Pasture Postmortem (Mandy Bell DVM Series Book 2)

by Abby Deuel

  "I agree. I take it as a huge responsibility to get this puppy to live."

  "If anyone can do it, you can," said Gerry.

  Mandy must not have heard him or she would have blushed. She was snuggling the puppy and cooing over her fluffy ears. As a Pyrenees, she was nothing but an adorable white fluff-ball with lots of toes. Pyrenees are from the mountains of France where they are bred to have extra dewclaws to help navigate the rugged terrain. They are wonderful watch dogs for sheep and goat flocks. Mandy couldn't help but wonder if this little puppy would change her life. Mandy and Gerry were disturbed from their thoughts when Gillian waltzed in. Lunch had gone by quickly between the Crowleys and Gerry stopping in.

  "First appointment is here," said Gillian.

  "I better shove off anyway. Let me know what you find out from your end," said Gerry.

  "Will do," Mandy said, carefully placing the puppy in her basket with the heating pad. Lyle was there to sniff her, tucking her in with her nose.

  Gerry departed and Mandy went into the exam room to find a little Australian shepherd and her owner. She looked at the file and the vaccines were current. There must be something wrong with the Aussie.

  "What seems to be the issue?" Mandy asked, starting to do her physical exam. She looked in her ears which were clean. Her eyes were nice and clear. There were no spots of fur missing. Mandy was stumped as to what could be the problem. The Aussie did not offer any suggestions. She sat perfectly still apart from her little fluffy stump wagging.

  "She is terrified of thunderstorms. She knows it's coming even before the TV starts putting warnings on. When we are in the thick of storm season, I cannot calm her down. She's like a little barometer. I'm not sure what to do. I'm Mrs. Bouvier's sister, by the way. My name is Nancy Sloan. Glad to meet you, finally. I have heard so much about you."

  "Nice to meet you as well. So, Ash, here," she said, looking down at the chart for the name, "is storm sensitive. There are lots of things we can do for her. I try to reserve drugs for a last resort. First, I try natural things. Where does she go when it storms?"

  "Under my bed, normally."

  "I think it would help her to make a safe place to be. The best spot is where you would go for a tornado. You want a room that has no exterior walls or windows. A bathroom or closet is typically the best. You can even make a soft comfortable spot under the sink or in a shelf in the closet. She needs to feel secure. She will learn to go there when she starts to get scared."

  "What else can I do?" asked Ms. Sloan.

  "This will sound crazy but it really works. Take a drier sheet and rub her down before the storm comes. The static electricity generated during the low pressure of a thunderstorm is what causes the anxiety in many dogs. By wiping them down with a drier sheet, it removes some of that electricity."

  "Wow, that would never have occurred to me."

  "There are natural things you can use to calm down a dog. There are pheromones you can spray in the room that mimic the same ones a mama dog gives off when she's whelping. It works in the brain to soothe a dog. It won't knock Ash out, just help provide tranquility. Here is a sample of that spray to try. You can also use Benadryl to cause a slight drowsiness to help assuage her fear."

  "Sounds great. That's lots of things to try. We will get you through storms now," said Ms. Sloan to Ash.

  "If all of that combined does not help, I have a neutraceutical which is a pharmaceutical that is nutrition-based, that can help. I can dispense that if we need to. Let's try the others first," said Mandy.

  "Thanks so much, Dr. Bell. Mrs. Bouvier is right, you are amazing."

  "You're welcome," Mandy said, blushing slightly.

  As Ms. Sloan and Ash left the room, Gillian peaked in. "Cup of tea?" she asked.

  "Sounds wonderful," said Mandy.

  Chapter 23

  There was a break in the action so Mandy and Gillian sat down to drink their tea. Mandy mixed up some milk for the puppy and brought her into the break room. They sipped their tea and watched the puppy eat with vigor.

  "She's doing so well. What are you going to do with a Border collie and a Great Pyrenees in an RV? I think it's time that you move into Anna's house once and for all for some more room," said Gillian.

