Vetted Again

by K'Anne Meinel

  They did set up semi-regular hours at the ranch clinic on Fridays, but as they predicted, the best laid plans often meant cancellations or delays due to other animals’ emergencies. Still, it helped that Allyssa was nearly a fully-qualified vet technician and they had the two interns. The three couldn’t do some of the procedures, but enough that they could go to bat for Fey if she wasn’t available.

  “Bart really has an aptitude for small animal work,” Allyssa discussed with her wife one evening after their Friday clinic. “I wonder why he wants to learn large animal work?”

  “He told me he wanted to know as much as possible, but you are right, he doesn’t have a feel for the larger animals. I think he’s intimidated.”

  “Did you see Mrs. Jenkins’ dog this afternoon?” she frowned, looking at the paperwork she was going through and trying to joggle Erin at the same time. She’d just fed him for Fey and he was fussing. Fey had given bottles of her pumped milk to the other two babies, and Juanita was washing Molly in the sink before tucking her into bed.

  As Fey held Tom, she smiled down at him, trying to get him to smile in return. All the babies were growing so fast. “That dog gave me a look that said, ‘Just sayin, if you stick anything in my butt, I’m biting everyone in this room,’” Fey told her with much hilarity. Their giggles kept the babies enraptured until Juanita came to take Erin from Allyssa. Finally, Allyssa turned her full attention to her book work as Fey continued to play with Tom before taking him for a bath. Keith came in. He was rocking an exhausted Molly, who would be out shortly from her exertions in the warm bath. Both Sean and Traci were working on school projects at the dining room table. Fey looked around at their family scene, content beyond belief despite feeling exhausted. Exhaustion was the thing that was getting to both moms; they were tired all the time.

  “Brock is expanding the fields, and he’s rented the north section for next year,” Allyssa told Fey as they prepared for bed, fatigued from their day.

  “North section?” Fey asked, cursing her bigger boobs as she slipped on one of her nightshirts. There would be no more sleeping naked in this house with so many people living there and with three babies demanding attention at least once a night. The babies were sleeping for longer and longer periods and that was normal, but she’d just be glad if they ever got through a single night without at least one baby waking up and waking one or both of their siblings. When all three babies demanded attention at the same time, it exhausted their two mothers. With Juanita having her own space in the mobile home, they didn’t expect her to work nights. Sometimes, Sean and Traci were called into service but never Keith, who was just too tired as he recovered.

  “The section that was owned by the Roberts back in the day.” Allyssa smiled as she remembered that from the journals. The journals had been selling well, and while they could never retire from the proceeds, every dollar coming into their coffers helped. They’d both heard various comments from their clients’ owners, who had read about the Herriots’ epic journey to this section of Oregon.

  “Okay, just as long he is responsible for fencing it off,” Fey reminded her wife with a smile as she got into bed after looking over the three bassinets. While checking the babies, she had nearly tripped over Lexy, the self-appointed nursemaid. “What’s she doing in here?” Fey sighed. She hated to have the dogs upstairs, and luckily, Rex refused to climb the stairs.

  “She’s guarding her charges,” Allyssa said absentmindedly, rubbing lotion into her constantly chapped hands.

  “But must she take up so much room?” Fey lamented, stepping over the dog, who wagged its tail on the floor. She smiled down at the fierce-looking terrier. Several people had expressed concerns over their vet owning a Pit Bull, but she had explained time and time again that it wasn’t the breed that determined the dog’s ferocity, it was the owner. Fortunately for them, Lexy wasn’t mentally scarred from her previous owners.

  Their love life had taken a hit from this fall’s activities: giving birth, the roundup, re-establishing the vet practice, and the house full of people, but that didn’t prevent them from showing affection. They would hold each other close and make out whenever they had time, but they were frequently just too tired for further intimacies.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  “The trick or treating in town is coming up,” Traci reminded Allyssa for about the fifth time. She was excited to be participating this year since they would use hay wagons and horses. She was even more excited about the Christmas caroling via horseback. Allyssa was grateful she had Juanita to follow along with the babies, so they wouldn’t be out in the cold on the wagon she drove.

