Vetted Further

by K'Anne Meinel

  Fiona shook her head immediately. “No, we have him sedated. That brings up a question…how long should we continue his treatment? It could get expensive–” she stopped because Holly was already shaking her head and holding up a hand.

  “Whatever it costs. I know my husband would feel the same. Whatever it costs. He deserves it for what he did for Charlotte. He was protecting her. The least we can do is to try and save him…as long as he is in no pain?”

  Fiona assured her repeatedly he wasn’t in pain and she would keep him sedated. Finally, they sent the poor woman home. There was nothing she could do at the clinic, and they would call if there was any change in Khan’s condition. She still had a family waiting anxiously at home and she needed them.

  “We’re going to have to watch him closely,” Fiona mentioned to the others as she turned to go back in the clinic.

  “Why don’t we take it in shifts?” Jeremy recommended.

  “You are as tired as I am,” Fiona answered wearily, rubbing her forehead and then her eyes.

  “I’ll take the first shift,” Jeremy volunteered.

  “I’ll cook up the steaks I had put aside, and we’ll fix you two a couple plates,” Allyssa put in.

  “I’ll help,” Bess promised, and the two of them headed to the farmhouse.

  “What would you say his chances are?” Jeremy asked Fiona as the two women left.

  “Given the size of the rattler she described, not good.”

  “You have much of the meds on hand?”

  “Yeah, I deal with horses and other animals that get bitten, so I have a good supply.”

  “Ironic that the injection comes from horses that have been bitten,” he commented wryly.

  “That’s our job…full of ironies,” Fiona agreed wearily.

  * * * * *

  Fiona ended up sleeping in the cabin on the couch. She could have gone upstairs, their old bed was made up and waiting for someone to use it, but she didn’t want to take the chance that her fatigue would cause her to fall down the stairs. It was easier to go through the open doorway into the addition to check on the brave dog. She set the alarm on her phone to go off every hour, so she could check on her patient.

  Each of the doctors took three-hour shifts and then woke the other to take over their shift. Neither got a very good night’s sleep. Sunday morning was bright and clear, and both doctors looked like hell. Still, Khan was alive and holding his own. The phone rang early and Fiona answered it. It was Mrs. Winters checking on Khan.

  “After he risked his life for our family, we want to give him all the love and affection we can,” she explained after Fiona told her he was holding his own.

  “He has been very sick all night,” Fiona explained. “This could go on for several days, and his chances…” she repeated what she had already told the owner. It did not look good.

  “I’ve read,” she began despondently, “that where there is life, there is hope. Do you believe that?”

  “Absolutely,” the doctor responded. She’d seen it many times in her practice. Animals were amazing creatures.

  “Please keep him as pain-free as possible, and if the pain gets to be too much, please let me know,” the woman sobbed, unable to maintain her composure even on the phone. The thought of ending the brave dog’s life was too much.

  “Yes ma’am. He is unconscious now, and I’ve administered painkillers. I will let you know if he worsens.” The dog was in bad shape, barely breathing, but he was alive and that counted for something.

  “You don’t mind if I call and check every now and then, do you?”

  “No, ma’am. I understand.”

  They rang off and Fiona turned from the phone. Allyssa had come over from the farmhouse and was watching her.

  “Are you okay?” Allyssa asked, concerned.

  “Just tired. I’m going to need a lot of caffeine today.”

  “Why don’t you continue to take the day off? You doze in the sun, and I’ll help you watch the dog.”

  “I have other…” she began to protest, having had to work many times on little sleep in the past.

  “And there is nothing that can’t wait until tomorrow,” Allyssa finished for her.

  “I hate to tell you this, but we have to get back to my practice,” Jeremy chimed in from where he had been dozing in a chair. He got up as he said it, stretching.

  “Breakfast is waiting on the table for the two of you. I’ll look in on our patient and you two go eat,” Allyssa advised.

  “So bossy,” Jeremy teased with a smile as he turned to head towards the farmhouse.

