Chapter 7 #5
“But the games are almost over anyway, right?”
“Yeah, the season is almost done,” she stated, “and that’s a good thing. They have a while to find somebody else to join them.”
“And that would be good. Surely other people are out there who want to do this, even if you don’t.”
“Even if there isn’t, they need to figure it out. It’s their issue, not mine,” she declared. “So what are you up to? Are you coming into town today?”
“Not right now. I’m heading over to the bunkhouse to work there for the day. What about you?”
“I might come out later. I’m not sure. Tiffany mentioned setting up surgeries at the Haven.
I hear Timber has a coyote that might lose part of his leg.
So Tiffany needs to deal with that, and I volunteered to be her surgical assistant,” she shared.
“I’m unlicensed, though, and Tiffany knows.
” Then she laughed. “Honest to God, I should just go back to school and become a vet assistant, vet tech, or a full-on vet.”
“Wow, that would be great if you did,” Sterling said, “if that’s what you want to be.”
“Trouble is, I don’t want to go back to school,” she admitted. “It’s such a time commitment. I’m already a degreed accountant to pay my bills, so …”
“However, if you had gone back to school seven or eight years ago, where would you be now?”
“What do you mean, where would I be? I would be a vet right now.”
“So, seven or eight years from now, where do you think you’ll be?”
She snorted. “Okay, that’s just dirty pool.”
He laughed. “It’s not so much dirty pool as pointing out that the years will go by anyway. So, if you really want to do something, then maybe it’s time to buckle down and just do it. How long would it take to do what you need to do?”
“I have a bachelor’s degree in accounting, with a minor in animal science,” she replied. “I had originally planned to go into medicine of some kind. … I guess I could take a look at it, see what else I need. I may not need a whole eight years’ worth of studies.”
“You don’t sound terribly enthusiastic,” he pointed out.
“It’s just … what would I do with that degree? Where would I work? I need full-time employment.”
“Not if you had something set up like Tiffany has.”
“Are you kidding? She works double time,” she said, laughing.
“Yeah, so maybe you get that second degree, then sign on as a partner in her clinic, and both of you still help out Timber’s rescue operation,” he stated.
Lindsey snorted. “So you want me and Tiffany to work double time, is that what you’re saying?”
“Okay, okay,” he grumbled, clearly seeing the flaw in his theory.
“Anyway don’t get another degree if you don’t want to be a veterinarian.
It takes a lot of effort over many years.
Plus, I don’t know what Tiffany’s life was like before she and Timber got together, but I imagine that he and his rescue has become a major draw for her now. ”
“Yes, it absolutely seems to be, and I don’t have that drive to be a veterinarian. So, for the moment, it just feels as if I might enjoy thinking about it, but it’s hard to drum up any interest in actually doing it.”
“Maybe you should check out the programs, see what it would look like before you make a big decision like that.”
They talked for a little bit longer, and then he rang off.
Toby stood nearby, staring at him. “Not a bad idea for Lindsey. That girl is heavily involved in animals.”
“She is, and she’s happy to do the stuff that a lot of people don’t want to do,” Sterling added. “Yet she also has a successful accounting business.”
“And what about you?” Toby asked.
“It depends, … and yet I guess it really doesn’t. I need some idea of what I want to do, no matter how the property thing ends up.”
“You were talking about K9 training.”
“Yeah,” he agreed, “and I’m not against it by any means. I need to work with some of the dogs here, but I end up on the building side of life instead.”
“Anytime you want to check out the dogs, just speak up and say that’s what you’re doing today or this week or whatever,” Toby told him.
“Nobody here will be offended. As long as you’re standing around and doing nothing, they’ll put you to work.
However, if you’ve got other work you feel called to do, have at it,” he stated.
It turned out to be true enough when Sterling headed over to the dog kennels and picked out some of the dogs that he knew got along.
He took them out to roam in the fenced area on their own, just giving them space and time to relax and unwind.
They all had large cages, but they were still cages, and understandably the dogs were looking to get out for a while.
With the animals roaming free outside, he walked along the fences, checking to ensure that it was intact.