  “Yes, it is. Do you have a costume picked out?” she asked the young girl, smiling down at her sister-in-law fondly as they made plans.

  The 4-H troop was a godsend for these projects with many of the moms and dads helping, and Fey and Allyssa’s Falling Pines Ranch, with its horse rescue, was a perfect meeting point. Several of the rescue horses had been adopted by 4-Hers and were being tended by them on the ranch itself, since those living in Sweetwater didn’t have the accommodations, which meant lots of trips out to the ranch to ride and care for their charges.

  “Amy always wanted a horse, and I never thought we could afford one,” her mother admitted, watching her daughter riding a horse in the paddock. “By volunteering with the rescue, she doesn’t have just one horse, she has many.”

  She wasn’t the only person volunteering. They had so much help with the rescue that Woody and Rhonda had been pleased to expand their services. They had increased their horse training and were helping a lot more children and adults with special needs.

  “We brought several horses back in the roundup,” Allyssa explained why they had enclosed a large section up to the hills instead of just letting the horses roam farther afield as they had before. This group included the red horse and her foal, and Fey had thoroughly checked their health when they arrived.

  “What are you going to do with Big Red?” one of the mothers asked as she watched Allyssa bribing the mare to let her pet her. It was a slow process, but Allyssa was patient and would win over the shy horse eventually.

  “She’s going to be a great riding horse for us,” Allyssa admitted as she petted the greedy mare, always willing to take a treat and even now, pushing away other horses who came too near her foal while trying to get their share. Allyssa and Fey had plans for the foal as well. It appeared he was going to be a great stallion someday, but it was hard to tell yet as his gangly legs made him appear unsteady sometimes. He was not as graceful as most colts, but his bright red coat was exactly like his mother’s and made him stand out. Whoever his stallion had been, his coloring and conformation hadn’t been as strong as the mare’s. He was a beautiful foal and growing fast.

  “We have too many cowboys and Indians,” one of the mothers complained as they discussed the Halloween outfits they were putting together.

  “Isn’t that always the way out here?” another joked as she helped Allyssa roll pumpkins into the hay to store them until they were needed to decorate the hay wagon that even now, stood ready to accommodate the children.

  “Did anyone get that Clydesdale off the range?” one of the rancher’s wives, who had been involved in the roundup asked.

  “I heard it was a Belgian?” another asked as she grabbed a pumpkin to keep it from being pecked by a chicken that had escaped the coop. She expertly grabbed the chicken, returning it to the chicken coop over its loud, clucking protests.

  “No one got a picture of the horse,” Allyssa admitted, taking another pumpkin from the wheelbarrow she had filled. They were storing them under hay in an unused box stall to keep them away from the animals that would have eaten them. Juanita had cut up several of the nicer pumpkins and was using the flesh to make pies and drying out their seeds.

  “Allyssa, I think Molly needs to be fed,” Sean said, carrying the baby to its mother. He was blushing. While he didn’t mind helping to care for the babies normally, aroun
d the other kids he wanted to be cool.

  “Thank you for bringing her out here,” Allyssa answered, taking off her gloves and tucking them in the waistband of her jeans. She needed a tight belt as she attempted to get back to her pre-pregnancy weight, something that didn’t appear would happen for a while. She didn’t mind. She smiled down at Molly as several of the 4-H moms came around to coo and talk to the pretty baby. Allyssa was relieved. None of the babies had looked particularly attractive to her after they were first born, and she’d resigned herself that she and Fey had produced ugly babies. But that had changed as the babies grew into their skin. She watched as Sean hurried off to talk to his friends.

  “Do the children help with the three babies a lot?” one of the moms asked as she watched Allyssa handle the baby.

  “Actually, they are great. It really takes a village with this many babies,” she admitted, smiling, as she headed out of the barn to feed the baby in a more private place. She didn’t object to breastfeeding in public, but she wanted to wash up beforehand. Walking into the ranch house, Molly was fussing at being kept waiting. She put the baby down in the playpen, and she immediately started to cry. Allyssa rushed into the powder room to wash up.

