Stray (4 page)

On Monday morning, Miss Sunshine herself, Megan Simmons, was at her place behind the front counter when I arrived. Surprised that the front door was unlocked, I expected to see her, but was still startled when she popped up from her seat to confront me.

“Thanks to you, my boyfriend broke up with me,” she pouted, pointing at me with a shaking finger. I seriously doubted it was my fault; if she treated him the way she treated me, he should have run for the hills long ago. Nevertheless, I said the only thing that came to mind after being hit with a frontal attack first thing on a Monday morning.

Good for him
. No, I didn’t say that, though I wanted to. Instead, I said, “Oh, Megan, I’m sorry. How was it that I’m at fault again?”

“I told you I had plans on Friday. He didn’t like being stood up.”

“Well, what’s done is done. I’m sorry it happened, but we’ve already had this discussion. Perhaps you should have sent him a text explaining that you were detained at work.”

“Perhaps,” she mocked, “you should have left the fucking door closed when I told you to.”

I looked at my watch. Two minutes to opening, I didn’t have time for a Starbucks run out to the resort. I’d have to make do with counting to ten. I added ‘inappropriate language and insubordination’ to my mental list of the reasons for firing Megan when I had the chance, and went on through to the back to check on Max.

The sweet boy lifted his head when I opened his kennel. He struggled to rise to his three good feet, and came to lick my hand. I was amazed at his progress, not to mention grateful that I wouldn’t be schlepping his fifty or so pounds outside for his potty breaks any more. Even in his emaciated condition, probably fifteen pounds under what he should be, Max was a heavy load for me.

I coaxed him out step by step with treats, and he was a perfect gentleman on command. Someone had loved this dog at one time, trained him well and then, for some unknown reason, had abandoned him to his fate. How could people do such a thing?

I had time to get him back into his kennel and settled again before the first patient of the day arrived, a boxer with hip dysplasia that I’d been treating with Omega 3 supplements, antioxidants and non-steroidal anti-inflammatories. Unfortunately, she was overweight and little could be done about it, because her pain kept her from playing and exercising. It was time to start medicating her with steroids, but her owner needed to know that it would be the beginning of the end unless they wanted to consider total hip replacement.

Every time I saw a purebred dog with this condition, I cursed the puppy mills that doomed their stock to such a painful condition. By the time I’d explained the options and the potential outcomes, both the owner and I were in tears.

It was noon before I had enough of a break to check on Megan again. I found her filing her nails at her desk, an activity of which I disapproved, but not enough to have a fight over it. I was picking my battles these days.

“Megan, I’d like to discuss clinic policy with you again, regarding emergencies. I know your plans for Friday blew up because I let in a patient after hours, but your father made me understand that we’re the only vet in the area. That’s why there’s an emergency number on the door, and that’s why we, or at least I, need to be available if at all possible.”

“Yeah, YOU do, but I don’t,” she said, her tone as sullen as ever.

“I understand that. And you would have been welcome to go if you had finished the day-end report as I asked. Megan, I don’t know what else to do to have a decent working relationship with you, but the current state of affairs is unacceptable. We need to work this out.”

“You’re supposed to run the day-end,” she retorted.

I was just about at the end of my rope. “And you’re supposed to properly clean the examining rooms. If you’ll recall, you flatly refused, and when I checked another room I discovered you hadn’t done that one, either. I can’t do it all, and if you won’t do it, I’m going to have to talk to your father about finding someone who will.”

Her eyes narrowed, sending out an almost-visible toxic death-ray of hate toward me.

“Oh, yeah? Well, good luck. I could refuse to come to work at all if you’re going to treat me this way, and YOU’d be the one to get fired. Besides, that, I knew who that guy was, and he’s one of the resort people. We don’t need to kiss his ass. Or treat his dog.”

That brought me up short. This was the first time I’d heard we didn’t want business from the resort people, whatever that meant. But, I took my responsibilities toward sick and injured animals seriously. No matter who brought the dog in, he’d been suffering, and deserved at least a minimum of care, even if that meant putting him down humanely rather than leaving him to suffer. If Megan didn’t share that sense of responsibility, and I was damn near certain she didn’t, I didn’t want her working here. But, I didn’t have the authority to fire her, so I still had to talk to her dad. Meanwhile, I needed to understand what she’d said about ‘resort people’.

“What do you mean, resort people?” I asked.

“You know. The come-heres, newcomers. The people who don’t belong here. They came in and ruined the mountainsides with their ski runs and groomed trails, walk around here like they own the place and look down on us. Haven’t you figured out yet that the locals don’t like them?”

Well, no, I hadn’t. In fact, I thought they were the only reason there was still a viable town here, but I’d only been here a month. If the locals hated newcomers so much, were they just pretending to like me and stabbing me in the back as soon as I’d turned it?

What an appalling concept! Maybe they only came to me to support Dr. Simmons’ business and it had nothing to do with my skill as a vet. Suddenly, I felt like crying, like a little kid with no friends. I nodded glumly and left without discussing it further. I needed to see Max, because at least he wasn’t two-faced. Right now, he felt like my only friend.

This time, he got to his feet, though still with difficulty, and came out of the kennel without being bribed. Outside, after he’d done his business, I called him to my side and sat down beside him, hugging him as if he were a long-lost sibling. He sat patiently, wagging his tail slightly, until I as able to pull myself together.

