Page 37 of Emi's Hero

George offered Emi his arm. She rested her hand on the inside of his elbow and strolled past the outbuildings until they came to the barn.

Inside, they found Kalea and Mr. Parkman standing in front of a stall.

Kalea waved them over. “Come see our newest member of the ranch.”

George and Emi joined the Parkmans.

When Emi looked over the stall door, she only saw a large buckskin horse standing there.

“This is Blondie, one of our best mares on the ranch.” Kalea pulled a carrot from the back pocket of her jeans and held it out.

The mare stepped forward to take the carrot. When she moved, her baby danced around to her other side in view of the folks watching.

Emi’s breath caught.

“That’s Buttercup,” Kalea said. “She’s one whole day old.”

The filly had the same coloring as her mother. Her mane and tail were black, her body a light golden. The only difference was the white star in the middle of her forehead. She nuzzled her mother’s belly, searching for her teats and suckled hungrily as the mare munched on the carrot.

Emi’s heart filled with the joy of witnessing the beauty of nature. She remembered nursing Sara in their tiny room, so glad and blessed she’d had enough of her own milk to sustain the baby. She didn’t want to think what might have happened to Sara had she not been able to nurse her through the first year and a half of her life.

“She’s beautiful,” Emi said.

Kalea smiled. “She is. And she’ll make a good cowpony like her mother. Are you out for a walk?”

Emi nodded.

“We’re headed to check out the horses in the pasture next,” George offered.

“Before you go, come see what I found behind the stairs to the loft,” Kalea said. She grabbed a flashlight from a charger on the wall and led them to the stairs.

George and Emi followed Kalea to the shadowy space beneath wooden steps that led up into the loft.

Kalea knelt and clicked the button on the flashlight. The beam of light shone onto a golden retriever, lying on her side, nursing a litter of little golden puppies.

Emi squatted down beside Kalea. “How precious,” she exclaimed. “How many did she have?”

“I counted ten,” Kalea said, a frown creasing her forehead. She counted softly to herself, ending at nine. “Hey Ginger, where’s your other puppy?”

Kalea reached in, pushed the mother to the side and looked behind her.

When the mother moved, Emi spotted the missing baby crawling beneath her mama’s tail. “There it is.” She reached for the puppy and held it in her hand, marveling at how small and helpless it was, yet they instinctively knew what they needed to survive. “Hungry?” she asked and then fit it between its siblings on an unoccupied teat.

“That one was a girl,” Kalea said. “And if you look closely, she’s got a little white star on her forehead like Buttercup.” She leaned closer to the other puppies. “None of the others have the same star. That makes her special. We could call her Buttercup Two, but I don’t like naming puppies destined for new homes. It’s hard enough to part with them.” Kalea crawled backward and stood.

For a long moment, Emi stared at the babies, again, amazed at nature’s ability to keep going while Emi’s world seemed to be stalled. “Sara would love to see the puppies,” she murmured.

“We’ll be sure to bring her here,” George promised.

“And if things work out and you land in a place that allows dogs, you can take Buttercup Two home with you,” Kalea said.

“I’d love that,” Emi said. She just couldn’t think that far ahead. All her focus had to be on freeing Sara first.

George led Emi out of the barn and to the wooden rails of the pasture fence.

“I like to sit on the top rail and watch the horses when they’re being frisky.” He nodded toward the horses with their heads down, grazing. “Or when they’re just grazing. It’s peaceful.”

Emi rested her hand on the top wooden rail. “Will it hold me?”

---