  “Sean? I told you to take the baby to his mother,” Keith called, not realizing who had come in.

  “He did,” Allyssa answered from the bathroom as she hurried to pick Molly up and feed her. She glanced at Keith, who was sitting on the couch, and she was surprised to see Henry Lemoore sitting there. “Hello, Henry,” she greeted him.

  “Good afternoon, Allyssa. Keith called me out to talk over some legal matters,” he explained his presence to her.

  “I’ll just take Molly upstairs to feed her and give you some privacy,” she said, scooping up the squawking baby from the playpen. She watched lovingly as Molly took her nipple fiercely, and then, she began to wonder what Keith was working on. She knew Fey was worried that her father wasn’t bouncing back. No color had reappeared on his gray and rapidly aging face, even with all the time he had spent in the hospital and now at home. They’d driven him to the clinic several times for checkups and had all his medical information transferred down to Sweetwater from Portland. She wondered if his legal business had anything to do with the insurance on Rosemary and the house, then dismissed it from her mind since it wasn’t any of her business.

  When Fey came home, the usual chaos ensued: the children clamored for her attention, she pumped her breasts to feed the babies and restocked the RV, and the interns joined them for dinner. Allyssa didn’t get a chance to talk to her wife about Keith until they were getting ready for bed. Erin was grumpy tonight, and Fey was trying to cajole the baby into going to sleep. She was holding him in her arms as she tried to pull down the bed clothes one-handed. “Gosh, it’s getting cold early this year.”

  “I bet you say that every fall,” Allyssa teased her as she pulled down her side and then checked on Molly and Tom.

  Fey got into bed. She was holding Erin and playing with him, trying to get him to calm down enough to fall asleep. He let out a tremendous burp, which made his moms laugh and relieved his fussiness enough to finally allow him to sleep. “How was your day, babe?” she asked her wife softly while still holding of the baby.

  “Good. We got the pumpkins into the barn. That was a good idea to lock them up,” she said as snuggled close to her wife and baby. She was smiling at the sleepy baby and then her wife, loving her life right now. She couldn’t have imagined this just a few months ago. She’d really been ready to panic at times. Now, the only time that panicked her was when all three babies cried, and they didn’t have enough arms to soothe them all.

  “I thought I saw Henry leaving down the drive?” Fey asked.

  “Yes, he was here talking to your dad today. And don’t ask me what it was about because I don’t know,” she said before Fey could even ask.

  Fey chuckled. Her wife had anticipated her next question. She was worried about her father. He was a lot more cheerful here on the ranch among his children and grandchildren, but he wasn’t getting better. She knew he had worried about the insurance. Maybe that’s what Henry was looking into? She wouldn’t know unless she asked him, but when would she have a moment alone with him? There were too many people in their household to find much alone time. Even she and Allyssa only found time alone in their bedroom at night, and even then, they were still joined by the three babies. She smiled down at Erin again as he drifted off, content in his mother’s arms. She waited until she was certain he was asleep before carefully lifting him into his bassinet. She wondered how long they had until they would need the cribs they hadn’t even set up yet. With Keith in the house, they needed another bedroom. She was thinking they should utilize the large, empty basement to build a bedroom or two. Maybe Sean or Traci might like to move down there? Then, maybe Juanita could live in the house? She brought it up in whispers as she held her wife, enjoying the feel of her wife’s body against her as she sleepily talked to her until she finally drifted off in mid-sentence.

  Allyssa looked down at her wife, exasperated. She had hoped they would make love that evening but knew they were lucky to get any alone time with all the demands on them. She heard a baby cluck in its sleep and looked up to see if she would need to get up. The baby must have just been imagining being fed. It smacked its lips and fell back into a sound sleep. She cuddled closer to her wife, drifting off to sleep almost immediately.

  The 4-H club had two horse-drawn hay wagons packed with trick or treaters as they rode up and down the streets of Sweetwater. It was a great advertisement for the club, for the ranch, and for the rescue. The children loved it, and the residents loved seeing them. This year, Bart and Westley volunteered to follow along behind the procession in the poop patrol, the golf cart with buckets and shovels for picking up any horse plops. They’d been warned that it would be worse during the Christmas caroling, but they were enjoying their internships and were happy to volunteer for the dirty job.