“Thanks, Max, buddy,” I said, petting his noble head. “Damn, I wish I had room for you in my apartment. I’m going to hate to give you up.”

Max looked up at me with trust and a little confusion in his eyes, as if to say, ‘Hey, Erin, it’s okay. But, what do you mean give me up? I’m yours now.’  If only we could make that happen, both of us would be ecstatic. But, my apartment was an addition over my landlady’s garage, and she had cats. My lease specifically said I couldn’t have pets, not even a goldfish. When my lunch break was over, I went inside to do my best to get through the afternoon, but my heart wasn’t going to be in it, and because I’d skipped eating, I was going to hit the granddaddy of all mid-afternoon slumps, barring a miracle.

I’d forgotten that Jon intended to take Max for physical therapy, so when he showed up at around three, it was a shock. I had to say the man cleaned up nicely. Today he was in a business suit, but he didn’t seem to care that Max was going to shed all over him as he insisted on carrying him to the car. Correction, he was going to shed all over Jon and his BMW. It shouldn’t have shocked me that he drove an expensive car, or that he dressed in perfectly-tailored suits, but it did.

I didn’t think at the time to wonder about a business suit during a ski week; that would come later. After all, people who carried the kind of cash he’d flashed on Friday night obviously had to be well-off. But he’d seemed more like himself in the designer jeans he’d worn that night and on Sunday. Except, who was I kidding? What did I know about him, or what he should be wearing? I barely knew the man, and if Megan’s assessment was accurate, he was out of my league and not someone I’d encounter once Max was fully recovered anyway.

I agreed to meet him back at the clinic at six, an hour after tonight’s closing time, so that he could get Max to Boulder for a physical therapy appointment and then grooming before bringing him back. It was one less thing I had to worry about, after all, and I wouldn’t need Megan on hand for this so there’d be no blowups about keeping her overtime. In fact, it gave me time to get to my after-hours doctor appointment, a courtesy that Doc McGraw extended to me in complete opposition to Greg’s attitude. Dr. McGraw said we doctors have to do each other favors because we never know when we’ll need them ourselves. At least he didn’t taunt me about not being a real doctor.

~*~

I left Megan to close when our last patient was done. When I was finished with my own doctor appointment, I would come back and run the day-end, so she was just going to lock up and leave right behind me. It had been a beautiful sunny day, if somewhat chilly in the mid-forties. One of the biggest surprises I encountered in Colorado was how low the temperature could go and still be relatively comfortable. It was going to be quite cold before I got back to the clinic, though, since the sun was already down behind the peaks that towered over our little high canyon and obscured the sun even earlier than on the plains to the east. I walked to the doctor
’s office just two blocks from our clinic, grateful for my new winter coat, a down jacket that nipped in at the waist and flared out again to accommodate my hips and butt.

My nose was red and running by the time I navigated the two blocks, though. I’d have to re-think not wearing a hat, and maybe even a facemask if it got much colder, an observation that made Doc McGraw throw back his head and bray like a donkey.

“Oh, kid, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet,” he said, when he’d caught his breath. “Yep, buy a facemask, and a hat, and you’d better have heavier gloves, too. Come February, the wind will nip your nose right off.”

“Well, then maybe it won’t give me so much trouble,” I joked.

“I’ve been meaning to ask you, sis, did you know you were allergic to cats when you decided to become a veterinarian?” he asked, his eyes still twinkling with mischief. Doc McGraw was in his late fifties or early sixties, I guessed, but fit and trim like most of the town residents. In fact, his gray hair and grizzled scruff of beard belied the agile body and unwrinkled skin. I’d loved him on sight when I met him, and he must have been fond of me, too, judging from the nickname he bestowed upon me.

“Matter of fact, yes,” I admitted. “I thought I’d get used to it or something, if I had to work with a lot of them. By the time I figured out that it wasn’t going to happen, I was already more than halfway through school. Besides, I love being a vet. It’s just a small inconvenience.”

“As long as you stay on top of it, yes,” said Doc, “but don’t ever think you can stop these shots, unless you decide to go back to school and get your medical degree for humans instead. Come to think of it, I may want to retire someday, and I could use another doctor in the practice so I could take a vacation now and then.”

“Not a chance,” I laughed. “I like animals a lot better than I like people.”

“Uh-oh, having trouble with Megan again?”

“More like still. I don’t know what I’ve done to the little brat, but I’d like to turn her over my knee.”

“Get in line,” he said, lifting one eyebrow. “I’ve wanted to do that for years. I don’t know what Chuck and Diane were thinking, spoiling that kid like that.”

“I’m going to have to talk to her dad. We can’t get through one conversation without her lashing out at me, or copping an attitude that makes me want to slap her. Today she told me that as townies, we weren’t supposed to like or accommodate the ski resort people, by which I assume she meant the owners and employees. I don’t think we’ve ever treated a tourist’s animal.”

“That doesn’t mean you won’t. Unfortunately, you’ll probably have to treat the resort people’s pets, too, sooner or later. But she’s got a point. There’s no love lost between the town and the resort. If you get too friendly with the resort people, the townies might turn against you.”

Aghast, I gaped at him. “You can’t be serious!”

“Never more so, sis. You’ve been accepted here, or are on the way to being accepted, because you’re working for Chuck and because there’s no other vet this side of Boulder. But the locals have long memories, and none of them appreciate the way the ski resort changed the town, even if it did save a few businesses and bring opportunity. Did you know not a single old-time resident works there?”