animal stories (11 page)

It was difficult at first to shake off the mantle of unreality in which I had wrapped myself last night. Last night—Christmas Eve. It had been like a culmination of all the ideas I had ever held about Christmas—a flowering of emotions I had never experienced before. It had been growing in me since the afternoon call to a tiny village where the snow lay deep on the single street and on the walls and on the ledges of the windows where the lights on the tinseled trees glowed red and blue and gold; and as I left it in the dusk I drove beneath the laden branches of a group of dark spruce as motionless as though they had been sketched against the white background of the fields.

When I reached Darrowby it was dark and around the marketplace the little shops were bright with decorations and the light from their windows fell in a soft yellow wash over the trodden snow of the cobbles. People, anonymously muffled, were hurrying about, doing their last-minute shopping, their feet slithering over the rounded stones.

I had known many Christmases in Scotland but they had taken second place to the New Year celebration; there had been none of this air of subdued excitement which started days before with folk shouting good wishes, and colored lights winking on the lonely fellsides, and the farmers’ wives plucking the fat geese, the feathers piled deep around their feet. And for fully two weeks you heard the children piping carols in the street then knocking on the door for sixpences. And best of all, last night the Methodist choir had sung out there, filling the night air with rich, thrilling harmony.

Before going to bed and just as the church bells began I closed the door of Skeldale House behind me and walked again into the marketplace. Nothing stirred now in the white square stretching smooth and cold and empty under the moon, and there was a Dickens look about the ring of houses and shops put together long before anybody thought of town planning; tall and short, fat and thin, squashed in crazily around the cobbles, their snow-burdened roofs jagged and uneven against the frosty sky.

As I walked back, the snow crunching under my feet, the bells clanging, the sharp air tingling in my nostrils, the wonder and mystery of Christmas enveloped me in a great wave. Peace on earth, goodwill toward men; the words became meaningful as never before and I saw myself suddenly as a tiny particle in the scheme of things; Darrowby, the farmers, the animals and me seemed for the first time like a warm, comfortable entity. I hadn’t been drinking but I almost floated up the stairs to our bed-sitter.

Helen was still asleep and as I crawled between the sheets beside her I was still wallowing in my Yuletide euphoria. There wouldn’t be much work tomorrow; we’d have a long lie—maybe until nine-and then a lazy day, a glorious hiatus in our busy life. As I drifted into sleep it was as though I was surrounded by the smiling faces of my clients looking down at me with an all-embracing benevolence; and strangely I fancied I could hear singing, sweet and haunting, just like the Methodist choir—”God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen …”

But now there was this other bell which wouldn’t stop. Must be the alarm. But as I pawed at the clock the noise continued and I saw that it was six o’clock. It was the phone, of course. I lifted the receiver.

A metallic voice, crisp and very wide awake, jarred in my ear. “Is that the vet?”

“Yes, Herriot speaking,” I mumbled.

“This is Brown, Willet Hill. I’ve got a cow down with milk fever. I want you here quick.”

“Right, I’ll see to it.”

“Don’t take ower long.” Then a click at the far end.

I rolled onto my back and stared at the ceiling. So this was Christmas Day. The day when I was going to step out of the world for a spell and luxuriate in the seasonal spirit. I hadn’t bargained for this fellow jerking me brutally back to reality. And not a word of regret or apology. No “sorry to get you out of bed” or anything else, never mind “Merry Christmas.” It was just a bit hard.

Mr. Brown was waiting for me in the darkness of the farmyard. I had been to his place a few times before and as my headlights blazed on him I was struck, as always, by his appearance of perfect physical fitness. He was a gingery man of about forty with high cheekbones set in a sharp-featured, clear-skinned face. Red hair peeped from under a check cap and a faint auburn down covered his cheeks, his neck, the backs of his hands. It made me feel a bit more sleepy just to look at him.

He didn’t say good morning but nodded briefly, then jerked his head in the direction of the byre. “She’s in there” was all he said.

He watched in silence as I gave the injections and it wasn’t until I was putting the empty bottles into my pocket that he spoke.

“Don’t suppose I’ll have to milk her today?”

“No,” I replied. “Better leave the bag full.”

“Anything special about feedin’?” Mr. Brown was very efficient. Always wanted to know every detail.

“No, she can have anything she likes when she wants it.”

