#misty would go back to her breeder. who would likely make an effort to place her with my family or the bfs family. people she knows

[whippetcrimes]

When Misty came to work with me last weekend, a man came in to collect the money for a local dog rescue. And he asked me if she was a rescue then continued the conversation into older people should adopt old rescue dogs because if they get a young dog from a breeder, the dog will have nowhere to go if they pass before the dog and the family can't take the dog/doesn't want it... And I was just like. If I weren't on the clock right now, I'd at the very least have said that any good breeder would take the dog back... He even directly asked me, "what would happen to your beautiful designer dog if something happened to you and your partner?" I had to bite my tongue so hard.

[dopescotlandwarrior]

Bluegrass-Chapter One

                       A special thanks to @statell​ for your help and wisdom

Chapter One

Claire bounced out of bed feeling amazing and full of energy. From her hilltop home, she could look out over the most beautiful expanse of bluegrass fields below that were covered in misty fog at this early hour. It was an inspiring view of the best Kentucky had to offer. Setting down a steamy mug of strong coffee she went through her morning yoga poses breathing in the crispy air gratefully. She pressed her hands together in front of her heart, bowed slightly, and said “Namaste” to the beautiful day.

“God I love days like this.”

She pulled her scrubs on, and a hat atop her fresh-scrubbed face, and bounced out the front door looking for her ride. Typical, she thought, he is late again. She looked at the hands of her watch, 7:38, that guy will never amount to much being late all the time. She didn’t like the energy shift and carefully pressed her body into a particularly hard yoga pose as she closed her eyes and welcomed her calm center. The pose balanced all her body weight on the ball of one foot, the other leg pulled into the air behind her. She took a deep breath in and exhaled slowly. On her second intake of air the ear-splitting horn of her supercharged Ram, a hospital on wheels blared from the road. The shock was enough to topple her pose, twisting just in time to let her ample butt hit the ground first.

Dusty cursed watching her fall, feeling like a total idiot. His excitement was on overload this morning, so happy to finally be early and prove to Claire he could make his commitments. She said 8:00 and it was now 7:45, a true miracle for him, except Claire was now laying on the patio concrete after he scared her half to death. “Goddamnit, when am I gonna think before I do stuff?”

He ran to help his employer off her ass and noticed her scrubs. They were treating the yearlings today at Highland Brothers Farms and they would be there all day. It was a big deal for Claire, and he thought she should have dressed more…something. Dusty pulled his hat off and watched her feet rise into the air as she used her temporary time of the ground to pull a perfect headstand.

“Ah, Doctor Beauchamp, are ye ready to go? I’m sorry I honked at ye and made ye fall. Now ye got dirt on yer pants.” He didn’t dare look at her on the ground, so he spoke to her cowboy boots.

“You are late Dusty.”

He was about to launch into an argument, but her boots swung to the ground and she popped up with a red face and smiled at him.

“Let’s go.”

Claire jumped into the passenger seat of her amazing vehicle. It was her biggest investment after graduation. With a price tag of almost two hundred thousand, the vehicle did everything a mobile vet would need. Claire had structured their working relationship where Dusty would keep her truck at the end of the day. She only had to jump out, wave as she walked up the steps to her cabin in the woods. It wasn’t easy for Dusty to drive away knowing she had no other vehicle, but this is how she wanted it.

As Dusty fell under Claire’s spell he googled the vehicle and almost passed out at the price. With a fully stocked hospital in the converted bed, he estimated two-hundred-fifty thousand dollars. He gripped his computer desk and tried to breathe. The next weekend he recruited his buddies to come and build a garage to park it in. He installed the best security he could buy and finally felt worthy of her trust the first night the electric garage door closed the vehicle in for the night.

The workday did not end when Claire waved him goodbye. Dusty would wash off the caked-on mud and vegetation that collected in the grill and wheel wells from driving into the farms. Once a month he would wax and buff until he was dripping with sweat. Sometimes she would notice, sometimes she wouldn’t. Either way, it was his honor to do it.

Dusty would grimace and complain to his friends about her demanding nature and lack of appreciation, it’s what young men in Kentucky did when they worked for a female, especially a woman doctor. But it was a kaleidoscope of emotions he felt every day, running interference between her and the world. He was in awe of the young veterinarian and her extraordinary diagnostic abilities.

