My Greatest Piece of Veterinary Work

Queenie had been missing for 3 days. Bobby had been hunting for her whenever he didn't have to work and I would periodically go to the door and holler for her because my foot had been run over and I couldn't walk. We were broken hearted.

On the third afternoon I decided to take a short walk (part of my rehab). I knew I couldn't go far but I had to do something. I was about a hundred yards from our trailer and I had been yelling for Queenie the whole way when I happened to look up on the mountain and I saw her head drop. That's all I saw but at least I knew where she was.

I made my way to her and she looked terrible. She was lying on her side and the her upper body from the base of her ribcage up was swollen to at least triple her size. I saw immediately what had caused it. She had gashes sliced through her front legs and chest. From the looks of it I would say that she ran straight through a barbed wire fence at about 30 mph or so. She was weak but she also knew I was beside her now and I wouldn't leave her.

I couldn't carry her down the hill and I couldn't walk good enough to even go home to get medical supplies to help her. All I could do was wait for Bobby to come home from work which was several hours away. We sat there together in the woods and I talked to my baby so she knew that everything would be okay.

Finally just at dusk, Bobby pulled into the driveway. I yelled and told him that I found Queenie. I let him know where we were and that we couldn't get back home. He came straight to us and I told him to get Queenie home first and make her comfortable and then come back for me. There was no way I could get back down that steep hill on my own. It was too much of a struggle with my foot swollen bigger than a football.

He carried Queenie off the mountain and then he came back and carried me off the hill as well. When we got back I went straight to work cleaning her wounds and administering combiotic. Combiotic was some wonderful stuff. It was a high powered antibiotic with a local anesthetic in it. I injected it straight into her wounds.

It took days for the swelling to come down and for her to start eating again. It took weeks for the cuts to heal but they did and Bobby and Queenie and I enjoyed many happy years together.