  “I have to check on…” Fiona began, gesturing towards the barn where a couple of their patients still resided.

  “After breakfast. I’ll look in on Khan. You tell me what I need to watch for and then, I’ll look in on our other guests,” she gestured towards the barn.

  Fiona leaned over to give her wife a kiss. “Thank you,” she said simply and then explained what Khan’s vitals were and what to watch for. After she had that information, her wife shooed her out of the cabin to go eat.

  Fiona returned in record time. She was showered and ready to start her day despite the fatigue. Jeremy and she both checked on the remaining cats and dogs, who had needed extra attention after their procedures and had stayed the night. Their owners were due to pick them up anytime. She saw where Allyssa had been taking the dogs out for walks. A healthy bowel movement and peeing was important after a surgery.

  “She’s amazing,” Jeremy said with admiration when he saw how much help Allyssa had been. Bess wouldn’t have thought to walk the animals, and her administrative skills weren’t nearly as complete as the young woman’s. She didn’t have the enthusiasm about his work, although Allyssa had offered to help with their website and Bess was now excited about that. Allyssa had also convinced her to take credit cards and would help her set that up as well.

  Allyssa and Fiona waved their friends off as they left to go to their own practice, watching as they passed a car coming over the hill.

  “Oh, just what we need right now,” Fiona mumbled apologetically as she recognized the car.

  “What now?” Allyssa asked, worried. They had a lot on their plate right now. She hadn’t even started on the pile of paperwork waiting for her.

  “The chickens,” she mumbled, again sounding very sorry for herself and her wife.

  “The chickens?” she asked, turning towards her wife for clarification.

  “Well, I asked a while ago and you agreed,” she reminded her.

  “I thought that was a spring project?”

  “These will be half grown, so you don’t have to deal with chicks and heat lamps.” She turned to the woman who had stopped her car and gotten out with a smile. “Hello, Mrs. Hatley. How are you today?” The fatigue seemed to vanish, and the doctor’s demeanor changed instantly.

  “Dr. Herriot!” the woman returned her smile and greeted her. “And this must be your lovely wife I’ve heard so much about.”

  “Yes. Yes, it is. Allyssa, this is Mrs. Hatley, who raises a lot of chickens,” she explained. “She’s an expert on them.”

  “Oh, yes. We’ve spoken on the phone.” Allyssa returned the smile and went forward to shake the woman’s outstretched hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

  “Well, when Dr. Herriot told me you wanted to raise your own chickens, I saved some of my very best for you. I understand you are a city girl, and I’ll be happy to help you in any way I can,” she promised, practically gushing.

  “That would be wonderful,” Allyssa sounded sincere, although the last thing she wanted at this moment was to raise chickens. “We have a shed I’ve painted, and Fiona put chicken wire around it,” she gestured to the former storage shed they had converted. “She’s put in perches and we have the watering dishes…” That started a conversation with Mrs. Hatley about the relative merits of buildings for chickens. Fiona, smiling, went to check on her patients, leaving her wife to get to know their guest.<
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  After the half-grown chicks were installed in the new quarters and Mrs. Hatley was assured that Allyssa knew how to feed and water her charges, she left them with a smile and a wave. She was the first of the visitors they had that day. People were picking up their pets after their surgeries. Allyssa was kept busy processing payments and paperwork and didn’t see Fiona for a few hours.

  “How is Khan?” she asked as she discharged another cat and spied her wife.

  “He’s still the same. No better, no worse,” Fey admitted, sinking into the couch wearily. “God, I’m tired,” she admitted.

  “Have you eaten anything since breakfast?” her wife asked, astutely. “You have to keep your carbs up.”

  “No, I’ve been worrying over that dog,” she admitted.

  “Okay, go to the house, get something to eat, and maybe take a nap. I’ve got this,” she indicated the dog in the addition and then gestured towards the barn where a couple of their patients still remained. “Thanks for the chickens, by the way,” she added, sounding a little sarcastic.

