by Dale Mayer
While Hershey was busy, he managed to get a rope and hooked it around the dog’s neck. Hershey didn’t appear to be bothered in any way. As part of his training, he was used to being on a leash. Used to having commands and somebody in authority over him. So this was a good thing.
With a big smile Rowan sat up gently, moving slowly, so that the pups wouldn’t get too scared, and gently he wrapped a rope around the first one, making it snug enough so that he couldn’t pull his head out of it, letting the rope trail behind him, getting him used to it. The pup seemed to treat it more like a toy than anything, rolling around, grabbing the rope, chewing it. When Rowan had the opportunity, he slipped a rope around the second one too.
“These three all have ropes now,” he said. “Do you want to come see if you can contact Lacey from here?”
“I guess that’s my best bet, isn’t it?” She walked up slowly and crouched. Hershey turned to look at her and growled.
Rowan reached up immediately and said, “Friend, Hershey. She’s a friend.”
Hershey’s ears came forward, and he looked down at Rowan. He smiled gently and rubbed Hershey’s forehead. “I know it’s been a long time, hasn’t it? But she’s a good person. It’s okay. We’re here to help Lacey, not hurt her.”
Brandi came closer and greeted the pups, who didn’t seem to think that she was anything other than part of the landscape. They rolled around, grabbing their ropes and tugging.
“They’re so special,” she whispered.
“Pups,” he said with a chuckle, still sitting on the ground. “Now we have ropes on these three, so it depends whether you can get up close and talk to Lacey as to how we handle her.”
She looked at Hershey. “Have you got him under control though?”
Rowan recognized the nervousness in her tone. “He’ll be fine,” he said. “I’ve got him now. He’s on a rope. He’s always been very well leash trained. Just don’t make any sudden moves, and go on up and talk to Lacey.” He watched as Brandi shifted closer toward the den that the dogs had created together, talking to Lacey gently. When he heard a whine on the inside of the hollow, Rowan smiled and said, “Give it a shot. I believe another pup is also in there.”
“If the pup is alive,” she murmured.
“We can only deal with what we have to work with,” he said. “So let’s hope everybody is alive.” He watched as she slowly crept a little bit closer and closer. Hershey watched, his ears forward, obviously disturbed at the turn of events but not enough to do anything about it. “Good boy,” Rowan whispered. “Good boy.” Hershey looked down and nuzzled his nose against Rowan, blowing deeply against his neck. Rowan wrapped his arms around his scruff and burrowed his face against his neck. He hoped that she had as much luck with Lacey as he was pretty sure that Lacey was badly hurt.
When he heard a strangled voice calling out to him, he turned to see her saying, “Rowan,” and she held up a third pup. “It’s alive but in rough shape.”
“Can you see why?”
“No,” she said. “It was just lying here.”
He shifted ever-so-slowly so that he could reach up a hand, and she gently placed the pup in his arms. And he tucked it against his chest, while Hershey nuzzled it. “Is this your adopted daughter?”
Rowan checked over the pup, but nothing was obviously wrong. Yet she was malnourished and suffering. “It’s a good chance Lacey has no milk,” he said, “and this one is too weak to eat otherwise.” He turned to look for Brandi, but she was inside the brush again. He didn’t hear any growling, so he hoped for a good outcome because, going into a hollow with an injured dog was never a smart idea. But just like he had a bond with Hershey, he could only hope Brandi had the same bond with Lacey. He called out, “Is she okay?”
“No,” she said, her voice thick with tears. “Her back end is damaged.”
“Like from a car accident or the fire?”
“I don’t know what I’m looking at,” she said, “but I think it’s an ugly injury and likely a broken leg.”
At that, he swore and said, “That would explain Hershey’s reaction.”
She lifted the brush and looked at him. “Why is that?”
“Because he knows exactly what those look like,” he said.
