Tracks, Two

By Bill Hines

Come meet a heifer named Elmer, homemade Harry and his homemade wine as well as many other colorful characters.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Dec 15, 2022
• ISBN: 9781667874210

Book preview

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TRACKS,

two

A Sequel to Tracks Along the Trail of Life

© 2022, Bill Hines.

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission

of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Print ISBN: 978-1-66787-420-3

eBook ISBN: 978-1-66787-421-0

Contents

A Heifer Named Elmer

Circumstances

Airplanes and Irate Clients

When It Blizzards In South Dakota

Home Made Harry

Passing The Test

Rupe and Alfie

Working My Way Through Vet School

George

Three Jakes

Nuances of Cultures

Otto the Bassett Hound

My First Car

Treating Rattlesnake Bites

Bedside Manner

Tracks From Long Ago

The Old Log Barn

Dealing With Rabies

Riding With Roanie

Following The Rodeo Trail

Ministry Memories

Pastor Doc

Fern

Preaching Hosea

A Little Poetry

The Day Old Daisy Died

Nell

Sleep

Some Random Fiction

The Dance

Cast Upon Three Rivers

Song Lyrics

The Night Before Christmas

The Cowgirl

Entertaining Angels Unaware

Gabrielle’s Song

Grandma’s Quilt

A Voice for the Voiceless

A Reflection on Christ’s Passion

Just As I Am

Tracks Along the Trail of Life hadn’t been out a month when I began receiving requests for a sequel. This book is an answer to those requests from my readers.

I am deeply grateful to all of you.

Bill Hines

A Heifer Named Elmer

Luke and Julie lived in a small trailer house on about four acres, just a couple of miles from town.

There was some grass and a lot of weeds on the place, except for a small plot where Julie had her garden, and which she kept immaculate.

Luke did day work for area ranches as well as for me whenever I needed help, and he was available. He was a tall, thin young man, and a good worker, honest and straight-forward as they came.

Several of the ranches he worked for would have liked to hire him on full time, but Luke wanted to be free to be home when he was needed there.

The couple had one child, a little girl named Paula, who was seven years old at the time. Paula had been born with scoliosis of the spine and had a hump in her back, just to the right of her left shoulder blade. One leg was shorter than the other, so she also walked with a decided limp. And, Paula was quite small for her age.

One day Luke called to say, Doc, can you come out and look at a bucket calf that I got for Paula? It has a kind of a barking cough and runny nose.

I went right out, and Paula met me in the yard.

Taking my hand, she led me, stumping along in her stilted gait to the little pen Luke had built for her calf. Come see what Daddy got me, she said, chattering away in her excitement as we walked to the pen.

Then with eyes shining with pride she said, Isn’t he beautiful? I named him Elmer, and I’m going to show him in the 4-H fair next year. I’ll be eight then and can show with the rest of the kids.

Several words came to mind as I looked the calf over. Beautiful was not among them. Words like; runty, scruffy, rough haired, wormy, and pot-bellied seemed more appropriate, but to Paula the calf was beautiful. It was also a heifer.

All in all, Elmer was about the most forlorn and pathetic little beast I had ever seen.

I said, Paula, if Elmer is a girl calf, what would you call her?

She looked at me in alarm for a moment then said brightly, I’d still call her Elmer. This calf just looks like an Elmer to me. Do you think he is a girl calf, Doc?

I didn’t feel up to a discussion of the birds and the bees with a seven-year-old, child, who was probably more intelligent than I was.

Why don’t you ask your mother, Paula, I need to get busy treating Elmer now, I said as Paula scratched the little calf’s ears.

The barking cough was classic of infectious bovine rhinotracheitis, (IBR). I listened to the lungs and there was a little rattle, but pneumonia had not yet set in, the heart rate was normal. The temperature elevated by three or four degrees.

Here Paula, I said, handing her the ear plug ends of my stethoscope, would you like to hear Elmer’s heartbeat?

She listened, fascinated at the sound of her calf’s heart. I hear it, I hear it Doc, she could hardly contain her excitement.

I mixed up some intranasal IBR vaccine and gave Elmer one cc in each nostril, then gave some long-acting penicillin under the skin on the neck, then on the other side, injected some B-complex vitamins.

That’s all for now Paula, I said, I’ll be back day after tomorrow and if Elmer has improved, we’ll give her some wormer.

The calf had several strikes against it, but I fervently hoped we could pull it through for this precious little child who had so many problems of her own.

Two days later I stopped back to see Elmer. The cough had subsided somewhat, and the runny nose was clearing up.

IBR infection is a viral condition, but it is the subsequent bacterial pneumonia that kills cattle. If we could prevent that, Elmer might have a chance.

I administered more long-acting penicillin and gave Elmer a dose of wormer to get rid of the internal parasites.

