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She couldn’t stick it out any longer, so I keep her memory alive the only way I know how.
“Ready to go home for the night, girl?” I bend over and pat Lucille on the neck. She huffs as I stroke the soft hair of her mane.
Glancing up at Poppy one more time, I wonder if that poor dog will give in tonight. But I don’t stick around to see. I have a horse to put up and kids to take off my momma’s hands.
“Poppy?”I hear my name being called from outside the barn. I’ve been working with the scared dog in the back of the barn all morning while Wells takes care of the rest of them. Once everything was done, he left to help his brothers with the fence. He told me to take a break and eat some lunch, but I told him I wanted to stay here. We’re finally gaining some traction, and I’m hoping she finally lets me pet her today.
I slowly, so as not to startle her, stand from where I’ve been sitting at the front of her little kennel area and walk toward the front. Katherine rounds the side of the barn with Jolene and Wade in tow.
“Hey, guys!” I greet them with a big smile. They’ve brought me lunch a few times this past week, and I’ve taught them some things about training dogs. With the well-behaved ones, that is. “Come to help me out again?”
“I’m so sorry to do this to you, sweetie, but is there any way you could watch them until Rhett comes back this evening?” Katherine’s voice is strained, and I can tell she’s not thrilled about asking me. Not because she doesn’t trust me — but she’s worried she’s putting me out.
She absolutely is not. I may not be fond of their father, but I love them.
“Of course, Katherine. Is everything okay?”
She sighs and wrings her hands. “Clyde went out with the boys to help finish the last of the fence, and I’ve just got word that my friend in town hurt herself and needs to go to the hospital. She doesn’t have any family, and I’m the closest friend she has…”
“Say no more. Go be with your friend. I will take care of the kids.”
“Gosh,” she says, looking relieved. “Are you sure? This isn’t what we pay you for, but—”
I cut her off and lay my hand on her forearm.
“My last job was a nanny. I love kids. I promise I do not mind watching them until Rhett gets home for the evening.” I smile down at them. “We’ll have fun, right?”
“Maybe we can play with the puppies?” Wade asks hopefully.
“Oh, for sure. Let’s do it.” I wave to Katherine and mouth that they’ll be fine as I follow them into the barn. They run ahead of me, but before they can get too far, I stop them to set a few ground rules. Kneeling down, I make sure they’re both paying attention. The last thing I need is for one of them to get hurt on my watch. That wouldn’t win me any favors with the grump.
“Hey, guys. I know you’ve been around animals since you were born. But I think it’s always good to have a little reminder that animals have boundaries, too. Right? We have to respect them and make sure they’re comfortable when we are petting them and playing with them.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Wade says.
“And we stay away from the shy one at the back,” Jolene reminds us both.
“Right,” I agree. “Her name is Betty.”
Jolene scrunches her nose at that. “I don’t like that name.”
I laugh. “Me either, really. But that’s what she responds to, so we need to keep it. The less change, the better for her. Now, should we go let the puppies out to play?”
The rest of the afternoon goes by smoothly. They’re great kids, and I find myself falling in love with their smiles and the laughter they treat me to all day. Once the puppies were wiped out from playing, they begged me to take them over to the other rescue animals. Jolene has a cow that she loves to visit, and her puppy dog eyes won me over.
I made sure all the dogs had what they needed, and then we set out for the special cow. We had a couple of hours before I expected Rhett and the guys to come back, and the place they wanted to take us wasn’t too far away from the main house. I figured we would pet the cow and be back home before anyone else.
But that is not what Jolene had in mind, and damn it if I wasn’t a sucker for that girl.
“Don’t you love her?” she asks from where she sits beside me on the driest patch of grass in the field. “She’s so sweet and cuddly.”
The cow — Wendy — was thrilled to see Jolene. She wasn’t lying — this was her special cow. And Wade loves her just as much. She came running up to all three of us as we approached, and when Jolene started working on the gate, I realized we were not just here to pet her from the fence. We weregoing in.
This is out of my depth. I’ve never supervised kids around farm animals, but they both seem so confident, and Wendy seems so sweet, so I think it’ll be fine. I know cattle tend to be docile animals, especially if they are socialized with humans from a young age; it’s something I learned while growing up. They could really be quite domestic.
And this one proved to be just that. For the past hour, we’ve been sitting here together in a heap of cow cuddles.
“Do you know we don’t have a momma?” Wade asks out of the blue. I’m leaning back on my hands, tilting my face up to the sunshine. When I look over at him, he’s petting Wendy with the saddest little face I’ve ever seen.