After all, the entire llama flock seemingly found a hole in some fence somewhere.
He did note several places where some improvements could be made and where gates could be fixed.
He continued to walk the perimeter. As he came around a corner, the dogs started howling pretty heavily.
He called several of them back and approached slowly as he headed toward the crop of trees ahead.
As he got closer, he heard some animal clearly warning the world to stay away.
Moving carefully, he came upon a small fox, caught in a trap.
Just the sight of it had his blood boiling, but he knew it wouldn’t be Timber’s trap, likely a remnant from the landowners he bought the property from.
But if traps were in the Haven’s acreage, they would all have to keep an eye out for them.
Moving carefully forward, trying to keep the dogs back—which wasn’t easy at all, especially considering they weren’t very well trained—finally Sterling managed to throw his jacket over the small fox, then working the trap, he managed to loosen it.
The animal tried to bolt, but he held it down firmly while he checked her leg, which looked to be broken.
He pulled out his phone and called Timber.
“Bring it in immediately,” Timber snapped. “God damn traps. Where are you?”
Sterling gave him directions to where he was and added, “If there are more traps—”
“There’s more,” Timber declared. “If there’s one, there’ll be more traps. I’m heading your way. Try to hold on to the fox until I get there if you possibly can. I don’t want it released in that condition.”
“Right, you and me both,” Sterling replied. “Do we have somebody at the Haven right now?”
“No, we might have to take it in town to Tiffany. Depends on what kind of break it is. I’m not sure if she’s even coming out tonight or if other plans came up.”
“There are always other plans,” he said to Timber. “You know that.”
“I do know that,” he muttered, with a chuckle. “Anyway, I’m coming your way on the quad, so be prepared for the noise. I’ll try to ease up when I get close so she doesn’t freak, but there’s bound to be a certain amount of fear when I get there regardless.”
“I’ve got her in my jacket,” he explained, “so she won’t get out too easily, but I don’t want her to hurt that leg further.”
“I’m on it,” Timber replied.
And, with that, Sterling started walking with the animals back to the main complex.
The dogs had calmed down, although several were sniffing at what was in his arms, wrapped in his jacket.
It didn’t take him long to realize which of the dogs were trained or had some training, which ones were receptive to what he was doing, and which ones were completely oblivious to whatever was going on around them.
It always blew him away to see how completely disconnected some of the animals were, while others were just very intense.
A couple German shepherds had a certain look in their gaze, at least an awareness that Sterling thought he could work with.
Moving carefully and slowly, he walked back in the direction that he knew Timber would be coming from.
Sure enough they hadn’t gotten very far when he heard the quad coming to him.
As the dogs barked and raced toward the quad, Sterling moved a little slower, keeping an eye on which dogs would listen to commands and which ones had no training.
By the time he met up with Timber, he had a good idea of a couple that he could work with.
Timber stopped the quad a short distance away and walked toward him.
Sterling held up one hand. “I don’t want to let her go. I’m pretty sure she’ll just run as far and as fast as she can.”
“Of course,” Timber noted, “especially with all these dogs here. Let’s get you and her situated on the quad, and we’ll take her back.”
With Sterling sitting on the back, and Timber driving, they made their way slowly but steadily back to the main part of the center.
Sterling didn’t dare loosen his grip because he knew that the fox would be gone if given the slightest chance.
Once there, he stepped off the quad and moved into the medical clinic area.
With her now confined within a small exam room, Timber checked out the fox and nodded.
“Yeah, it’s definitely broken,” he muttered.
“Damn, it’s nasty looking, isn’t it?” Sterling asked.
“It is. She’ll need a shot of antibiotics, and we’ll need an X-ray.”
“Good thing you put out the money for the X-ray equipment.”
“Oh, I wasn’t planning on it,” he noted, with a headshake. “However, Tiffany has very strong opinions about those things, and I couldn’t sustain any argument against it,” he said, with a grin.
“Of course not. How else will you do any serious diagnostics if you don’t have the equipment for it?”
“That sounds quite similar to what she had to say,” he admitted comfortably. As it turned out, Timber was also quite capable of running it himself. By the time they had the fox settled for the moment, he brought up the pictures in front of them and quickly emailed the images to Tiffany.
