him she needed isolation. He has about thirty mares, ten of them due to foal this spring from various stallions, but this baby they couldn’t even breed because she was too young, weren’t you, girl?” she said soothingly to the fractious mare, who nuzzled affectionately at the woman.

  Allyssa stared, fascinated as her wife’s supple hands caressed the large animal. Those same hands brought her so much joy and pleasure. She knew the horse was getting pleasure from the pats and caresses as she would have too. It was strangely arousing, but she knew it was also from her own thoughts about lovemaking. She’d started having fantasies about her wife.

  “Hopefully, while she’s gone they will remove all the hay and disinfect her stall. She will heal here and will be whole when I return her. He sure didn’t like the looks of the horse trailer when I pulled up.”

  “What? He doesn’t like the rusted-out spots? I think that adds character,” Allyssa teased. She started out taking steel wool to the spots, but it killed her hands and she had ordered a brush that was supposed to do the same
work. She hoped to be able to spot paint without it looking too bad and was reading up on that. They all said the rust needed to be removed first or it would continue to eat at the metal underneath the coat of paint.

  Still, having a large animal that required feeding, water, and care was fascinating to the city-bred Allyssa, who could be found sitting outside the stall, talking to the young horse who seemed just as fascinated as the blonde typed away on her keyboard, keeping up with her work.

  After a couple of weeks, the infection had healed and Dr. Herriot returned the valuable mare to its owner with a clean bill of health. There was some debate between the doctor and her wife on the expense of the care. She pointed out the round-the-clock care, personal facilities, special food for the expensive horse, all which were billable. And there were also the expensive medications used to treat the actual infection. Fiona was embarrassed as the bill went out and was equally surprised that it was paid promptly and without comment. She did like that her wife was researching how much things should cost. She networked with other office managers in a variety of veterinary practices across the country and even into Canada to compare what they did and offer suggestions. It freed the doctor up to do what she did best, taking care of the animals.

  “How would you feel, and would you have the time, if I got a couple of horses of our own? Would you rather have an ATV to go off and explore the hills when we have the time?” her chin took in the hills that were slowly losing their snow cover as spring tried to take hold in the high country. Still, it wasn’t unheard of for a dusting of snow to come in off the mountains and plummet temperatures in this area.

  Allyssa was eager to explore, but scared without her wife in attendance. She was certain she was going to become lost in the many hills and dips that came up unexpectedly. Fiona had taken her off-road in the Jeep once and it had been thrilling and scary all at once … and oh, so beautiful. The incredible views, the enormous mountains in the distance, and the ponds, rivers, and creeks that ran through their section of the world were things that she couldn’t imagine living without. She loved it here and was looking forward to seeing the change in the seasons. Her letters to her family, and now emails, were always filled with positive notes. The replies were filled with dire warnings, rumblings of old, and negativity. She wondered if they had always been this unhappy or she was noticing it more now that she was away from it.

  “I think,” she said in answer to her wife’s question, “we should get both. I don’t want to have to continually clean out the stalls though,” she teased. Keeping the one horse had been easy, but they would have to put in some hay and apparently Fiona’s grandfather had done that on a regular basis. There was still plenty stacked behind the barn and up in the amazingly clean loft of the barn. It was neat and orderly and Mama Cat had already started earning her keep by keeping unwanted rodents at bay and teaching her growing kittens to hunt. There was also an old tractor and backhoe out behind the barn that Allyssa had started to clean up and explore, tinkering with it when she had the time.

  “I’ve got to find a moment to spay her before a tomcat comes along.”

  “I’ve not seen any strange cats around,” she pointed out. She’d seen coyotes and even a skunk, but no domestic animals.

  “A tomcat will come from miles around if he senses a female in heat. You wouldn’t have to know he was around, he just will be. She’d be pregnant so fast, and I don’t want to be an irresponsible pet owner. How would that look to my clients if I’m trying to foist kittens off on them all the time?”

  “You are not getting rid of the three jelly beans!” Allyssa insisted. Those kittens were just darling and as sweet as Mama Cat.

  Fiona smiled at her wife’s vehemence. “Then everyone needs to get fixed!”

  That meant they needed a sterile operating area. They debated and decided the barn would be the best spot since it was so large and had the most space they could convert. It also meant a lot of the boxes in the cabin could finally be gone through, opened, and used as they slowly made their operating room for small animal surgery.

