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October 23, 2001
Dawn broke cold that morning. Frost was on the ground, and I had to come up with another plan for the little goat.
"Lord, I know that I'm not supposed to question You, but why is it that everytime I have something to doctor it snows?"
That morning, I just wanted to be clean for a little while. I had been wearing the same clothes for three days to go to the barn and doctor. I'd change into clean clothes to go to work, then put the dirty ones on to doctor again.
I hung out on the couch in my jammies for a little while, had a cup of coffee and thought about how I was going to keep this goat warm.
There was the garage, but the concrete floor would be hard on her. It was warm in there, though, it sucks heat from the house.
I could bring her in the house, but I didn't know how far she could thrash around. If she thrashed her way into the kitchen, she could get herself in a world of hurt, something could fall on her, or she could knock something over and break it.
There had to be something. . .
I got it! The bath tub! Even if she got up, she wouldn't jump out and I could still keep her contained by closing the door, if she did jump out. It's easy to clean up, too. It's perfect!
By the time I changed into my "doctoring" clothes, loaded syringes and got to the barn, the day had cut warm and sunny. I decided to wait awhile before implementing my plan. I really wanted her to have the comfort of the other goats around. I don't know why I thought that would bring her comfort, but I did. I ride with my instincts whenever I can.
I got the poor goat doctored and on her belly some, then looked at her left eye. She had pretty much been laying on that side and the eye was looking pretty bad. I laid her back on the towel.
"Hang on, Nanny, I've got the ticket for that eye."
I ran back to the house and started digging thorugh my vet supplies.
"Ahh! Got it! Lord, even if I lose the eye, just let me save the goat. She can get along with one eye."
I took the tube of eye drops, got a washcloth wetted down with warm water and found a bandaid that was big enough to cover the eye and had adhesive on all four sides. Now, I was going to doctor her like she was going to live instead of trying to make her comfortable until she died.
I went back to the barn, cleaned the eye, put the drops in and bandaged it. She started fighting herself again.
I started wondering what I could do about her bowels. I needed her to go to the bathroom. More precisely, I needed her to poop.
In the meantime, I got the rest of the kitchen cleaned, then I sat down to research colic in goats.
The vet manual was pretty extensive and it was written for vets. A pretty hard read to say the least. The transalation was: Don't give mineral oil to goats, they aspirate on it. Dang. I was hoping that mineral would be the answer. I read a little further. Milk of Magnesia, great! I got the dosage and went to load a syringe.
She liked that. She tried to eat the syringe. I wondered if I could get a little hay down her. I pulled a hand full off the bale and tried. Nope. She sure didn't want that. O.K. it'll happen, just wait.
That night was dance lessons in town. "Dance Lessons" is what it's called when all the single folk in town get together at our local dance studio and learn to 2-step and waltz. It's kind of our local meet market. There's not a bunch of stuff going on in this town. It's a lot of fun and gets me out of the house for something other than work for a few hours.
The guy who asked me to partner with him is real nice. He's also old enough to be my dad. You can't fault him for trying, though.
"Hey! It's the Dynamic Duo of Jackie and Jessica! The women of the hour!"
They're so short of single women in this town Jess got picked to alternate. She loves it, usually. There's a room full of men just dying to dance with her. Who wouldn't love that?
My partner, Floyd, walked in.
"Hey, Floyd. How's it going?"
"Good, Jackie. How are you?"
"Other than a goat with Tetnus, I'm doing all right."
"You're kidding me. They don't live through that, do they?"
"Not usually. We're still waiting and seeing."
"Didn't you have a horse with the flu last week?"
"Yeah, she's fine, though. It's been a long summer."
"It's fall, Jackie."
"See what I mean?"
Class went pretty good until one of the guys made an off-hand comment about Jess.
Brent said, "She sure likes dancing with Donnie."
She got a little wall-eyed.
"I think that Jess just likes dancing. Huh, Jess?"
She nodded, but didn't say anything. She had been avoiding Brent and I knew it. I knew why, too. He makes you feel like you're dinner. He looks at you like you're a nice piece of Prime Rib on a plate, cooked to perfection. You wear steel toes when you dance with him, too. He's not that good.
"She especially likes dancing with Donnie, though."
I saw her mostly dancing with an older man named Joe. He's from Casper and his wife couldn't make it. He was playing grandpa that night. Jess kept going between Donnie and Joe to avoid Brent.
"It must be a height thing. She's pretty short and he's kinda short, so it's easier for her to dance with him."
"I think it's more than a height thing."
"Come on, Brent. Give her some slack, she's NINE, hello?"
"Just because she's nine doesn't mean that she hasn't got a little crush thing going on. Huh, Jess?"
This man is a lawyer. I don't much cotton to lawyers anyway, but he was acting a little ridiculous. He was acting like he was feeling rejected because a nine year old wouldn't dance with him. He needs to get a grip. Preferably on himself.
"Even if she does have a 'little crush thing' going, it would be none of your business, would it? She's in a dance class with a bunch of old folks watching her, myself included."
Joe stepped in and took Jess to the other end of the floor. Floyd pulled me that way, too. Niether Jess nor I rotated towards them, if we switched partners, I danced with Joe, while she danced with Floyd. There were no other women there.
After class was over, I rushed home and doctored the goat. It was cold that night, but I put an extra blanket over her and left her in the barn. I still had that thing in my head about being with the other goats.
Pooh was with me, and during a colic episode, one of Nanny's feet went out of the pen and Pooh was licking it. I think it was to comfort the goat, but the goat thought the dog was tasting her.
"BAAAA!"
"O.K., easy now, Nanny goat. Pooh! Stop that!"
It was late, and I had to go to work in Lusk the next morning early. I thought about calling somoeone to help. Just to check on her, but there would be nothing that they could do for her and, frankly, I didn't know anyone who wouldn't just off her and get it over with. I decided against it.
I was feeling pretty good about her, but I really wanted a little more progress. I hoped by morning, she would sit up on her own.
I took a shower and went to bed. I had to get up really early to get her doctored before I went to Lusk. I had to be there at 10:00.
"Lord, please let me see some improvement. Please let me know that what I'm doing is for the best. Please let me succeed with this one."
So ended day four. Looked like death watch was over, but you never can be sure. Time would tell.
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