  “You’ll love them,” Fiona teased. “They really are quite fascinating when you get to know them.”

  “I have to get to know them? According to Mrs. Hatley they all have personalities and lives that I can’t ignore. It sounds like a lot of work.”

  “As they get older and more independent, you will be able to ignore them. Just watch for hawks and other varmints.” She glanced at the pistol her wife was wearing, knowing it had alarmed some of their guests. She had one too but didn’t wear it quite as often as Allyssa.

  “Go eat and take a nap. You are drooping,” Allyssa advised. “I’ll stay busy,” she indicated the pile of paperwork, which had been added to with all the day’s recent discharges.

  “Just check on Khan in say…” she glanced at the clock, “half an hour?”

  “Will do,” she promised and watched as Fey turned and walked out of the cabin and down the steps towards the house. Rex greeted her and was petted for his efforts as they walked along.

  Allyssa started her paperwork, glancing at the clock, so she could faithfully report her findings about Khan at the proper time. She checked him every half hour since there was no sign of Fey. She released another cat and a dog. There was only one cat left and she was becoming worried the owner might have abandoned it. All the overnighters were to be picked up by noon, and this cat was not happy about being left behind in a strange place. The cat had made quite a mess of the kennel it was housed in. When Allyssa put on long, leather gloves to keep from getting scratched and put the cat in another kennel with a cat pan, so she could clean the first kennel, she attacked it and made a mess of the second kennel too. It was a form of self-defense; a messy one at that and stinky. Allyssa was grateful the kennels were stainless steel and easily cleaned with soap and water. She sterilized each one of them as their occupants left.

  Slowly, the afternoon went by. She tried calling the owners of the one remaining cat but got no answer. She hoped they were on their way. Fiona came in after a three-hour nap, feeling refreshed and looking much better. She checked on Khan, whose condition hadn’t changed.

  “No way to tell if he’s going to survive?” Allyssa asked as her wife came out of the room.

  “No, but he’s alive and I guess that’s something,” she said, sounding weary and depressed.

  “Hey, we have to hope for the best,” Allyssa tried to cheer her.

  Fiona glanced at her wife, saw she had made a dent in her pile of paperwork, and smiled. “How are our other patients?” she thumb-pointed to the barn where some of the surgeries had been and they kept their charges.

  “Only one left, and I tried to reach the owners. Good thing I made them pay up front,” she added.

  “You think they abandoned it? Cat or dog?”

  “It’s a cat, and she’s not happy. I cleaned her first kennel and now, she’s messed another.”

  “Well, she can stay in it until they come.” She glanced outside at the beautiful summer day, sighing that she had missed most of it, but she felt better for having had the nap and glanced at her wife gratefully. She really couldn’t have asked for a better helpmate. Allyssa had gone back to entering things on her computer, typing away as she put the data in for future use and then filed the paperwork. Her efficiency was astounding. She had set the whole clinic up and kept things running, so Fey didn’t have to be concerned with that side of things.

  Allyssa glanced up and caught her wife’s grateful look and asked, “What?”

  “You don’t know what a find you are, do you?”

  “A find?” she asked, laughter bubbling up.

  “Well, I couldn’t have hired such an efficient partner for my practice, and you go above and beyond to help.”

  “I do what I can,” she shrugged. She was pleased Fey saw what she did for them, but she thought the work Fey did was much harder. If she could make things a little easier for her spouse, then she was pleased with that. “What are you going to do the rest of the afternoon?”

  “Well, I don’t want to get far from our patient,” her chin indicated the dog in the next room.

  “I have to be here for several hours yet,” Allyssa told her, indicating the stack of paperwork she was working through. “I’ve been checking him every half hour as you requested and there is no change. Why don’t you go do something: take a walk, a hike, or a ride? Enjoy yourself for a couple hours. Do something that doesn’t involve this,” she indicated the cabin where their clinic was located.

  “What about you?”

