Page 46 of Cowboy's Sinful Bargain

Wouldn't matter if I did. I wasn't sleeping in Miko's bed anyway.

"Okay," the vet said, "keep the wound clean, change the bandages twice a day, and make sure he stays off that leg for at least a week."

What?

I swung around to stare at the vet. "Bucky is going to be okay?"

He didn't need to be put down?

"Yeah, surprised the shit out of me, too, when I saw the wound." The vet chuckled as he shook his head. "I still don't understand half the stuff your husband did, but Bucky should make a full recovery."

My legs went weak and I sank to the straw covered floor. "He's going to make it?"

The vet nodded.

"Will he be lame?" That was the worst thing I could think for a horse to go through. It sucked the life out of them.

The vet put his stuff away and then stood. "No, like I said, he should make a full recovery."

How?

"Doc, I saw the wound after the stampede," I stated. "There's no way he could have walked away from that."

"Well." The doc pushed his glasses up his face. "My understanding is that he didn't walk away from it. He was carried here in your front loader."

Huh?

I glanced at Wade when he chuckled.

"You should have seen Miko, Boss." Wade's laughter grew louder. "He was like a little general barking out orders and refusing to allow anyone to put Bucky down. Swore up and down he could fix him, and by golly, he did."

"I thought he was going to hand Axel his head when he argued with Wade about not putting Bucky down," Beau said. "To be honest, none of us thought Bucky would make it."

I was right there with them on that one. After seeing the wound on Bucky's hind end, I had been positive the only thing to do was to put him out of his misery.

How could I have been so wrong?

Had I been wrong?

"Doc, how is this possible?" I asked. "I've lived on a ranch most of my life. I know what it looks like when a horse gets a wound like that. The humane thing to do is put them down. How could Bucky make a full recovery?"

"I only understood about half of what your husband explained to me, but it apparently was a combination of acupuncture, pressure points, and herbal medicine." The vet shook his head as if amused by something. "I've been in this business a lot of years, but it turns out I could still learn a thing or two about saving animals."

Apparently, I could, too.

"Your husband said he would sit down with me one of these days and discuss some of his techniques with me, maybe teach me some of it. I'm going to buy some of the books he recommended and see if I can integrate some of that in my ownwork. If it can save a few more impossible cases, it'd be worth the cost of the books."

Okay, now I was curious.

I scooted over to Bucky and started stroking my hand down his neck. "Hey, boy. How are you doing?"

Bucky let out a little snort.

His eyes were a good color and he wasn't breathing heavy, but considering what had happened to him, I was still kind of concerned. "Doc, did you give Bucky something for the pain?"

"No, your husband did that."

"Huh?" I turned to look at him. "What do you mean?"

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