  “Someday I want to be able to do large animal surgery here too,” Fiona said nostalgically as they put together a stainless-steel table that was the perfect height to see patients and operate on. Stainless-steel was easier to keep clean too.

  “Sounds expensive,” Allyssa told her meaningfully. They had to watch expenses as they were still new and growing.

  “I know,” she answered miserably. “Still, I can dream.”

  They watched a movie on the TV one night and it had a vet in the storyline. The operating room she had was to die for, and Allyssa watched her wife lean forward and watch avidly as the woman showed off the room to her former boyfriend. “This was your idea,” she told the man and the wonderful stainless-steel table came out of the wall and unfolded.

  “That’s amazing,” Fiona said with envy in her voice.

  The horse she had treated was the first of many overnight guests. With proper care, and Allyssa’s diligence when Fiona couldn’t be there, they were all successful. Only one was too far along and had to be put down. Dragging its carcass to a crack in the earth far from the ranch and pushing in the dirt was one of the saddest moments Allyssa had encountered since her journey began a year ago. She loved the animals, and seeing one handled so immodestly—dropped into the crevice where Fiona used her grandfather’s front-end loader to push dirt on top of it—made her want to cry, but she did so in her private moments.

  “Baby, it’s a fact of life. I’m not going to be able to save them all,” Fiona explained when she found her wife sobbing over the dead animals. “You don’t even see the ones on their farms and ranches that are entirely too late for me to save.”

  “I know. I do the billing, remember? One of them wrote back that she thought it was terrible that we billed for a dead animal.” She was crying over it now and Fiona gathered her in close. She understood. Allyssa had a kind heart and she wanted nothing to take that away. She was such a sweet person.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Fiona took Allyssa’s teasing to heart and managed to trade vet work for first one and then another horse for their own ranch. Allyssa, having learned to ride in a carefully controlled environment in Denver, had to learn not to post. Her English style of riding was of no use out here where throwing a saddle on a horse and riding Western was the norm. Still, she wouldn’t ride the horses without Fiona there and certainly wouldn’t go exploring alone as she was certain she would get lost. Rex was game anytime she wanted to go and his long legs carried him far. No trace of a limp could be seen anymore.

  “Did you see that?” Allyssa squealed as she pointed out horses to Fiona on one of their rare rides. Spring was in full bloom and they wanted to see the many flowers and growing plants on their ranch.

  “Yeah, those are wild mustangs,” Fiona said with a grin. She had wondered if they would see them. Her grandfather and many other ranchers had chased them away from their valuable grazing land, but as her family had gotten rid of their cattle and stock, they had returned.

  “Wild mustangs!” she said, enthralled as she gazed at them running along effortlessly over the ground. They covered a lot in a short period of time too, disappearing over some unseen hill or into a valley that couldn’t be seen until you went over a ridge. “Did I ever tell you about the Mustang I had?” she started to laugh and told her wife about the car she had bought last year. “It’s amazing to realize it was just last year,” she said. She shook her head…so much had changed in the months since that car had been sold. A run-in with a dog, the very dog who was panting alongside their horses, had started her on this journey and now she was here on her ranch with her wife on her horse and with her dog. She couldn’t have imagined it a year ago.

  “Do you miss having a muscle car?” Fiona was curious, always wondering if her city wife was missing the bright lights.

  Allyssa shook her head. “I love it here,” she assured her. “Although, those ATVs sound like fun.�
��

  Fiona had found two of them torn apart on one farm and useless to the farmer. She’d brought them home for a ridiculously small fee and Allyssa had looked up the instruction manuals on them. She already had one of them working by salvaging parts from the other one. Her hands were no longer the perfumed and spotlessly clean hands she had kept up in Denver. Frequently she had grease stains around her nails. She used surgical gloves whenever possible, but often forgot as she worked on the ATVs herself with pride.

  “How in the world did a girl from Regal Crest Gardens learn to work on engines?” her wife marveled. She’d already changed the oil on the work truck for her, and with the many miles she was putting on it, this was a necessary and valuable skill.

  Allyssa grinned as she explained that there were boys in high school that didn’t necessarily belong to the country club who not only wanted to get into her pants but didn’t mind teaching her how to maintain her own vehicle. She had been fascinated, the tomboy in her insisting she learn and knowing how much it would have annoyed her mother or sister. Frequently she had to hide her hands or her dirty clothes from them.