The baby kept sticking its nose into all of Daisy’s armpits, or legpits, whatever you call them. It found a teat under one of Daisy’s back legs and began to suck. It stopped and started again. It poked its muzzle around all under its mama’s belly and tried sucking on the teat again.
“Dad? Are you there?”
“What, Piper?”
“I don’t think it’s getting any milk. It keeps sucking, then stopping, then searching around somewhere else.” Dad was silent for a minute.
“You don’t think the baby is getting any milk? It may not be, since she never waxed.”
“No,” I said. “I don’t think it is, do you, Jeff?”
“I don’t know, but it doesn’t look like it is.”
“Watch for a few more minutes. If it doesn’t look like it’s getting any milk, one of you go up to the mare, slowly and gently, and see if you can get any milk out. Piper, my phone is dying, so listen. If no milk comes out, call Sue at the clinic and get her to bring you some colostrum from our fridge there. The baby needs to have some.”
“Okay, Dad, but what if Daisy’s milk doesn’t ever come in?” No response. I was on my own. Correction: Jeff and I were on our own.
Chapter Twelve
~ Colostrum ~
So there we were, Jeff and I, with a newborn foal and no one else to tell us what to do. Was it even a boy or a girl? I decided to look. I stepped into the stall and bent over to look underneath the baby.
“It’s a boy!”
“What are you doing, Piper?”
“Checking to see what it is. It’s a boy. You’re a daddy.”
“I am not the father!”
“Well, Daisy is your horse now. Maybe this is your brother. Or cousin.” I walked quietly to Daisy’s head and patted her, telling her what a good girl she was and how pretty her baby was.
“Girl, you’re crazy,” he said. “Now what are you doing?”
Our urgency about the birth had gone away, but now we needed to make sure the baby got some nourishment.
“My dad said to see if we could get any milk to come out. Do you want to do it?”
“No way!”
“I didn’t think so. Here goes.” I walked around her side, petting and talking. I had just gotten to the part where she was the best mother horse in the world, when I reached under her flank and found her udder. I gently squeezed, but nothing came out. Once more, but it was dry. I tried the other side and got the same result. Daisy gurgled in her throat and turned to look at me, but seemed calm.
“Hey, Jeff,” I said softly, so as not to startle the horses, “Will you look on my phone for the clinic number and call it? Tell Sue what’s happened and that my dad wants us to get some colostrum out here.”
“What’s colostrum?”
“Stuff in the milk that babies need right away. It gives them antibodies.”
“Okay, I’m calling. You know, they didn’t talk about all of this in health class.”
I stayed near the mare and foal while Jeff called the clinic. I patted the baby on his rear and side, while Daisy sniffed at my arm. She didn’t seem upset that I was there, so I petted her, too. A whole new horse was in the world today, and I had just helped it get there. Wow!
“Piper, here, talk to Sue at the clinic,” said Jeff. I stepped over to where he was holding the phone out.
“Sue?”
“Piper, hi. We have colostrum here, but I can’t leave. We have a whole waiting room full of people for me to help. Do you know someone who can come get it? And oh, by the way? Tell your dad he needs to get a partner. We’re just too busy.”
“Let me call around. I’ll get back to you.”
Who to call? Addie first, then Miss Julie, then Mom. I got lucky with my first call.
When Addie answered, I explained the whole thing very quickly to her and asked her to stop by the clinic and bring the colostrum to me. Her mom was gone, but she said she was on her way on her bike and would pedal fast. That’s what’s great about Addie: she will come through in a pinch.
After talking to Addie, there was nothing much to do except see to the new mother and baby. I put a bucket of water and some hay in the stall for Daisy in case she was hungry or thirsty after her hard work. We decided not to clean up the dirty straw in the stall, because we didn’t want to disturb the mother and baby, who were sniffing noses and licking each other, like they were bonding. Daisy made gurgling noises in her throat that sounded like a horse purring. I killed time straightening up things on the medicine shelf and Jeff pitched in, too, rewrapping bandages and setting all the boxes in order. He was easy to be around.
“Hey, Piper,” said Jeff, moving to stand next to me. He stared at me and I didn’t know what to do.
“What?”
“You were awesome in there, getting the baby out and all. I’ve never known any girl that would have the guts to do that.”
“Oh...well, thanks. I guess you don’t really know what you can do till you have to.”
“I guess. Would you... do you want to go to the Homecoming Dance with me?”
“The what?”
“The Homecoming Dance. It’s for the football homecoming.”
“Yes, I know what it is. I just didn’t know if I heard you right.” My hands shook and my stomach did flips. Calm down, try to be cool.
