Page 32 of The Leaving Road

He sighed in defeat. “Fine, but I’m just stating for the record that I don’t like this.”

“Duly noted.”

The ride to our destination was quiet, as though Ben and I were both mentally preparing ourselves for the worst. I’ve come to find out that, in my profession, you ended up seeing the worst in humanity. We were greeted with one SUV that clearly belonged to the DNR and two squad cars with the lights going but thankfully, no sirens. I bristled at the idiocy; they needed to turn off those flashing lights.

We were met by the DNR officer and two police officers. “Hi there, I’m Mike, that’s Jon and Nancy.” the DNR officer said, pointing to the two next to him.

“I’m Ben and this is Magnolia. We are both veterinarians and we work for Dr. Lewis. What is it we are dealing with here?”

“Whoever was here was either spooked into leaving or something happened to em’, but they haven’t been back for at least a few days. Someone was hiking and they must have stumbled upon it, then called us immediately. Seems like they were running some kind of animal fight club: dogs vs. dogs, cats…whatever kind of animal they could find.”

I couldn’t help the overwhelming feeling of nausea that was creeping in. We had a few neglect cases at the clinic I worked at before, but nothing even remotely on this level. I had to do everything I could possibly do to ease anything’s suffering.

“There seems to be quite a few dogs here, a few goats, sheep, chickens… They are all in very bad shape with many wounds. Another reason we called you…there’s two bear cubs here, with significant lacerations, as though they’ve been whipped.”

I couldn’t help the tears that escaped. Ben looked at me and placed his hand on my shoulder and whispered, “You got this, they need us.”

“No sign of the mother, right?” Ben asked.

“I hate to tell you this,” the officer said, “but it would appear the remains of the mother is in a large dump pile in the back. It seems they skinned her for her coat.” His face paled as he delivered the news.

I couldn’t help but empty the contents of my stomach onto the gravel around me. They all gave me a few minutes to collect my bearings before we made our way toward the barn.

The next few hours passed by in a blur of hard work and barely concealed tears, lots of coaxing and trying not to cry when the animals cried out in pain just at the mere thought of us touching them. We had the van secured for us once we got everything, and we could put them in cages to bring back to the clinic to treat the best we could tonight. Then, they would be transferred to larger, specialty clinics in the morning throughout the state. Ben had called Dr. Lewis and gave him the update as soon as we were driving back; however, with it being a small town, the news had already broken out around town.

A quick glance at the clock told me it was eight-fifteen, and I had officially stood up Sloan, but I honestly couldn’t find it in me to care. My entire focus and heart was riding with these poor animals and what they had to endure. I shot off a quick text to Lexie telling her I had no idea when I’d be home and not to wait up, then I slid my phone back into my pocket and stared out the window, wishing for a miracle.

It was another hour or so of somewhat organized chaos once we made it back to the clinic. We immediately began sedating and treating the most critical animals. While I was addressing one of the goat’s injuries and thinking how best to go about cleaning some of the burn wounds on him, a voice spooked me enough to cause me to jump.

“Hi.”

Shit!

“You scared me, Sloan!” My hand rested on my beating heart as I tried to catch my breath.

“Shit, Magnolia. I’m so sorry.”

“What are you doing here?”

“Word had spread about twenty minutes after our talk was supposed to take place. I knew there was no way you wouldn’t be out there helping, and since you’re a stubborn woman and didn’t give me your number, or even bother to ask for mine, there was no way for you to contact me and vice versa.”

“That still begs the question, what are you doing here?”

“I’m here to help.”

“What?”

“I brought food for everyone: burgers, salad, sandwiches, coffee, water, and tea. I would have been here sooner, but it took forever to cook it all. I’m also here to help you guys with whatever else you might need. Clean up, take out the trash…put me to work.”

“So, if I asked you to go clean up the poop from the dog kennels, you would?”

“Just point me to the bag, sweetheart.”

We spent the next few hours working and taking a few bites of food when we had a minute. Sloan was surprisingly helpful, cleaning everything around us and offering to grab anything we needed. He kept asking what I needed and how he could help me, and I hated to admit how nice it was. By two-thirty in the morning, we had treated what we could, and many were in stable condition. We lost a few—one of the goats was too badly burned, a few chickens, and a puppy. My heart was broken, but it was also extremely full with how many we were able to save. It was humbling and crushing at the same time. I wanted to go home and sleep for the next ten hours.

Louise was coordinating the pickup times and moving of the animals for tomorrow with the DNR so there wasn’t anything left to do but go home. Dr. Lewis was staying overnight to oversee the rest, and Ben had gone home a few hours ago since he had kids.

“I’m following you home tonight, Magnolia. If I thought you’d let me drive you home, I’d do it in a heartbeat. You’re exhausted, I can tell. I can’t let you drive home in that condition without at least following you. Please.”

---