  "It's tempting, but I have a better idea. You and Hamish have always wanted an A-frame house. You guys should move in and call it your own. You need more space, too. Hamish is going to be old enough soon where he doesn't want to be in a cramped house with his mom," said Mandy.

  "What? You should keep the house and live in it. You're not leaving Crestview any time soon. We are fine in our little trailer," said Gillian.

  "I never said I was leaving or that I don't need more room. I have a plan," said Mandy.

  "Do tell," said Gillian.

  "I've done some thinking. Lyle needs some land. Derek's house is up for grabs since his payments were behind. Gerry told me today that there is no family to get it out of debt. I called the bank and they are wanting to sell it as a short-list foreclosure. It will be sold for below market value just to get it moved so they can pay off the loans owed on it. They also don't want to have to sell the sheep separately. It would be too much paperwork for them. So, they are going to let me buy it as is," said Mandy.

  "Whoa. You have been working on all of this and never said a word to me. I don't miss anything. I am impressed," said Gillian.

  "So you see, there is no reason to keep Anna's house when you and Hamish are the suitable family to occupy the house. As soon as the paperwork is all through, I will hand the keys over and you can move in."

  "This is a total shock to me. I see you have made your mind up. I can't tell you how much this means to me and Hamish. There is even land at her place where we can keep our horses. This is going to change our lives," said Gillian.

  "To be honest, I never could work out why Anna left the house to me and not you to begin with. It now makes sense. Her grand plan was to bring me here, meet you, start to like it here, and then stay here. She knew me better than anyone else on this planet. She knew that I couldn't resist the charm of Crestview. And now, I am carrying out the part of her plan that she had planned for you. You and Hamish have always been the rightful owners of her house. She just used me to get you there."

  "That is convoluted, but so was Anna. This means you are staying?"

  "I cannot commit to staying forever. I will still have my RV. It is time for me to have a home base without an ignition. I am not getting any younger. I have been looking for a little slice of this planet where Lyle and I could live the kind of life we have been craving. We wanted something with some stock to work and rolling hills. Derek's property ticks all of the boxes. I feel like I am fulfilling Derek's wishes and Anna's plan. This little puppy completes the family."

  "I am so happy. This is a dream come true! We need to find a name for her one of these days. Does anyone else know?"

  Mandy placed the puppy in her little basket. She was full and had pottied. She was ready for another nap. Lyle snuggled in next to her basket.

  "No. And quite frankly, I cannot tell anyone until it is all finalized. You know that this town will go crazy when they find out. Let's keep it on the down low. Deal?"

  "Deal. That doesn't mean that I can curb my enthusiasm for the grand Dr. Bell becoming a fixture in Crestview. And for Hamish and I having a house that did not arrive on a semi. This is exciting. Can I at least tell Hamish?"

  "I know you will no matter what I say. Just be sure to explain it is our little secret for a little while, OK?"

  Gillian put her fingers up to her mouth and mimed locking a key to seal her lips. Then she put the imaginary key in her pocket. She promptly burst out laughing because Gillian trying to keep a secret was as hard as it would be to tell Mrs. Bouvier and expect the entire town not to know overnight. Gillian would just have to do her best.

  "What do you suppose we should do with Mr. Bobcat?" asked Gillian.

  "I think he is getting to the point where he nee
ds to be in a low traffic area. He is eating on his own and doesn't need to be exposed to barking at this crucial time of his life. We don't want him to become imprinted or comfortable around the sounds of society. Do you know anyone who might have a spot for him?" asked Mandy.

  "What about setting up a temporary pen where the trappers found him. He can acclimate to the sounds, sights, and smells of the wild. I can call them this afternoon. I bet they would be over the moon to do their part," said Gillian.

  "I love it. Yes, let's do that. We can make a cage out of panels from the yards behind the clinic. We can make him a little safe box inside of it so he starts to learn to hide. I think that will work great. Let me know what they say and when we can do that and I'll be there to help," said Mandy.

  "Are you handy with tools?"