She stared down at her beloved dog, and the pain in her dog’s eyes just tore at her. But her tail moved in greeting and hope. With the brush matted down, she could see that this was where the sick pup and, of course, Lacey had bled all around. It didn’t look like she’d gotten up in a couple days. “We have to get her to a vet,” she said.
“I hear you,” he said. “We have a lot of animals here to take care of.” He sat for a moment and thought. Then he said, “You take care of the two live pups, and I’ll handle the sick pup and Lacey.”
“I can take the sick pup,” she said immediately. “Do you think you can move Lacey?” He nodded, and she pointed at a pouch in her jacket. “We can put the sick puppy in here,” she said.
Gently holding the sick pup, he shifted to his knees, wincing at the pressure on his ankles and his partial foot, and gently tucked the sick pup into the kangaroo pouch in the front of her jacket.
He handed her the two leashes on the other roly-poly pups and said, “The problem with this is, the puppies don’t know how to walk on a leash. You may have to bend down and scoop one up under each arm.”
She nodded. “I can do that.” She looked over at Hershey. “What about him?”
“He’s not hurt, and he will follow commands,” he said. “I’ll deal with the injured dog in there. And moving her is gonna hurt her. I don’t have any other way to do it. I have to lift her up.”
She looked down and said, “Maybe we could suspend her on one of our jackets?”
“Maybe,” he said thinking about it. “I can lay her on my jacket, but I still have to lift her up.”
“Well, if you tied the arms together,” she said, “you could lift up her back end and make a sling for her.”
“That’s not a bad idea,” he said, studying his jacket for a moment before removing it. He still had the leash in his hand with Hershey. He slipped his wrist through the loop and handed it to her. “I’m gonna have to move her into position to use the sling.”
And knowing that he was hurting her but not able to do anything else, he slipped the jacket underneath Lacey as Brandi had suggested, tied the arms together under the dog’s injured back-end and lifted it. She whimpered but didn’t cry out. He shifted back again, so he could slide an arm under her front, grabbing her chest gently and lifting up her back end at the same time. In that position, he slowly crept back out, so he was standing again. As Brandi looked at her beautiful dog with tears in her eyes, he said, “We need to go, and we need to go now. Give me the leash for Hershey.”
She tucked it into his hand, and he looked down at Hershey and said, “Hershey, find me the path. Make it an easy one.” Hershey immediately sniffed around and walked forward, taking a completely different route than the one that they had found before.
She looked at Rowan and asked, “Is that wise?”
“We used the War Dogs to find pathways through bombs,” he said. “It was all about finding the right path for the humans. And that’s what I’m asking him to do right now. To find the safest, most secure route, even if it’s a little bit longer.” Putting his trust in the dog, he took several steps—carefully, slowly carrying the injured Lacey—and said, “I can’t look back to make sure you’re okay, so don’t lose the pups.”
She said, “I’ve got them in each arm, and they’re quite the handful, indeed.” Her voice was strangled, as if she were trying to keep control of them and they weren’t willing to listen. Rowan deliberately and carefully moved along with Lacey, following Hershey as he led them to their vehicles.
When Rowan reach his rental vehicle, he opened up the back door and said, “I’ll need your help to lay her down.”
She said, “Hang on. I’ll put these two in my vehicle.” She fast-walked over and
locked the pups inside the vehicle. They were in the backseat under the hatch. With them secured, she came back and crawled into the other side of the backseat of Rowan’s car, careful of the sick puppy in her pouch, and helped slide Lacey’s head and chest forward. With the dog in the back, Rowan used the seat belts to secure her in place, and then he brought Hershey around to the front seat. He looked at Brandi. “You lead us to the vet.”
She nodded. “Follow me,” and she raced back to her car, one arm securing the puppy in the pouch pocket.
He hopped into the car, turned on the engine, and, moving slowly, drove away. As he drove off, he saw the reflection up on the hillside again. Swearing, he hit the gas and raced forward. He hated to jostle Lacey, but it couldn’t be helped. Even then, he saw the dirt spit up behind him. But the shooter should have been far enough away now that Rowan was no longer a viable target. Unless they had a decent sniper and a sniper rifle up there, no way Rowan and Brandi could be hit at this point.
