Fight for Life
Chapter Six
Just then, a woman rushes into the clinic carrying two large picnic baskets, her arms straining under their weight. Gran brings her straight into the Dolittle Room. Gran opens the baskets to reveal six tiny collies plus a mutt, all curled together and shivering. They’re only a few weeks old, and Gran says they’re dehydrated. Maggie is instructed to fill surgical gloves with warm water to make cozy beds for the pups. Brenna is instructed to roll the O2 canister over, and Maggie shows her how to do it. Then Maggie shows the others how to fill the surgical gloves with warm water and tie them off, lining the makeshift beds along the counter, which is covered with towels.
Gran takes a larger pup out of the basket and hands it to Maggie, who cradles him gently and carries him to a warm bed next to Brenna. She hurries back to Gran for another pup. As Gran hands over each puppy, the owner explains, her voice shaking, that she found them crammed in a dirty cage at the farmer’s market. They didn’t have food or water, and their fur was matted and filthy. The owner yelled at them and rattled the cage whenever they whined.
Maggie recognizes him right away as the same guy who sold Shelby, Inky, and Dinky, and anger flares in her chest. The owner explains she argued with him and threatened to report him to the Humane Society for abusing the dogs. She followed him all the way to his truck, where she offered every dollar of her cash to take the puppies from him. Gran strides over to Sunita and points out that the collie she’s watching needs attention first, his sides heaving with each rapid breath. She explains his breathing is fast and his lungs sound congested. When Maggie takes his temperature under the collie’s tail, he’s too weak to even notice. His temperature registers at 105°, well above the normal range of 100 to 102.5 for a healthy dog.
Maggie hurries to get a bag of Ringer’s solution and sets it out for Gran. She explains the fluids will replace what the puppy lost from diarrhea. Gran fills a syringe with medicine and inserts it carefully into his foreleg.
As Gran moves onto the next puppy, Maggie says she thinks the mother is sick, too. The guy is running a puppy mill, a place where dogs are bred in unhealthy, overcrowded conditions. They’re illegal and unethical. As David cranes his neck to see what Gran is doing, he loses his balance and bumps into the instrument cart. Everything crashes to the ground, and the sudden noise startles the puppies, sending a fresh round of frightened whimpers through the room. Everyone turns to stare at David.
Maggie quickly begins to pick up the mess and get Gran a clean instrument pack. Then Sunita says one of her puppies has diarrhea, and there’s blood in it. Maggie grabs the towels to save fecal samples before anything is lost.
Gran moves meticulously between the puppies, trying to stabilize each one in turn. When Brenna calls out in alarm, Gran rushes over and listens to a collie who is shaking violently, his tiny body convulsing. She calls for an oxygen mask. Before Maggie can get it to Gran, the puppy goes still. Gran feels for a pulse and then gently closes the dog’s eyes. She couldn’t find a pulse.
Tears cloud Maggie’s eyes and her stomach drops to the floor. The room falls silent except for the soft whimpers of the remaining puppies. Sunita and David look at the floor and Brenna holds her breath. The owner gently takes the wrapped puppy out so he can be buried.
Once they stabilize all the puppies, they’re moved to a special oxygen cage in the recovery room, where the surviving pups huddle together. Everyone’s eyes stay glued to the puppies, watching for any sign of trouble. Then the front door slams shut. Dr. Gabe is back. Gran says they’ll relieve all the volunteers now, that she and Gabe will take good care of them from here. Maggie should take everyone to the kitchen for a snack.