“I hadn’t even thought of doing that. Great idea.”
“Yeah, it’s pretty handy,” Timber agreed.
Tiffany phoned him moments later. “It’s a clean break. She’ll need antibiotics, and you can cast it, but chances are she’ll rip it free very quickly.”
“I was hoping to keep her a day or two in a cage, restricting her movements, plus allowing her to get her strength back up a bit and to let her adjust to it.”
“I definitely agree with that,” she replied, “but we’ll have to rehabilitate her the longer she’s there, so that’s another consideration. Set me up on video and let me watch.”
They went ahead and got started, the tasks made easier with the experience both men had. Timber quickly administered something to make the fox sleepy. It didn’t knock her clear out, instead just making her woozy and less argumentative, and very quickly they had the leg set.
“Good,” Tiffany said from the phone.
Sterling noted, “This is quite the setup you guys have here.”
Timber nodded. “Tiffany has a busy practice in town and isn’t ready to come out here full-time and can’t drop everything and help with every instance,” Timber explained.
“Although I’m not a vet,” Timber conceded, “I have a ton of medical experience, and I’ve been patching up wild animals all my life.
So this is the best answer at this point. ”
Sterling was beginning to see the full potential of what Timber was building here, and it was amazing to see what men with money and skills could build. “I hadn’t even realized that you had put so much money into this place.”
“Some people have very strong opinions about how to set up a medical clinic.” He burst out laughing then, and even Tiffany was chuckling. “I have the bank to thank for granting me a big loan.”
“And then we get a fox in here, who is the immediate beneficiary of that wisdom,” she added, with a smile, “so it’s a good thing.”
“It’s a great thing,” Timber declared, as he finished bandaging up the fox and now proceeded to add a temporary splint to her leg. He looked over at Sterling. “And, thanks to you, she’ll be just fine now. I’m really glad you found her.”
“More than that,” Sterling shared, “it gave me a really good look at some of the dogs.”
“What about the dogs?” Timber asked, turning to face him. “You did take a bunch with you, didn’t you?”
“I did, more as a trial and a test to see how they handled the environment and their own togetherness, plus to see who listened and who didn’t,” he explained.
“Out of that group, a bunch need a fair bit of training, and, if you wanted to do more training with them, I had to see who might be ready to handle it,” Sterling added.
“Anyway, I just wanted to get them out and run them around a bit. Honestly, considering the fox and all, they did really well. Some of them did exceptionally well.”
“As in trainable?”
“As in very trainable,” he agreed, with a nod. “So, that’s the good news.”
“And the bad news?”
“Some of them have had no training at all,” he declared, with a laugh. “Some of them don’t know sit, stay, come, or lie down.” He had to chuckle at that. “So, if you want to set up some of these animals for adoption, at the very least we should get some basics into them.”
“That’s a really good idea,” Timber replied, with a nod. “So, since you seem interested, and you seem to know what you’re talking about, go for it, if you’re up for it.”
Tiffany was still on the other end of the speaker and laughed. “Welcome to our world,” she told Sterling. “You find a need, and you fill it. As soon as you do, you find out that there’s an even greater need than you ever imagined.”
“Isn’t that the truth,” Timber muttered.
“I would be happy to see what I can do,” Sterling declared. “No guarantees but, if any dogs here have the capacity to do what I’m hoping they can do, I’m all for it.”
“So are we,” Tiffany agreed.
Timber added, “And, if you need anything, hopefully that won’t cost very much money,” he quipped, with an eyeroll. “Still, we’ll do what we can to set it up.”
“I just need space, a place to work,” Sterling replied. “You’ve got plenty of that. So I think we can just find a good spot that isn’t already designated for something else, and go from there.”
“Music to my ears,” Timber said, smacking Sterling on the shoulder. “Let me know how it goes.”
With that decided, and the fox safely in a crate, resting up from her ordeal, Timber ended the call with Tiffany and headed out, leaving Sterling alone on fox watch—at least for a couple of nights to see how she reacted to the splint on her leg.