  “I’d love to join you, but I want to finish this,” she indicated the pile of paperwork. “I also think you need some alone time on our ranch. Take Rex. He needs to get out of the yard and out of my hair,” she nodded her head towards where he was sneaking a peek in the cabin, looking to see if any of those strangers were invading his space. He hadn’t liked being relegated to the farmhouse porch the last couple days and getting yelled at if he tried to greet anyone who came in the yard. He was checking to see if he could return to his spot on the cabin porch when he heard his name.

  “Oh, he’s a good boy,” Fey crooned, rubbing his head. He came up to her hip easily. He was a big dog, and she loved him.

  “Yes, he is, but he wasn’t happy the past couple days and could use a good run.”

  “You’re right. I’ll saddle up and take him for that run. Wish you could go with us,” she said, eyeing the pile of papers but knowing they needed someone here to keep an eye on their patients.

  “Next time,” she promised. They could resume their morning rides if Fey wasn’t out with a patient. They didn’t get them in every day but as often as possible. She watched as Fey walked down to the barn with the eager Rex, who sensed they were going to do something fun. She returned to her desk and paperwork, just vaguely hearing the horse walking in the ranch yard as Fey and Rex headed out. She also heard a car coming over the hill and was at the door to greet the elderly woman whose cat was still in the barn.

  “I’ll get her,” she said, not wanting the woman to see the state of the kennel the cat had messed. She put on her arm-length, leather gloves again to catch the upset and nasty cat and shove her in the transportation kennel. Carrying it up to the woman, she reminded her to return to have the cat’s stitches removed. Waving, she gladly got rid of that patient. She checked on Khan again before returning to the barn to clean the kennel and disinfect it. Fey returned as she was once again working on paperwork, whittling down the pile that had grown so quickly during their clinics. She was thrilled the next day was Monday and she could deposit all the checks they had accumulated. The cash was already stored in the safe and the credit cards were automatically deposited in their account.

  “Hey, how’s it going?” Fey asked. She looked immeasurably better than she had that morning. The fatigue was gone, and she looked relaxed and healthy, her cheeks lightly flushed from her exertions.

  “I’m almost done,” she indicated the pile, “and that lad
y picked up her cat. There’s no change in Khan. Mrs. Winters called, and I told her that too.”

  “Wish we had something positive to tell her, but it will take a while before we see anything.”

  “Have you seen this before?”

  Shaking her head, she answered, “No, but I read up on it after we treated him, and others have.”

  “You don’t give him much hope, do you?”

  “That was a big snake. I don’t know how much venom got into his system or how much our treatment will do. It all depends on him.”

  “I want to do a blog about snakes and keeping a watch out for them. Could you read over what I write before I put it up and give me any pointers?”

  “Sure, when are you putting it up?”

  “Probably after I finish this,” she indicated the pile once again. “I’ve been thinking what to write and I also want to do some research before I put my article together.”

  “Good idea,” she agreed as she went through the living quarters of the cabin to the addition to check on Khan. She needed to see for herself how their patient was doing. She saw that Allyssa had been checking on him regularly as she indicated the times and her observations on a sheet. Nothing had changed. She sighed and checked the dog herself, noting his color hadn’t gotten better, his breathing was regular, and he was still out. She returned to the office. “I’m going to make dinner for you for a change,” she announced.

  “Oh, yeah?” her wife challenged her with a grin.

  “Yeah,” she promised, returning the grin.

  “What we gonna have?”

  “It’s a surprise,” she promised.

  “Is it a surprise because you have no idea what you are going to make and what there is in the cupboards?”

  “Well, that too,” she admitted with a sheepish grin and then left her teasing wife to head to the house. Rex bounded around her, still full of spit and vinegar despite running next to her as she rode her horse. With that much energy, no wonder he got on Allyssa’s nerves now and then. He was a lot less enthusiastic than when he was as a puppy since his two accidents had slowed him down. Still, he had more energy than some, and he’d survived two incidents that could have killed him.