  "Indeed I am. My grandfather showed me the basics. I have always been into it. It's been useful throughout my life to have the skills to put a few things together without calling for help. A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do, right?"

  "You know I am in the same jill of all trades camp. Girl power," said Gillian.

  They put their dishes in the sink and went back up to the front of the clinic as a client was arriving. It was a large non-descript mutt of a dog with one ear sticking straight out from its head. The owner was a large man wearing overalls with a handkerchief sticking out of his back pocket.

  "Hi there Joe, what's the matter with Talulah?" asked Gillian. She was writing a note to Mandy as she interacted with Joe. The note said that Joe was all but deaf and could not read or write. Mandy took cues from Gillian as to how to interact best with her new client.

  "Her ear swelled up like a dead toad. Figured I would bring her in," said Joe. Not able to use the phone due to his hearing impairment, Joe never made appointments. He just stopped in when he needed to and Gillian was always happy to help him.

  "Let's have a look here," Mandy said, making a point to speak slowly and make eye contact with Joe. He could read lips and respond rather loudly to your questions but it was a workable form of communication. Mandy reached down to check Talulah's ears over. One of them was normal. The other had a distinct swelling in the pinna and a major infection in the ear canal. The swelling was the result of a burst blood vessel that had allowed for the pocket between the two layers of the ear to fill with blood and serum. It was so swollen that it needed to be drained quick-smart.

  "What we have here is an aural hematoma or a blood clot in the ear flap. We can fix it with surgery. It happened because the infection in her ear made her shake her head and scratch so hard that she burst a blood vessel," said Mandy demonstrating with arm and hand signals while shaking her head.

  "Can you fix it for me?" asked Joe.

  "Of course we can. We will drain it and quilt the ear down so that it will heal flat. We will need to leave a hole for fluid to continue draining out. It's a bit messy," said Mandy.

  "Can you keep her and do it tomorrow?"

  "Let me talk to Gillian and make sure that we can get her in tomorrow," said Mandy.

  Before Mandy even got a chance to ask, Gillian poked her head in the exam room to confirm that they had room in the schedule that afternoon, if Joe didn't feed Talulah.

  "I thought you might need to put her out so I didn't feed her," said Joe.

  "Perfect. We will fix her up for you this afternoon," said Mandy.

  Gillian had already set up a cage for Talulah in the back since she had predicted that this would be the plan. Gillian transferred Talulah to her accommodation for her evening stay while Mandy helped Joe fill out the necessary paperwork. Since Joe could not read or write, Mandy verbally went over the plan with Joe. They were all in agreement for the treatment plan so Mandy led Joe to the front of the clinic. She wouldn't be able to call him. Instead, he would just stop by tomorrow afternoon to pick up Talulah. Mandy and Gillian gave Talulah some pain medication and sedation so she would be ready to go on the table.

  The next appointment called to cancel. The cat that they were going to bring in with a hurt paw made a break for the door and they couldn't figure out his hiding spot. Talulah wasn't quite ready for surgery so Gillian took the opportunity to call the trappers while Mandy went to check on the puppy.

  Chapter 24

  The puppy's belly was a little distended so Mandy treated her with an anti-gas medication. She was such a small puppy that it only took a few drops on her tongue. It was to be expected that she would have a few digestive issues, having not been given colostrum from her mom. Puppy replacement milk is a great help with an orphaned pup; however, nothing was as good as the real thing. Mandy was happy that she had such a great appetite. She couldn't complain about a little bellyache.

  Gillian came bouncing into Mandy's office looking quite pleased with herself.

  "The trappers are into the idea. They have a spot that they think would be perfect. They will even help build it. And they said that they can supply the little bobcat with lots of wild-caught morsels. They are excited to be able to do their part. They can meet next weekend to check out the pen. In the meantime they will start putting together a structure and then we can tweak it as we see fit," said Gillian.