That’s about all we can do for now Paula, I told her, I’ll stop back in a couple of days. Luke pulled up in his beat-up old pickup about then, hopped out and came over.

He didn’t even ask what was wrong with Elmer, he just pulled his checkbook out of his pocket and asked, What do I owe you Doc?

When I said, Nothing, Luke frowned. We ain’t taking no handouts Doc, he declared.

I winked at Paula and said, Oh there are no handouts. Paula and I have an agreement, she is going to give me ten percent of what she wins when she shows Elmer.

Now, Luke and I both knew that the only prizes given at the county fair were ribbons, but of course Paula didn’t know that, and nodded solemnly.

I’ll be back in a couple of days to check on Elmer, I told them, then remembered something.

I had just gotten in a new, high potency flax seed oil infused vitamin pack that week. I got a package of it from the pickup and told Paula, Now, just add one teaspoon full of this to Elmer’s grain each morning.

I was entertaining thoughts of a sleek haired little calf from the flax seed oil. Was it possible that I was beginning to see some of the beautiful that Paula saw in Elmer?

For several months all went well with Elmer. She started growing in frame, lost her pot-bellied look, and shed off the rough hair.

Paula took good care of the little bucket calf and before the summer was over, Elmer was weaned and eating just grass and a little grain. Paula continued giving the vitamins I had given her for Elmer.

Fall came, and with it the rush of pre-conditioning calves, weaning, and pregnancy testing cows. Whenever Luke was available, I took him along to help, as he knew just what to do and what I might need next. I didn’t see Paula and Elmer for several weeks.

One day, Julie called. Doc, can you come out? Luke left before daylight to go help someone and Elmer is stretched out on the ground with her head pulled back funny. Paula won’t leave her for even a minute, and I don’t know what to do.

Although I had a big day of pregnancy testing ahead, it would just have to wait for a few minutes. I jumped in the pickup and raced out.

Elmer lay stretched out on her side, with her head pulled back in an un-natural position called opisthotonos. Paula sat on the ground beside her, stroking the calf’s head and singing.

When she saw me, she cried out, Mama, Doc’s here. Elmer will get well now.

My heart sank as I looked at this picture. Even before taking Elmer’s temperature, I was sure it was polio encephalomalacia, a degeneration of the gray matter of the brain.

Although it was a bright, sunny day, I felt a black cloud of doom hanging over me. This was a serious condition. These often didn’t end well.

Paula looked up at me with her bright smile that could cut through the cloud of doom. I’ve been singing, ‘Jesus loves me’ to Elmer, she informed me. That’s what Mama does when I’m sick, and I always get well.

I suddenly had an allergy attack and had to get out a handkerchief to wipe my eyes and blow my nose.

Oh, to have the simple faith of a child.

Julie gave me a questioning look and I told her what was wrong. I’ve had some success by giving IV Thiamine and Oxytetracycline, I said, but some don’t make it.

There was no point in sugar coating the truth, nor in giving them a false hope. In truth, many didn’t make it, but I wasn’t ready to give up and cause despair for this child.

I went to the pickup, stood with my stethoscope around my neck and drew the thiamine into a syringe, then taking the syringe and a bottle of oxytetracycline, made my way back to Elmer.

Paula watched, fascinated as I inserted the needle into Elmer’s jugular vein and drew some blood into the syringe to make sure it was indeed in the vein. Then slowly I infused the thiamine into the vein.

I waited a couple of minutes to let the blood flow clear the thiamine away, then repeated the procedure with the Oxytet.

That’s about all I can do for now, I’ll check back in the morning, I informed them, though I suspected it might be a wasted trip. Julie said, Thanks Doc. Paula just smiled brightly.

As I drove away, in my rear-view mirror I could see this tiny little girl sitting by the calf’s head, stroking it, and heard a little voice piping, Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.

To my amazement, the next morning Elmer was sitting up in sternal recumbency and eating grain out of Paula’s hand.

See Doc, Paula said, I sang Jesus Loves Me to Elmer, and she got well, just like I do when Mama sings to me.

Yes, indeed Paula, I exclaimed. It’s a good thing you learned that song from your mother. I’ll bet Elmer is going to be fine now.

That was the last major health episode that Elmer had. From that point on, she grew, filled out and her hair began to shine.

I knew it had little to do with my treatments, and much more to do with Paula’s faith and constant attention.

The next summer, this formerly runty, wormy, rough coated, sickly little bucket calf who was now a sleek, fine-looking heifer was led around the ring by a tiny hump-backed, limping little girl with the biggest smile in the barn.

I don’t know how the judge could even see any of the other kids and calves. I couldn’t see anything but Paula and Elmer. They seemed to fill the whole ring.

The judge looked each calf over and talked to each child about what they had done to care