  The week after Halloween, Allyssa stopped in at the ranch around noon to feed the babies, using bottles on whoever didn’t wake up in time to be breastfed. She was grateful when Juanita took the bottle-fed baby off her hands while she continued breastfeeding.

  “Mr. Keith, he sleep on the couch,” Juanita warned in a soft whisper, her finger raised warningly to her lips.

  “Has he been there long?” Allyssa asked as she finished up where she had been sitting in the den away from the noise of the television. She smiled down at Erin, hoping he wouldn’t spew on her as she started to burp him.

  “All morning,” Juanita admitted as she finished feeding Molly. Allyssa had started with Tom since he was the first awake, and she was now drained after feeding Erin. She felt greatly relieved, her heavy breasts reminding her it was time to feed the babies when she had come in from the cabin. Today was Friday, and Fey and the interns were busy shuffling between the cabin and the barn. She wanted to go out to the barn and put up a few more stainless-steel panels in the horse exam room they were still building. She’d gotten most of the walls done now, but her duties as a veterinarian tech and mom were consuming her time.

  Making sure all the babies were fed, changed, and happy took most of Allyssa’s time, and she was grateful for Juanita when Fey was busy with her interns and practice. She smiled while looking through the front window towards the cabin where several cars were parked. It was a testament to their hard work that people came to see their popular vet, who usually made house calls.

  “Keith, you should go up to bed if you’re tired,” Allyssa said, shaking his shoulder to wake him. He was completely limp and fell off the couch as she shook him. “Keith? Keith!” she said as he fell to the floor. She turned him over. He was grayer than she had ever seen him before. She automatically felt for a pulse and found none. It was then, she realized his eyes were sightless and he wasn’t breathing. She wondered briefly if mouth-to-mouth resuscitation would work but something instinctively told her it was too late. He
was ice cold. Keith was dead. “Oh, my God,” she said, immediately starting to cry as she stood, wiping her lips reflexively with the back of her hand.

  “Ms. Allyssa?” Juanita asked from the doorway.

  “Juanita, call for an ambulance. Mr. Herriot...Keith...is dead,” she said with a heart-rending sob. She glanced at the housekeeper through her tears and saw her eyes go round at the news. “I’m calling the sheriff,” Allyssa said, heading for the other phone as Juanita snatched up the cordless. “It’s not an emergency,” she told Juanita as she dialed 911 and then shrugged. Maybe that was the only way to get an ambulance, she didn’t know.

  With all the things that had gone wrong on the ranch previously, the sheriff’s office was pre-programmed in the phone, and she waited impatiently for them to answer as her eyes returned to the body lying face up on the floor in front of the couch. Fey was going to be devastated. Then, she glanced at the clock and realized the children’s school bus would drop them off at home anytime now.

  “Sheriff’s office. How may I direct your call?” the voice intoned on the other end of the line.

  “This is Allyssa Herriot at the Falling Pines Ranch. My father-in-law, Keith Herriot has died,” she said professionally, knowing they were probably being recorded. She watched as Juanita spoke into the other phone.

  “We need an ambulance at the Falling Pines Ranch. Mr. Herriot, he has died,” she told the person at the other end of the call.

  Allyssa had to repeat herself twice before the sheriff’s office agreed to send a deputy. She’d had interactions with Sheriff Bradley several times over the years and wondered if he would come personally since he had known Keith as a young man or send someone else. After hanging up the phone, she stared at the dead body. She grabbed a blanket off the back of the couch and covered his body, hiding the sightless eyes that were still staring towards the ceiling. Now, she knew why they put coins on the eyelids of the dead to keep them closed; it was spooky. She felt tears streaming down her cheeks, not for herself or for her father-in-law but for her wife and her brother- and sister-in-law, who would be devasted when they learned the news. She looked through the window at the clinic, knowing she should shut it down right now.