  "That's excellent news. Next weekend is perfect. It won't be too cold yet so he will have time to acclimate to the weather. It will be a perfect soft release. I have always wanted to get a game camera to watch a soft release. I think this is the right time to invest in one. I will get it ordered and we can play with it so we are ready to install it. We can watch how he does on his own," said Mandy.

  "Oh, I love it. We can learn from his behavior to help us improve our techniques should we ever get another bobcat," said Gillian. "Now that you are staying, I can talk in the future. This is turning out to be the best day yet."

  "It is kind of nice to be able to think into the future and have a visual to go with it. Too often I didn't even know where I would be a week away, much less the following year," said Mandy.

  "Now you know how the rest of the world tackles life. It is okay to have a grounding spot. You'll have to have your family out to see your new digs."

  "I haven't even signed the dotted line. Let's not get ahead of ourselves."

  "Who? Me? I would never do that," Gillian said, smiling.

  "One step at a time," said Mandy.

  "I need to go make some packs for surgeries tomorrow. Is there anything you need? We have a few minutes before our last appointments of the day," said Gillian.

  "No, I'm good. I am going to do some investigating online here. I may be getting somewhere. I am waiting to hear back from someone," said Mandy.

  Mandy sat down at her computer. She had changed the screen saver from the bouncing ball to scenes of national parks. It did the trick. Lyle was no longer on constant ball patrol. Mandy started by checking her email. It seemed that the retired professor who might have some answers about the chemical had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's. He had poor recall from his years at the university and would not be able to offer Mandy any helpful information. With that dead end, Mandy again redirected her search.

  This time, she would look into possible rivals of chemical inventors. She wondered if perhaps there was some sort of negative camaraderie in the chemical world that would be enough to kill someone for. She searched for other people who had played a part in chemical innovation during the time period of her mystery chemical. It's kind of a tricky thing to find on the internet without prior knowledge. That meant that she had to spend some time getting to know her nemesis: chemistry. She knew how drug trials were conducted but really had no sense of how chemicals were created, modified, tested, or patented. She found a few sites with books to read. She would download them and read them for background information.

  While the books were downloading, Mandy made a list of other reasons that someone might poison Derek. She really couldn't think of any off-hand. Unlike Buck whom she had never met, she had an amicable friendship with Derek. He had been a mentor for her with Lyle. With no clues
there, she would have to come up with broad reasons why someone might murder a person and then narrow it down from there. Typically, the passion of murder could result from disagreements over money, love, property, old rivalry, jealousy, or family, just to name a few. Since she was interested in buying his farm, she decided to start there. She would go through old archives to see about property rights and boundaries. Perhaps someone wanted to get their hands on his land.

  Mandy made a phone call to the town librarian, Sonya, for help. She didn't want to let anyone know she had already put an unrivaled offer in on the land. Instead, she told Sonya the angle of the murder investigation as her motive for information. This was believable since Sonya had helped her in Buck's murder case as well. Sonya said she would go through archives and see what she could dig up. She couldn't recall any public disagreements over the land, but that didn't mean there wasn't anything. As the librarian, Sonya tried to stick to herself as much as possible, not getting involved in town battles.

  Mandy looked again at her list for motives. She could cross off money since Derek didn't have any and his assets were frozen in his multiple mortgages. Family didn't seem likely since he was estranged from his family. Still, she needed to look at that angle. She decided to call on another of Crestview's resources, Mrs. Bouvier. As the town busy body, she might have got wind of any trouble Derek might have been in. Mrs. Bouvier answered on the first ring.

  "Hi, Mrs. Bouvier. I wondered if you know of any old or new troubles Derek might have been in with his family or anyone in town. I can't seem to find a motive for why anyone would want him dead."

  "He really didn't have any issues that I know of. He wasn't originally from Crestview, I can tell you that. He seemed to just move here one day years ago with no past. He became right at home here quickly. It was like he was searching for a place where he could be himself. He never bothered anybody here. In fact, he got very involved with the agriculture students, encouraging anyone that he could to show animals at the fairs. He was an animal advocate for sure," said Mrs. Bouvier.