Heroics
Heroics (Epilogue)
by
Jackie Moranty
copyright 10-31-2001
Age Rating: 7 to 127
October 30, 2001
I was working in Laramie that day. I had to get up early to get my chores done and be there at 11:00. I like Laramie, it's a nice little town.
This was my first go working there. A friend of mine had been working there, but moved from Loveland to Parker, Colorado, so gave her clients to me. I was happy with that, she had a bunch of them out there. I was really making an effort not to be late. I'm kinda like the farrier, though, it seems like I'm always running late.
I was just getting ready to leave when the phone rang. It was John with the autopsy report on Nanny goat. Our conversation was nothing special so I won't go into the chit-chat.
I will say that both he and Steve are excellent vets. Not only that, they're good friends. We hang together at various events around town and they come to some of the parties and brandings and such that I put on. Our relationship goes much further than client/vet.
Basically, what John said was that after testing for everything he could think of, he found nothing wrong with the goat. This is what led him to belive it was Tetanus. Tetanus shows no cellular signs. It's a very hard disease to diagnose, as you've already seen, it's a very hard disease to treat, too.
This was more a diagnosis of elimination than a diagnosis of fact. It was really hard for both he and I to swallow, but there it was.
I asked what could have given Nanny Tetanus, since she had been vaccinated. He didn't really know. Between the two of us, we finally decided that she hadn't been a real healthy animal since I brought her home a year ago, and so due to a low immune system, she got the disease. I have noticed that since she has not been around, the other animals on the place look remarkably healthy. I hope that it stays that way. I've been fighting off infection all summer.
Now, I'm going to throw in some personal stuff here. Plenty of people would wonder why I'd write a story about a sick goat. Why even have goats? Why have anything that has to be doctored, fed, rode down, watered, calved out and just generally, taken care of 24/7? Why live on a ranch when you can live so much easier in the city?
One of my instructors in school offered to introduce me to a rich man so that I wouldn't have to ranch anymore. I went wall-eyed. I couldn't imagine that.
Why do I subject myself to things like this every day and have a "town job", too?
Here's my excuse: People do this because they love it. It's that simple. We were raised with a true work ethic, we know what it means to work for what you want. So here we are, working.
My way of life is dying. There will come a time when cattle will all be raised in feed lots and such. There will come a time when every acre of land will have eight houses on it. There will be no more broncy horses to ride, no more gathers, brandings, long nights calving, no more ranches. I will be a memory.
People ask me how I could have done all that I've done in my 37 years on earth. I've rodeoed, run ranches, outfitted, trained horses, worked cows, transported livestock from one end of the country to the other. The answer is because I've never had a job that didn't involve horses or animals. I don't know anything else. So when my way of life finally fades, and the only thing left is cheap novels about cowboys and Indians, I'll be gone, too. I just hope that some of my writings survive so that folks really know what happened.
This story was one of fortitude, hope, sadness and joy. The people, the animals and the places are all significant. I hope that people will remember all of us.
I want to thank Steve Lucas, DVM and John Koger, DVM for their help and support through all of my veterinary crises. I don't know what I'd do without you guys.
October, 2001
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You may be right about your way of life dying,
but the way things seem to be going,
we all might end up planting the food we eat,
and hunting for meat.
This was a great look at the type of life most
people can only read about.
Very well done.
We had some folks come and video tape a branding one time. That was something to look at when we were through. I'll have to tell that one some day. Most times, though, I'm working, so I can't tape it. There isn't a hand out there that doesn't have something else to do, makes it kind of hard. I should come up with a "hat cam", then anywhere my head pointed, it would take pictures. Jackie
I hope that it doesn't die out in my lifetime, or my daughter's lifetime, Terry, but the signs are there. If a few of us can hang on the stories will keep coming. That's what I'm hoping for. Jackie
Betty and Robert, I get to thinking that maybe I should give this up and settle down, but when I go look at a place in town or on an acre or two, I change my mind. I've done this all my life and I don't know much else. Working from 9 to 5 just doesn't get it for me. Besides, if I gave it up, what would I write about? LOL Jackie
Betty and Robert, I get to thinking that maybe I should give this up and settle down, but when I go look at a place in town or on an acre or two, I change my mind. I've done this all my life and I don't know much else. Working from 9 to 5 just doesn't get it for me. Besides, if I gave it up, what would I write about? LOL Jackie
Who could feel more alive and useful than someone in your line of work? Muscles used become stiff, you lie down at night exhausted, with the joy of knowing you have used the body God gave you to give something back. Health and welfare of animals touched personally, pats and licks and love. I think it will be very sad if all that disappears, but I don't think it ever will. We may have different life styles and appreciate different things, that is what makes the world go round, and we will always need people like you...
Bev, the phrase "You ranch because you love it" is what comes to mind. I know so many people who think that my life is a hassle and a drag. I never have time to do anything "fun". I wouldn't change a thing about the way I live. I'm hoping that my daughter will look back to this time in her life and show the same appreciation. Jackie
Jackie, its very sad that you lost your goat. And the diagnosis of the tetanus occuring due to her low immune system does make sense. As you mentioned in the other chapter, it may have entered through the eye - who knows eh. Tetanus is a real tough one.
The other you wrote - the way of life. It's sad to see factory farms outgrowing the small farmer. It is a way of life and one I grew up in. I know my empathy and the way I work with my clients comes first from my growing up on a farm. Meeting life, death and all between before you are even old enough to understand fully...yet you do it because it's simply part of life.
I find it sad when I go to the Fraser Valley (BC) and see so much agriculture land covered over in concrete or houses - including the farm I grew up in. The last horse stables was finally plowed under and covered in concrete.
We need the farms...we need to stay in touch with our roots, with nature. Or we will become lost and aimless, I believe in life.
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