Chapter 15
The following afternoon Jaxon worked hard but kept an eye out for vehicles coming and going, knowing that Keisha would be here at some point.
The other guys razzed him about it. He shrugged.
“Hey, she’s my wife. What was I supposed to do?
” he asked, grinning like a fool. “Obviously I want a relationship with her, but, if not, I still want to maintain some sort of friendship.”
“I don’t know if you can be friends after a divorce,” Tommy said, looking over at him. “It doesn’t seem doable.”
“I’m hoping we don’t have to find a way to make it doable,” Jaxon replied. “I know a lot of people can co-parent with a certain amount of ease afterward, but we aren’t in that position.”
“It sounds as if the sister might need co-parenting though,” Tommy quipped, with a laugh.
“Yeah, and, if she heard that, she wouldn’t appreciate it.”
“No, I’m sure she wouldn’t. It doesn’t change the fact that, as much as Kelly’s been dealt a tough hand in her life, it’s also a tough hand for Keisha.”
Jaxon couldn’t argue with that. When her vehicle drove in, he felt such a sense of relief that it was palpable. He walked over and smiled as she got out. “Hey,” he greeted her.
“Hey, so where is this Pako?” she asked, straight to the point. She was here for the armadillo, but it didn’t make him feel any less happy that she came.
“She’s over in the treatment center.”
“She?” she asked, with a chuckle.
“Honest to God, I couldn’t tell, and I didn’t want to take a closer look.”
“Why?”
“They’re more exotic animals.”
“Exotic and domestic,” she clarified. “I did an exotic specialty, just because so few people handle those kinds of animals. I thought it might give a little extra boost to my practice.”
“Did it help?”
“Yeah, … absolutely. A lot of my clients have exotic pets—lots of snakes,” she noted, with a smile.
“Then you get your fair share of weasels and other critters. Plus, we do a certain amount of wildlife rescue work. A lot of the rescue organizations bring their animals to me, or I go to them, if needed.”
“Hard to imagine,” he noted, with half a smile.
She looked over at him and nodded. “Might be hard to imagine, yet it’s a decision I’m quite happy with.”
“That’s all that matters,” he replied immediately.
She shrugged. “It’s definitely been a help in terms of keeping the business afloat, especially in the beginning.”
As they entered the treatment center, she walked over as he brought out a rather large cage.
She looked at the armadillo and frowned.
“Definitely not on the happy side, is she?” She took the animal out of the cage and, with gloves on, carefully checked it over.
It was definitely a female, so Pako was not an inept name.
She’d only worked with a couple of armadillos in the past, and this one was definitely struggling with something.
It took her a few minutes to sort it out. Then she frowned.
“She’s obviously dehydrated and suffering,” she shared. “One foot is injured, but I’m not seeing anything else that is major.” She stroked the animal’s head. “If her foot’s painful though, she may not have been able to forage.”
“It’s a she?” Jaxon asked.
“It’s definitely a she and potentially pregnant.” He eyed Keisha in astonishment. “An armadillo pregnancy,” she noted, with a laugh, “is rather unique as it is.”
“How is that?”
“They can choose when to get pregnant after a couple years. Once the decision is made, they will then have four babies, always four babies,” she stated, with a smile. “One egg splits in two, and then each of the two eggs split again.”
He shook his head at that. “Always?”
“Mother Nature is like that.”
“Yeah, tell me about it.” He laughed.
“She runs like clockwork, and, as long as you’re on her clock, she’s fine.
It’s when things go wrong that issues happen,” she added, with a smile.
She checked out the leg, and Pako gave her very little trouble, mostly staying as curled up as she could, except for the part of the leg that Keisha held.
Jaxon noted, “She doesn’t seem to be fighting you too much.”
“No, she isn’t,” she confirmed. “I’m hoping it’s because she realizes I’m here to help.”
Just then Tiffany walked in, saw what they were doing, and joined them. “May I help?” she asked.
Keisha smiled. “I think this leg will heal on its own. I also think she’s pregnant, and something steered her away from her home.” She looked back at Jaxon. “Any idea where she came from?”
“Pretty close,” he replied. “I can take her back there.”
“That would be good. She is quite likely nesting.”
“In that case let’s go.” He opened up the crate, and Keisha put the little female inside and looked over at Tiffany. “You want to come?”
“Yeah,” she said immediately. “I would love to. Can’t say I’ve ever worked on an armadillo.”