But sniper or no sniper, what the hell was going on?
Chapter 6
Brandi drove steadily toward the vet’s clinic and called ahead.
“You found her?” cried out Katie, the vet assistant.
“I did,” she said, “but her back end is bad. I don’t know how bad though.”
“We are prepped. Did you say three pups?”
“Two that look fine, one that does not,” she said. “He’s in the kangaroo pouch of my jacket right now.”
“Well, keep him warm,” she said. “I can’t believe you found Lacey.”
“Neither can I. I’m about five minutes away,” she said, and she hung up. The traffic was light, and, for that, she was grateful. She didn’t really understand why, except that the weather was getting dark and gloomy, and it was only after lunchtime on a Friday. Still, she checked her watch, and it was already past 2:00 p.m. Although it wasn’t the sunniest of days when she finally pulled into the vet clinic, she almost cried with relief. She hopped out and ran inside to let them know she was here. And, when she came back out, a gurney was brought through the back doors. She motioned over toward Rowan and his vehicle. With gentle hands, they carefully moved Lacey onto the gurney, and Brandi followed it in.
As soon as she stepped inside, they said, “You can’t go any farther.”
“I know that,” she said, “but I have the sick pup too.”
Immediately the other vet tech reached out her arms, and Brandi carefully removed the poor little pup from her jacket pouch and placed it into the vet tech’s arms. “Oh, this poor baby,” she murmured and headed off to check him over. Brandi stood here, shivering, as she watched them go to work on Lacey.
Katie walked over and said, “Go bring the two other pups and the other adult dog into the front office, and let’s get them checked over too.”
Brandi nodded blindly and turned, hating to see her beautiful furry friend in this shape.
As she stepped back outside, Rowan stood there with Hershey beside him. Hershey was literally leaning against him, as if he would never stop touching him. She crouched in front of him and said, “Hello, boy. Thank you so much for taking care of my girl.”
Hershey whined and leaned forward, giving her a good sniff, then he reached up a paw to shake hands.
In delight she shook his paw and reached over and gently rubbed his ears and the back of his neck. “I suggest we get him checked over,” she said, “and the two pups that are doing okay.”
Rowan nodded and said, “Let’s get the pups out.” That was a scramble in itself, as they were lively. But she managed to grab one and hand it to him and then the other one. Carrying both wiggling bundles, they headed into the main entrance of the vet clinic.
Katie was there again. When she saw the bundles, she laughed. “Wow,” she said, “these two look like they’re totally fine.”
“Exactly, although the one moved slower than the other originally.”
Then Katie saw the dog beside Rowan. “This is the male?”
“Well, he’s not the father,” Rowan said. “He’s a War Dog that I came into town to find, who was with a family whose house got razed to the ground.”
“The fires devastated so much here,” Katie said. She led them into an exam room and said, “This will ensure that we’re not overlooking any wounds or deficiencies from their being on their own for all these weeks.” She took one look at the closest pup and said, “They don’t look like they’ve suffered at all.”
She quickly weighed the pups and then walked Hershey over to a bigger floor scale, where Rowan ordered him to sit. With that done, the vet walked into the exam room, smiled, and said, “So these are the healthy three that came with the two other ones, huh?”
“Yes,” Katie said. “And this is Rowan and Brandi. Brandi has been bringing Lacey here since she was a pup.”
“Well, we’re still trying to sort out what all is wrong with Lacey,” he said. “We’ve taken x-rays, and I don’t have the results yet.” He added, “I thought I’d take a quick look at these guys, while my staff is working on the other two.”
“Yes,” Katie said, “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with either of them.”
He checked over both pups and said, “They’re both happy-go-lucky and in good shape.” He looked at Hershey and said, “He doesn’t look like he’s suffered at all.” He faced Rowan. “Is he dangerous?”
