Let Sleeping Vets Lie Read online

of the market place my car, too, appeared to be taken by surprise

  because it roared into life at the first touch of the starter.

  I had to go back to the surgery for my whelping instruments and in the

  siren t moonlit street we got out and I opened the big white door to

  Skeldale House. ~;

  And once in the passage it was the most natural thing in the world to

  take her in my arms and kiss her gratefully and unhurriedly. I had

  waited a long] time for this and the minutes flowed past unnoticed as we

  stood there, our feet; on the black and red eighteenth-century tiles,

  our heads almost touching the vast] picture of the Death of Nelson which

  dominated the entrance. ,!

  We kissed again at the first bend of the passage under the companion

  picture"] of the Meeting of Wellington and Blucher at Waterloo. We

  kissed at the second bend by the tall cupboard where Siegfried kept his

  riding coats and boots. W kissed in the dispensary in between searching

  for my instruments. Then we tried it out in the garden and this was the

  best of all with the Rowers still and expectant in the moonlight and the

  fragrance of the moist earth and grass rising about us.

  I have never driven so slowly to a case. About ten miles an hour with

  Helen's head on my shoulder and all the scents of spring drifting in

  through the open window. And it was like sailing from stormy seas into a

  sweet, safe harbour, like coming home.

  The light in the cottage window was the only one showing in the sleeping

  village, and when I knocked at the door Bert Chapman answered. Bert was

  a council roadman - one of the breed for whom I felt an abiding

  affinity.

  The council men were my brethren of the roads.^Like me they spent most

  of their lives on the lonely by-ways around Darrowby and I saw them most

  days of the week, repairing the tarmac, cutting back the grass verges in

  the summer, gritting and snow ploughing in the winter. And when they

  spotted me driving past they would grin cheerfully and wave as if the

  very sight of me had made their day. I don't know whether they were

  specially picked for good nature but I don't think I have ever met a

  more equable body of men.

  One old farmer remarked sourly to me once. "There's no wonder the

  buggers are 'appy, they've got nowt to do." An exaggeration, of course,

  but I knew how he felt; compared with farming every other job was easy.

  I had seen Bert Chapman just a day or two ago, sitting on a grassy bank,

  his shovel by his side, a vast sandwich in his hand. He had raised a

  corded forearm in salute, a broad smile bisecting his round,

  sun-reddened face. He had looked eternally carefree but tonight his

  smile was strained.

  "I'm sorry to bother you this late, Mr. Herriot," he said as he ushered

  us into the house, 'but I'm gettin" a bit worried about Susie. Her pups

  are due and she's been making a bed for them and messing about all day

  but nowt's happened. I was going" to leave her till morning but about

  midnight she started panting like 'elf - I don't like the look of her."

  Susie was one of my regular patients. Her big, burly master was always

  bringing her to the surgery, a little shame-faced at his solicitude, and

  when I saw him sitting in the waiting room looking strangely out of

  place among the ladies with their pets, he usually said "T'missus asked

  me to bring Susie." But it was a transparent excuse.

  "She's nobbut a little mongrel, but very faithful," Bert said, still

  apologetic, but I could understand how he felt about Susie, a shaggy

  little ragamuffin whose only wile was to put her paws on my knees and

  laugh up into my face with her tail lashing. I found her irresistible.

  But she was a very different character tonight. As we went into the

  living room of the cottage the little animal crept from her basket, gave

  a single indeterminate wag of her tail then stood miserably in the

  middle of the floor, her ribs heaving. As I bent to examine her she

  turned a wide panting nouth and anxious eyes up to me.

  I ran my hands over her abdomen. I don't think I have ever felt a more

  bloated little dog; she was as round as a football, absolutely bulging

  with pups, ready to pop, but nothing was happening.

  What do you think?" Bert's face was haggard under his sunburn and he

  touched the dog's head briefly with a big calloused hand.

  "I don't know yet, Bert," I said. "I'll have to have a feel inside.

  Bring me some hot water, will you?"

  I added some antiseptic to the water, soaped my hand and with one finger

  Carefully explored the vagina. There was a pup there, all right; my

  finger tip brushed across the nostrils, the tiny mouth and tongue; but

  he was jammed in that passage like a cork in a bottle.

  Squatting back on my heels I turned to the Chapmans.

  "I'm afraid there's a big pup stuck fast. I have a feeling that if she

  could get rid of this chap the others would come away. They'd probably

  be smaller."

  "Is there any way of shiftin" him, Mr. Herriot?" Bert asked.

  I paused for a moment. "I'm going to put forceps on his head and see if

  he'll move. I don't like using forceps but I'm going to have one careful

  try and if it doesn't work I'll have to take her back to the surgery for

  a caesarian."

  "An operation?" Bert said hollowly. He gulped and glanced fearfully at

  his wife. Like many big men he had married a tiny woman and at this

  moment Mrs. Chapman looked even smaller than her four foot eleven inches

  as she huddled in her chair and stared at me with wide eyes.

  "Oh I wish we'd never had her mated," she wailed, wringing her hands. "I

  told Bert five year old was too late for a first litter but he wouldn't

  listen. And now we're maybe going to lose 'er."

  I hastened to reassure her. "No, she isn't too old, and everything may

  be all right. Let's just see how we get on." :

  I boiled the instrument for a few minutes on the stove then kneeled

  behind my patient again. I poised the forceps for a moment and at the

  flash of steel a grey tinge crept under Bert's sunburn and his wife

  coiled herself into a ball in her chair. Obviously they were

  non-starters as assistants so Helen held Susie's head while I once more

  reached in towards the pup. There was desperately little room but I

  managed to direct the forceps along my finger till they touched the

  nose. Then very gingerly I opened the jaws and pushed them forward with

  the very gentlest pressure until I was able to clamp them on either side

  of the head.

  I'd soon know now. In a situation like this you can't do any pulling,

  you can only try to ease the thing along. This I did and I fancied I

  felt just a bit of . movement; I tried again and there was no doubt

  about it, the pup was coming towards me. Susie, too, appeared to sense

  that things were taking a turn for the better. She cast off her apathy

  and began to strain lustily.

  It was no trouble after that and I was able to draw the pup forth

  almost: without resistance.

  "I'm afraid this one'll be dead," I said, and as the tiny creature lay

  across my palm there was no sign