By Monday morning, Jack's condition was worsening and his team of vets decided his only hope for survival was surgery. Since admitting him to the hospital, I've kept my cell phone on me at all times and avoided doing any work that would drown out its ring.
They call me during surgery: it is a strangulated intestine, a mass had a loop of it in a noose. Not poisonous ferns as I had suspected (I'm still putting up a fence around the dam spillway). Another call: 20' of intestines resected.
He did well in recovery. Now all we can do is hope.
I miss the days when we had enough time and staff to ride the horses back and forth to a grazing pasture a mile away. I've tinkered with the idea of taking them in pairs to the Boonies, but it would take me half a day to get them there, and half to get back.
I must come up with a plan. I'm currently mulling over installing electric fencing corridor from the barn to the Boonies so I can push the entire herd there in a swoop. Stay tuned.
Seeing as I could finally set my phone down, I went back to my bush hogging detail... in the rain. Screw it, I'm sick of the bush hogging getting hijacked by everything else. So what if I looked like a prune after 5 hours in the rain.
Gettin' 'er done.
A little slick on the inclines, but that adds to the fun.
Cleaning off a wet cutter becomes a full contact sport.
All in a day's work.
Actually made it home with an hour of daylight to spare.
Time for some rejuvenation and weed pulling.
Stopping to smell the roses.
And snack, never forget to snack.
Final update comes in around 8 PM from the vet school: Jack is doing fair, no better, no worse. Hang in there, Little Buddy, I'm working on a project to make life a little more exciting when you get home.