“So, will you go? I mean, I don’t know where they are going to put me since Cassie is gone, but I figure they’ll let me stay around another two weeks. It’ll probably take that long to line up a foster home, or whatever. So I’ll probably get to go to my Homecoming Dance before I leave. I hope I will anyway. I mean, I hope we can go together. If I can stay till then.”
“Well, yes, I’ll go. Thanks.” What could I say that might make him feel better? I couldn’t think of much. “Surely they’ll let you stay till then.”
“Well, let’s hope,” he said. “If not, I need to stay in touch with you, anyway.”
Addie’s sense of timing is great most of the time, but it wasn’t good then, because she came wheeling into the barn on her bike.
“Here it is! I have the colostrum!” Jeff and I moved apart automatically and I gave a shaky sigh. No one had ever asked me to a dance before. No one had ever asked me to anything before. I couldn’t look at Jeff. I felt really funny and I knew I would tell Addie about the dance, but not until Jeff was gone.
“Look,” I said to Addie. “We have a baby. It’s a colt. I helped pull it out.”
“Piper saved their lives. She was a hero.” Jeff stared at me, but I still couldn’t look at him. Okay, I did glance up once.
“Wow!” Addie looked back and forth at both of us. She knew something was up. She just didn’t know what. She connected to me mentally sometimes like that.
“All right,” I said. “Let’s get some of this into the baby.” I took the packet of colostrum and looked at it. “Did Sue say how to do this?”
“Yep,” said Addie. “It’s thawing out now. We’re supposed to thaw it all the way to room temperature or warmer, put it in a syringe and feed it to the baby that way. I have more in my backpack in a freezer bag that we should keep frozen for later.”
“Here,” said Jeff, “I’ll run that into the house. I’d better label it, too.” He took the backpack and ran toward the house.
“What’s going on?” said Addie, nodding her head in Jeff’s direction.
“I’ll tell you later,” I said. “Long story.”
“Wow, so you and Jeff got the baby born. Was it hard?”
“I don’t know if it was hard, but it was definitely scary and messy,” I said. “That’s the placenta over there.” I nodded toward the gloppy-looking hunk of meat.
“Ewww! That’s disgusting!”
“That’s horses having babies,” I said with a shrug.
“So, when can Daisy and the baby go out?” asked Addie.
“They have to be by themselves for a few weeks without the other horses. We can let the two of them out in their own little paddock after two days.”
Addie and I warmed up the colostrum in our hands until it felt room temperature. I put it in a large syringe I found in the medicine cabinet and together we went into Daisy’s stall. The mare was very calm when we petted her baby. Some mares didn’t want people near their babies, but Daisy was an angel. Addie hugged the foal around the neck to hold him still, while I slid the syringe into his mouth and squirted. He tossed his little head and shook his funny little frizzly mane, but then licked his lips and sniffed for more.
“You get more later, little buddy,” I said. “That’s all for now. Isn’t he cute, Adds?”
“He’s a doll,” she agreed. Daisy had cleaned him up and he was the same bay color as her, with a black mane and tail. He was fuzzy now, and would grow up to be a sleek, beautiful quarter horse. We petted him for a few more minutes and as we left, I looked back. A mare and a foal bonding was the best sight in the world.
As we left Daisy and her baby to themselves, Nickel and Dotty trotted around in their own pasture, sniffing with wide nostrils. They knew something was up and they wanted to be part of it. They called to Daisy, who was ignoring them for now. She had more important things to do.
Chapter Thirteen
~ A Sigh of Relief ~
Addie and I walked up to Miss Julie’s porch and collapsed on the porch swing. Willie Nelson came wandering up from somewhere and jumped on Addie’s lap. Jeff was nowhere to be seen.
I never went in Miss Julie’s house when she wasn’t there, but I figured that day was special and she wouldn’t mind. I went in and got a pitcher of lemonade out of the refrigerator and poured glasses for Addie and me. We sat drinking the cold, sour drink for a long time. I filled in for Addie all that had happened with the jewelry, the suede patch and with Cassie. Addie told me about the Pep Club committee and making signs and decorations for the Homecoming Dance. Then she said, “I wish I were going, but no one has asked me.”
“You could go,” I said. “If no one asks you, you could ask somebody yourself. People do it all the time.”
“We’ll see,” said my best friend. “There’s a cute guy in my English class that teases me. Maybe I could ask him. Or the one in Algebra.”
“I think you should ask one of them,” I said. “Uh, by the way, Jeff asked me if I would go with him.”
“Seriously?”
“Yes. That’s not a problem, is it?”
“’Course not! I wondered if he was going to ask you,” said Addie. “He kind of has a thing for you.”
“What?” This was new. “You’re crazy!”