“I’ve only worked on four, but they are cool and one of the unique animals in the world,” Keisha shared, with a smile. “Let’s see if we can take her back to her place and release her.”
And that’s what they did. They took horses out to keep the noise and disruption down as much as they could.
Danny the donkey didn’t appreciate being left behind and brayed louder with every step they took away from him.
When they got to the area where they first found Pako, Keisha hopped off the horse and walked around, looking for a potential burrow.
It didn’t take her long, and she motioned with her hand.
Jaxon came over with the crate and set it down beside her.
She pointed at the burrow. “I can’t be sure it’s Pako’s by any means, but this would be a typical armadillo burrow.”
He opened up the crate and shifted it enough that Pako slid toward the door.
Keisha smiled and nodded. “Now, if we just leave her be, there’s a good chance she’ll find her own way from here. Let’s just back up and see what she does.”
And they all stepped back and watched. Suddenly Pako uncurled, sniffed the air around her, and moved into the nearby burrow.
“Do you think she’ll stay there now?” Jaxon asked.
“I can’t be certain,” Keisha admitted. “She may decide it’s not safe, but I would certainly avoid coming here for the next little while, if you can.”
“You don’t think we need to check up on her?” Tiffany asked.
“No, I’m presuming that whatever happened to her was something she recovered from on her own, but she may have just been shocked. I don’t even know what to say, but the leg had healed quite nicely on its own at this point.”
“Good enough for me,” Jaxon replied. “I just wanted to confirm she was okay. She wasn’t moving, even after the dogs had surrounded her.”
“Which is also her mechanism for how to save herself,” Keisha explained, turning to him. “You can come by and check up on her. Just don’t go close to the burrow.”
“I won’t.” With a last backward glance, they moved out, and they all headed back to the main cabin.
*
With Tiffany leading the way, Keisha asked, “How are the llamas?”
“That’s next,” Tiffany said, with a smile. “Yet, when I heard you were here, I wanted to come take a look.”
“Now let’s go check on the llamas together.”
They spent the next three hours working with the llamas, checking temperatures, checking feet, checking weights, and recording all the data.
When they had been through all the llamas, Keisha nodded.
“I think these guys are doing great. They’ll need a few months to pick up some weight and to adjust to the new location, but they are settling in nicely. ”
“They should be,” Timber declared, as he came up behind them. “They’re getting the best of everything.” No rancor was in his tone. He was truly happy to help.
Keisha smiled at him. “You’re doing a good thing here.”
“You might think that doing a good thing would give you kudos in this life,” Timber noted, with a chuckle.
“Happily, I’m not doing it for that reason.
Still, every once in a while, I need to bring in extra money.
It would sure be nice if people saw rescues as a valid enterprise, worthy of generosity. ”
“Don’t they contribute?” Jaxon asked. “I would have thought all kinds of animal lovers were around here.”
“No, not so much. It’s not that the locals aren’t animal lovers, but I get some who think that I should be helping the homeless or the veterans or single mothers or at-risk youth,” he shared.
“And I agree. There should be help for everybody. The thing is, not all of us can contribute to every worthy project. However, I do think that, if enough of us follow our hearts and give what we can where we choose to help, everybody should more or less be covered—in theory. So, I try to look after the animals. That’s my niche.
So I don’t want animals falling through the cracks, and, with the tough times right now, we’re getting an awful lot of animals dropped off. ”
Keisha glanced at Jaxon, seeing how happy and content he looked out here. The Haven was as much here for him as for these animals.
“We have two more horses coming in today.” Timber shared, with a smile.
“Really?” Tiffany asked. “Surrenders?”
“Yes, the details just came in. They just can’t keep the animals anymore, but they are bringing over what they have left for feed and grain,” Timber noted. “I’ve agreed to take them, but I’m also aware that I’ve got to keep the numbers of animals we take in under control.”
Jaxon looked at him and smiled. “And that’ll never happen, if it means you have to turn them away,” he stated flatly. “I know you too well.”
“Yet there has to be some limit on the numbers we take in,” Timber stated. “Otherwise I’ll get carried away with too much, too soon. I don’t want to get into a position where I can’t look after the ones I have.”
“Of course not,” Jaxon agreed, “but you also know that we’re all here to help if we can.”
“Sure, but just the cost of putting hay out for these guys over the winter if needed,” he pointed out, with a wry look, “could be pretty rough.”