As we crossed the yard he halted suddenly and turned to face me. Could it be that he was going to ask me in for a nice hot cup of tea?

“You know,” he said, as I stood ankle-deep in the snow, the frosty air nipping at my ears. “I’ve had a few of these cases lately. Maybe there’s summat wrong with my routine. Do you think I’m steaming up my cows too much?”

“It’s quite possible.” I hurried toward the car. One thing I wasn’t going to do was deliver a lecture on animal husbandry at this moment.

My hand was on the door handle when he said, “I’ll give you another ring if she’s not up by dinner-time. And there’s one other thing—that was a hell of a bill I had from you fellers last month, so tell your boss not to be so savage with ‘is pen.” Then he turned and walked quickly toward the house.

Well that was nice, I thought as I drove away. Not even thanks or good-bye, just a complaint and a promise to haul me away from my roast goose if necessary. A sudden wave of anger surged in me. Bloody farmers! There were some miserable devils among them. Mr. Brown had doused my festive feeling as effectively as if he had thrown a bucket of water over me. As I mounted the steps of Skeldale House the darkness had paled to a shivery gray. Helen met me in the passage. She was carrying a tray.

“I’m sorry, Jim,” she said. “There’s another urgent job. Siegfried’s had to go out, too. But I’ve got a cup of coffee and some fried bread for you. Come in and sit down—you’ve got time to eat it before you go.”

I sighed. It was going to be just another day after all. “What’s this about, Helen?” I asked, sipping the coffee.

“It’s old Mr. Kirby,” she replied. “He’s very worried about his nanny goat.”

“Nanny goat!”

“Yes, he says she’s choking.”

“Choking! How the heck can she be choking?” I shouted.

“I really don’t know. And I wish you wouldn’t shout at me, Jim. It’s not my fault.”

In an instant I was engulfed by shame. Here I was, in a bad temper, taking it out on my wife. It is a common reaction for vets to blame the hapless person who passes on an unwanted message but I am not proud of it. I held out my hand and Helen took it.

“I’m sorry,” I said and finished the coffee sheepishly. My feeling of goodwill was at a very low ebb.

Mr. Kirby was a retired farmer, but he had sensibly taken a cottage with a bit of land where he kept enough stock to occupy his time—a cow, a few pigs and his beloved goats. He had always had goats, even when he was running his dairy herd; he had a thing about them.

The cottage was in a village high up the dale. Mr. Kirby met me at the gate.

“Ee, lad,” he said. “I’m right sorry to be bothering you this early in the morning and Christmas an’ all, but I didn’t have no choice. Dorothy’s real bad.”

He led the way to a stone shed which had been converted into a row of pens. Behind the wire of one of them a large white Saanen goat peered out at us anxiously and as I watched her she gulped, gave a series of retching coughs, then stood trembling, saliva drooling from her mouth.

The farmer turned to me, wide-eyed. “You see, I had to get you out, didn’t I? If I left her till tomorrow she’d be a goner.”

“You’re right, Mr. Kirby,” I replied. “You couldn’t leave her. There’s something in her throat.”

We went into the pen and as the old man held the goat against the wall I tried to open her mouth. She didn’t like it very much and as I pried her jaws apart she startled me with a loud, long-drawn, human-sounding cry. It wasn’t a big mouth but I have a small hand and I poked a finger deep into the pharynx, avoiding the sharp back teeth.

There was something there all right. I could just touch it but I couldn’t get hold of it. Then the animal began to throw her head about and I had to come out; I stood there, saliva dripping from my hand, looking thoughtfully at Dorothy.

After a few moments I turned to the farmer. “You know, this is a bit baffling. I can feel something in the back of her throat, but it’s soft—like cloth. I’d been expecting to find a bit of twig, or something sharp sticking in there—it’s funny what a goat will pick up when she’s pottering around outside. But if it’s cloth, what the heck is holding it here? Why hasn’t she swallowed it down?”

“Aye, it’s a rum ‘un, isn’t it?” The old man ran a gentle hand along the animal’s back. “Do you think she’ll get rid of it herself? Maybe it’ll just slip down?”

“No, I don’t. It’s stuck fast, God knows how, but it is. And I’ve got to get it out soon because she’s beginning to blow up. Look there.” I pointed to the goat’s gas-filled stomach and as I did so, Dorothy began another paroxysm of coughs which seemed almost to tear her apart.