“No, seriously,” she said. “He watches you, he helps you whenever he can, and he thinks you’re cute.”
“When were you going to tell me?” I still didn’t think she was completely right, and I couldn’t believe she had never said anything. We always told each other everything.
“I don’t know...we’ve just been arguing so much lately and you didn’t seem interested in boys, so I didn’t say anything.”
“Well, it might have helped me to have a heads-up.”
“You did say you’d go, didn’t you?”
“Yeah, I said I would go. But I don’t know how to dance and I don’t have a dress.”
At that moment, we both shut up, because my dad’s green pickup and Miss Julie’s blue Cougar both drove down the driveway faster than usual. Dad pulled up near the barn and hollered at me. “Is everything okay?”
“I think so, Dad. They’re in the stall and we gave the foal some colostrum.”
Dad gave us a thumbs-up sign and disappeared into the barn.
Miss Julie came around her car, walking as quickly as she could with her cane. Honey trotted behind her, as if they had been together all their lives.
“Girls! Where is Jeff? I have the most wonderful news! Wait, here he comes, I’ll tell you all together.” Jeff’s footsteps grew loud as he came through the kitchen and out onto the porch.
“We have news, too,” said Addie. “We have a new foal in the barn. Piper and Jeff delivered it and I brought colostrum for it and helped feed it.”
“It’s a boy,” I said.
“Oh, my,” said Miss Julie, “that is wonderful news. I’ll have to go see it in a minute.”
“What’s going on?” said Dad, walking from the barn. “Piper and Jeff, you did an excellent job. The horses are both in great shape and the placenta is in one piece. Congratulations!”
“Thanks, Doc,” said Jeff, “but Piper did all the work. I just helped with the heavy lifting. So what’s up, Miss J?”
“What’s up is that I’ve been talking to Harvey Martin, who told me about Cassie leaving the country. I’ve convinced him that I should be your guardian until you’re eighteen. He thought I might be too old, but I said Sam would be happy to take over if I couldn’t be here for some reason.”
“Why would you do that for me?” asked Jeff.
“Oh, Jeff. It’s only been a few weeks, but I know you,” said Miss Julie. “You are sweet and honest and smart and hard-working. I think you’re a special boy and I want to help you. Harvey will go with us to the judge and child protection services and help us get it legalized. That is, if you want to remain with me.”
“Are you crazy?” said Jeff. “Of course I want that. Thank you so much!” Then quiet, reserved Jeff picked Miss Julie up off the ground in a huge bear hug. “I can’t believe it!”
“You can stay here as long as you want,” added Miss Julie, grinning up at him. “I won’t kick you out when you graduate, and if you want to go to college, I’ll help you as much as I can. You can consider me your granny and my farm your home.”
Jeff gave a sigh of relief and grinned at me. “I guess we get to go to the dance after all.” I just smiled back with my whole heart.
“Dance? What dance?” said my dad.
“The Homecoming Dance,” I said, still grinning.
“You’re going to a dance? Does your mother know?” he asked me. “Because you really need to talk to her...”
“Dan and Jeff, will you show me the new addition to our herd?” said Miss Julie. “I believe the horse rescuers have been at it again and I’d like to see the baby. Have you named it yet?”
“Yes, Jeff, you should name it,” I said.
“I don’t know horse names,” said Jeff. “What’s a good name for him?”
“How about Dancer?” said Addie with a wicked grin. I looked at her and began to laugh.
“Sounds like a reindeer. But...Dancer, it is,” said Jeff.
“Then let’s go meet Dancer,” said Miss Julie. “Piper, please keep Honey here. I don’t want her to scare the foal.” She took Dad’s and Jeff’s arms, and started walking toward the barn, so what could they do but take her along? Miss Julie was a force of nature. Dad glanced back at me with a little smile on his face.
With the porch calm again, a cat on Addie’s lap, and a dog curled up by my feet, I looked at my best friend.
“Well, I guess things will quiet down now,” I said.
“Are you serious?” she said. “Dude, you are going to the Homecoming Dance with a senior! You have to learn how to dance and you have to shop for a dress. And you only have two weeks. We have our work cut out for us. And how do you want to do your hair?”
About the Author
Patricia Gilkerson spent a horse-loving childhood growing up in Kentucky, and finally got her first horse as an adult. She began writing books for children at night after teaching all day. Today Patricia lives on a hobby farm in Minnesota with her husband Jim, and the current count of three horses. Her two children are grown with children and pets of their own, so there are frequently grandchildren and granddogs running around her house. Her hobbies include travel, Irish/Celtic music, scuba diving and reading. Her favorite thing to do is to hang out with family and friends.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Patricia-Gilkerson/162017687316222
Website: patriciagilkerson.com
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