“He’s a well-trained War Dog,” Rowan said, and, with the snap of his fingers, he ordered Hershey to hop up onto the exam table. In one graceful leap, Hershey hopped up and stood, waiting for the next command. At Rowan’s command, Hershey sat and then laid down.
The vet checked his teeth, his ears, and the rest of him, but he found no scratches or blood on him. “He looks to be in fine form,” the vet said. “I presume he stayed with the female to help her out.”
“I imagine so,” Rowan said. “Once they bond, it’s a pretty hard bond to break.”
“We’ve seen it happen time and time again,” he said. “It’s always very inspiring.”
“That it is.” With that done, they headed back out to the waiting room. Although Hershey was happy to lie down and just relax, the pups were not. They were into everything, trying to get into the shelves, trying to crawl onto another big floor scale. One of them got under the coffee table, and another was trying to get under the couch.
Exasperated, Brandi said, “This is not a place for puppies.”
“It is a place for puppies,” Rowan said, laughing at them. “It’s beautiful to see so much life.”
She looked at him. “Versus the amount of death you’ve seen?”
“The amount of death I’ve seen and the amount of death that fire caused,” he said quietly. “It is what it is. We can’t change that.”
Brandi nodded in despair.
They waited another hour, and then the vet stepped out. He looked over at them and said, “She’s been shot—the bullet went through and through—about ten days ago. She gave birth before that obviously. It looks like she was nursing just fine, until she was shot, but she is already starting to heal. However, the bullet caused quite a bit of damage.” He added, “I think I can do surgery to fix some of the injury to her muscles. Otherwise, it’s really a case of dosing her heavily with antibiotics to fight any infection, and we will then see if we can get her back up on her feet.”
“If you don’t have to do surgery right away,” Rowan said, “it would be easier on her, as she’s pretty weak.”
“That was what I was considering,” he said. “I think we’ll start with the heavy rounds of antibiotics because she has a good chance of having an infection, although she’s not running a fever. She’s also worn down, and she’s emaciated from lack of food. She’s been eating but only for the sake of giving the milk to the pups.”
“Right,” Brandi said. “Can I see her?”
“We’ve got her sedated right now,” he said, “so that we can clean her up and do what we needed to do. Her leg is broken, yet it�
��s not in too bad of shape, so I’ll splint that. I’ll also stitch up her side where she was shot. For that, we’ll cut back some of the dead tissue and close the wound regardless.”
She nodded, wincing. “That doesn’t sound too good.”
“I’m optimistic,” he said. “The fact that she’s still alive and still fighting is great.” He hesitated and then said, “And then there’s the third pup.”
They both turned to face him. “Is it gonna make it?”
“She is in pretty rough condition. It doesn’t look like it had a chance to eat or to gain as much strength as her brothers. It’s a tough world out there, and only the strongest will survive. We’ll do what we can, so we’ll put her on an IV feeding tube and give her supplementation as well. She also has a bad case of worms, which seem to have taken over her system. We’ll need to deworm the other pups too. So, once we can get that cleaned out, we’ll know better if we can pull her through. Every day she’ll get stronger at this point in time.” He continued, “But we do need a couple days to see if she’ll make it.”
“So both of them need to stay here then presumably,” Rowan asked.
The vet nodded. “At least a couple days. In both cases.”
Brandi nodded. “I’d like to see them before we leave then.”
He said, “That’s fine. Leave the pups here, and you can come in.” He led her to the back.
Brandi could see Lacey was completely sedated and wouldn’t know her from Adam. She reached down, kissed her gently, and said, “We found you, Lacey. You’re gonna be okay now.” And then Brandi saw the pup lying almost lifeless on the side table, also hooked up to IVs. “She’s not injured though, right?”
“No,” he said. “She looks like she was basically starving to death.”
“Well, we can fix that now,” she said. She reached down, gave her a gentle little cuddle, and then, with tears in her eyes, she said to the vet, “Thank you and please look after them.”
“That’s the plan,” he said. “I still can’t believe they survived that many weeks.”