Mr. Kirby looked at me with a mute appeal, but just at that moment I didn’t see what I could do. Then I opened the door of the pen. “I’m going to get my flashlight from the car. Maybe I’ll see something to explain this.”

The old man held the flashlight as I once more pulled the goat’s mouth open and again heard the curious child-like wailing. It was when the animal was in full cry that I noticed something under the tongue— a thin, dark band.

“I can see what’s holding the thing now,” I cried. “It’s hooked round the tongue with string or something.” Carefully I pushed my forefinger under the band and began to pull.

It wasn’t string. It began to stretch as I pulled carefully at it … like elastic. Then it stopped stretching and I felt a real resistance … whatever was in the throat was beginning to move. I kept up a gentle traction and very slowly the mysterious obstruction came sliding up over the back of the tongue and into the mouth, and when it came within reach I let go the elastic, grabbed the sodden mass and hauled it forth. It seemed as if there was no end to it—a long snake of dripping material nearly two feet long—but at last I had it out onto the straw of the pen.

Mr. Kirby seized it and held it up and as he unraveled the mass wonderingly he gave a sudden cry.

“God ‘elp us, it’s me summer drawers!”

“Your what?”

“Me summer drawers. Ah don’t like them long johns when weather gets warmer and I allus change into these little short ‘uns. Missus was havin’ a clear-out afore the end of t’year and she didn’t know whether to wash ‘em or mek them into dusters. She washed them at t’finish and Dorothy must have got ‘em off the line.” He held up the tattered shorts and regarded them ruefully. “By gaw, they’d seen better days, but I reckon Dorothy’s fettled them this time.”

Then his body began to shake silently, a few low giggles escaped from him and finally he gave a great shout of laughter. It was an infectious laugh and I joined in as I watched him. He went on for quite a long time and when he had finished he was leaning weakly against the wire netting.

“Me poor awd drawers,” he gasped, then leaned over and patted the goat’s head. “But as long as you’re all right, lass, I’m not worried.”

“Oh, she’ll be okay,” I pointed to her left flank. “You can see her stomach’s going down already.” As I spoke, Dorothy belched pleasurably and began to nose interestedly at her hayrack.

The farmer gazed at her fondly. “Isn’t that grand to see! She’s ready for her grub again. And if she hadn’t got her tongue round the elastic that lot would have gone right down and killed her.”

“I really don’t think it would, you know,” I said. “It’s amazing what ruminants can carry around in their stomachs. I once found a bicycle tire inside a cow when I was operating for something else. The tire didn’t seem to be bothering her in the least.”

“I see.” Mr. Kirby rubbed his chin. “So Dorothy might have wandered around with me drawers inside her for years.”

“It’s possible. You’d never have known what became of them.”

“By gaw, that’s right,” Mr. Kirby said, and for a moment I thought he was going to start giggling again, but he mastered himself and seized my arm. “But I don’t know what I’m keeping you out here for, lad. You must come in and have a bit o’ Christmas cake.”

Inside the tiny living room of the cottage I was ushered to the best chair by the fireside where two rough logs blazed and crackled.

“Bring cake out for Mr. Herriot, Mother,” the farmer cried as he rummaged in the pantry. He reappeared with a bottle of whiskey at the same time as his wife bustled in carrying a cake thickly laid with icing and ornamented with colored spangles, toboggans, reindeers.

Mr. Kirby unscrewed the stopper. “You know, Mother, we’re lucky to have such men as this to come out on a Christmas mornin’ to help us.”

“Aye, we are that.” The old lady cut a thick slice of the cake and placed it on a plate by the side of an enormous wedge of Wensleydale cheese.

Her husband meanwhile was pouring my drink. Yorkshire men are amateurs with whiskey and there was something delightfully untutored in the way he was sloshing it into the glass as if it were lemonade; he would have filled it to the brim if I hadn’t stopped him.

Drink in hand, cake on knee, I looked across at the farmer and his wife who were sitting in upright kitchen chairs watching me with quiet benevolence. The two faces had something in common-a kind of beauty. You would find faces like that only in the country; deeply wrinkled and weathered, clear-eyed, alight with cheerful serenity.

I raised my glass. “A happy Christmas to you both.”