Fight for Life
Chapter Six
Just then, a woman carrying two large picnic baskets comes into the clinic. Gran brings her straight into the Dolittle Room. Gran opens the baskets to see six tiny collies plus a mutt. They’re all only a few weeks old. Gran says they’re dehydrated. Maggie is instructed to full surgical gloves with water to make warm beds for the pups. Brenna is instructed to roll the O2 canister over. Maggie shows her how to do it. Maggie shows the others how to fill the surgical gloves with warm water and tie them off, and lines them on the counter covered with towels.
Gran takes a larger pup out of the basket and hands it to Maggie, who takes him to a warm bed next to Brenna. She returns to Gran for another pup. As Gran hands over the pups, the owner explains she found the puppies in a dirty cage at the farmer’s market. They didn’t have food or water, and they were filthy. The owner yelled at them and rattled the cage when they whined.
Maggie knows it’s the same guy who sold Shelby, Inky, and Dinky. The owner explains she argued with him and threatened to report him to the Human Society for abusing the dogs. She followed him to his truck, where she offered all of her cash to take the puppies from him. Gran strides over to Sunita and says the collie she’s watching needs attention first. She says his breathing is fast and his lungs are congested. When Maggie takes his temperature under the collie’s tail, he doesn’t even notice. His temperature registers at 105°. A normal dog temperature is between 100 and 102.5.
Maggie gets a bag of Ringer’s solution and sets it out for Gran. She explains the fluids will replace what he lost from diarrhea. Gran fills a syringe with medicine, and inserts it 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, or a place where dogs are bred in unhealthy 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 noise startles the puppies. Everyone turns to stare at David.
Maggie begins to pick up the mess and get Gran a clean instrument pack. Then, Sunita says one of her puppies had diarrhea, and there’s blood in it. Maggie grabs the towels to save fecal samples.
Gran moves meticulously between the puppies, trying to stabilize them. When Brenna calls out, Gran listens to a collie, who is shaking violently. She calls for an oxygen mask. Before Maggie can get it to Gran, the puppy goes still. Gran feels for a pulse, and then closes the dog’s eyes. She couldn’t find a pulse.
Tears cloud Maggie’s eyes and her stomach drops to the floor. Sunita and David look at the floor and Brenna holds her breath. The owner 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. Everyone’s eyes are glued to the puppies. Then, the front door slams shut. Dr. Gabe is back. Gran says they’ll relieve all the volunteers now. Gabe and her will take good care of them. Maggie should take them all to the kitchen for a snack.