A Horse's Tale, Chapter 27

A Horse's Tale, Chapter 27, A small horse with duck tape wrapped around him.

Steph and Rob are watching the television, dogs are all asleep after a busy day of ahhh, running around, Steph starts to turn and say something to Rob as someone or something knocks on the door. Rob says, "If its a girl scout tell her we have enough cookies, if is a horse you take care of it." Steph gets up careful not to step on to many dogs. Opens the door, its Jonah, standing there, he looks around, Steph says "Well what is the problem?" Jonah, looks at Steph, "Oh, no problem, Spirit told me to ring the door bell, but I don't know what that is, so I very carefully kicked the door, its called knocking." Steph nods, while checking the door for damage. "You did very well, now why did you knock on the door?" Jonah thinks for a while, "Oh, I almost forgot Jerri needs to see you. She has a hurt foot." Jonah turns back to the Ladies parlour and Steph has him by a good four paces, before he takes off, he wins of course, but if Steph would have been wearing her boots, instead of her bunny slippers she would have made a good showing. Steph opens the gate, and goes in as soon as Jonah gets in she turns and closes the gate. Jerri is off to the left, by herself, as is the norm, Steph walks carefully over to Jerri, Jerri can be a bit skittish on a good day, if she is hurt not telling. Steph stops a few feet away, "Jonah tells me you have a hurt foot." Jerri nods, Jerri lifts her right front leg and puts it back down, as she put her weight on it, you can she her grimace in pain. "Oh, my word, let me look at it." Steph steps forward, and very calmly runs her hand down the front of Jerri's leg, As her reaches further down, she applies a bit of pressure, to get Jerri to raise her leg and more her hoof to the back, so her hoof can be looked at. Steph runs her hand around Jerri's hoof, it feels fine, "Why do things like this happen at night, I can just barely see, oh wait." Steph reaches into the pocket on her robe and pulls out a little flash light. Rob gave it to her a couple of months ago, said she might need it late at night. As Steph pulls out the flashlight, she realizes that she is standing there with Jerri, three legs on the ground one up in the air just barely being supported by Steph. "Let me take a closer look." Jerri nods and raises her leg up a bit more. Steph shines the light on Jerri's hoof, nothing wrong on the outside, she looks on the inside and sees a small stone right in the center of the sole of Jerri's hoof. "Oh, I can see why it hurts to stand on it." Jerri nods, "I can't get it out." Steph replies, "Do you want me to try and get it out, do you want me to get Rob?", Jerri looks over, "Oh, no you do it, if he comes out it will such a production, Running around, bucking, kicking, that kind of stuff." Steph nods, "That sounds like a normal routine. Ok, Let me try." Steph shines her flashlight right on the center of Jerri's hoof and then thinks, I got one hand holding Jerri's hoof, one hand on the flashlight, "I am short one hand, Jerri, can you hold your hoof up for me." Jerri nods, and very calmly holds her hoof up so Steph can work on it. Steph bends over and looks, it appears to be a small stone, maybe half an inch across, looks like it may have one sharp edge, and that is the side stuck in Jerri's hoof, "I am going to touch it." Jerri nods and braces herself. Steph reaches down touches the stone, it moves a bit, Jerri doesn't move, Steph braces herself, and grabs the stone and pulls it out. Steph ready to run in whatever direction, ahhh nothing, Jerri just stands there. Steph says, "Very good girl." Steph brushes the sole of Jerri's hoof, doesn't look like any other damage. Steph says, "Try that out." Jerri very carefully puts her hoof to the ground, and places some weight on it. "Ahh, that is very much better, Thank you." Just as Steph stands up, all the other horses in the pen run to the right rail, Steph turns and Jerri places her head over Stephs shoulder to see what is going on. Both Steph and Jerri walk to the rail to see what is going on. All the horses are talking but Steph can't understand them, she turns to Jerri, who still has her head over Steph's shoulder, "What are they talking about?" Jerri answers, "Not sure, something about a small horse with duck tape wrapped around him." As they both stand there Steph can see a shape, a horse shape, a small horse shape, ahhh, a small horse with duck tape wrapped around him. "That's a zebra." Jerri looks over to Steph, "Ahhh, what's a Zebra?" Steph look up to Jerri, "Well it's an equine that looks like a small horse with duck tape wrapped around him." Steph looks back at the gate, there is a large yellow bus sitting at the gate. "Well I got to get this figured out." Steph forgoes the gate, and climbs the rail, and walks towards the zebra, how do you greet a zebra, can I talk to a zebra, and who does the yellow bus belong to.

"Good Evening." Well it seemed like a good start, not knowing what else to say. The Zebra stops mid stride and stands there. Steph walks up and the Zebra looks over and Steph says, "May I help you I am Stephanie." The Zebra looks up, "I am Jim, I am here to see a patient here." Steph nods, "I have heard of you, you are from Barstow and have a PHD from UCLA." Jim, only slightly nods, "Yes, I am here to see Sampson, to see how he is doing, take me to him." Steph nods, and begins to walk to the back area. Steph thinks to herself, I can see why zebra's have never been domesticated, he is a bit of a pain. "If you don't mind me asking how did you get a degree from UCLA?" Jim stops looks at Steph, "Very good question, very few peoples ask me that. I was the pet of a group of Vet students. I read all the books, and even took part in some studies on Equines, I took all the written tests, and graduated with a 3.8. At the graduation, they took me up on the stand to receive my diploma. I took the license examine and passed." Steph thinks a bit, "Ahh, how did you take the examine." Jim warming up to Steph, "Oh, that was easy, have you ever gotten a drivers license in California, it's about the same, stand in line, fill out the form, show them your paper work. It's pretty easy for a Zebra."

Steph turns and begins to walk back to the round pen with Jim, "Sampson has seemed pretty normal since his trip." Jim nods "I am glad to hear that, mules have self esteem problems, it has to be worked very slowly." as they approach the round pen, Sampson runs up, and he and Jim carry on a long conversation only a small portion of which Steph understands. Jim turns to leave, "Thank you for your help during this visit, I normally get a lot of yelling and swinging of brooms when I visit places.

As they both walk back to the front gate, Steph asks, "Where did the bus come from?" Jim looks over, "Oh, it belongs to the Valley Crest Residential Care community, a couple of the older people love driving me around. It gets them out at night, and I don't have to pay much for the trips." Steph nods.

Steph lets Jim out the gate, turns to the house as the Yellow bus drives off, "Very interesting night." Steph gets back to the house, opens the door steps in and nothing seems to have changed, Rob in watching the TV, and dogs are all asleep. Rob looks up, "So what kept you so long?" Steph reaches in her pocket, and pulls out a small stone, and tosses it to Rob, "I pulled a stone out of Jerri's hoof." Rob stands up and looks at the small stone, "With out a fight, and running or kicking or biting, or jumping around or, or." Steph smiles, "Yep none of that." Rob sits back down tosses the stone up in the air and catches it. "Dang why isn't she that easy with me?" Steph sits down, "She knows I am a kind and loving person." Rob starts to reply but figures the better of it.

Rob thinks a bit, "Oh, I looked outside while you messing about, who was that small horse with duck tape wrapped around him?"


To be continued.

Author Samm