Claire had her nose in a medical book when Dusty jumped into the driver’s seat. He was at war with himself to mention her scrubs and finally asked if she wanted to change before they left. Her head jerked up at him as her heavy black glasses slid down her nose,

“change into what Dusty?”

“Ah, never mind, not important. Let’s go.” He exhaled a miserable breath wanting to kick his own ass for being such a pussy. He had spent half his paycheck on starched new clothes for today to show respect to the great Jamie Fraser, owner, and breeder at Highland Brothers. Claire’s reputation for being a super healer was burning across Kentucky and doors were opening for her in the most prestigious farms, Highland Brothers being number one on the list.

Claire pulled a stack of files onto her lap to update her treatment notes while Dusty drove. She asked him questions on every file she opened.

“What did we do to the Miller gelding?”

“Drained the abscess, front left chest, forty cc’s of penicillin.”

“What about the Hildebrandt mare that foundered.”

“Restrained in her stall, estimated three months, the family wants to save her.”

“Oh! Thank God.”

This continued through the forty-minute drive to Highland Brothers. Dusty had a stunning mind that remembered every detail of each day. Every animal, every owner, breeder, barn ranking, problem mares, sick and injured horses. Drugs, dosages, and who still owed her money. She looked at his handsome face and sighed, making him look at her and blush. He always blushed when their eyes met, and he quickly looked away.

Claire knew he would make huge contributions to equine medicine. He was already an expert on grain nutrition, and he hadn’t started vet school yet. It was the reason she pushed him so hard.

“I really don’t know what I will do without you, Dustin. Have you chosen a school yet now that you have so many to choose from?” She put her hand up to stop him from talking. “I don’t want to discuss it actually, it makes me…. not happy. Hoooooly bloody shit! Look at how the superstars live!”

Claire’s mouth hung open as her eyes took in every detail of the fancy compound. She swept her eyes across the acres of green, as far as she could see. As they got closer, she saw horses on the track with jockeys and trainers, along with mares and foals in the pastures. She looked ahead at a large Bay gelding being led to an outside arena.

“Doctor B, what do ye think of Jamie Fraser?”

“Who?”

“The owner of Highland Brothers.”

“Never met him.”

Dusty rolled his eyes and realized his boss was not impressed with celebrity in the horse world. If he wasn’t hailed in her medical world or mentioned in her books, he was insignificant.

Claire’s practiced eye scanned the horses she could see as they were being led, running the track, or grazing in the beautiful meadows around the complex. She wasn’t happy with what she saw and felt from them.

She approached the Bay gelding and ran her hand down his back while the handler looked annoyed.

“I am Doctor Beauchamp and this horse is sick. Back up please so he can breathe. The man knew who she was and gave her space. Claire placed her open palms on both sides of the horse's face and stood perfectly still for five minutes as the horse dropped his head into her hands. She jumped back into the truck and looked wide-eyed at Dusty.

“He is sick Dusty, he said they all are, even the babies.”

“Ah, Doctor B, here’s the thing, ye need to keep that part to yourself if ye can. We talked about how it creeps-out the breeders and how they don’t believe in yer gift. Remember?”

“I remember something about that, but I don’t have time to pick my words around these people.” Her face had gone white and her eyes wide and worried. “They are all sick. Someone has done this to them,” she whispered.

Claire walked through the large housing facility that kept some of the most expensive horses in the world. She stopped in front of a beautiful gray mare, stunning actually. She approached feeling the horse’s exceptional health and vitality. Claire was doubtful this horse could be immune to whatever this was. She touched the beast and listened. The mare wanted to leave this place, not afraid of getting sick, but to get away from her rider. Claire felt an evil cold settle into her bones.

“I’m here now. I won’t let them hurt you.”

She went stall to stall gaining more of the story feeling alarm bells go off in her head. She looked for Dusty, he had an important role to play in this rescue. What Claire saw next almost made her heart stop and she took off running as fast as she could. The housing complex was huge and a man with the grain cart was shoveling something into the feeders at the other end. She pushed herself feeling her thighs on fire from the effort.

“Stop! Please stop!”

The man looked up at the woman running full speed for him and just stopped like he was frozen. When Claire caught up to him, she was panting but very thankful he listened to her. She could hear Dusty run up behind her and turned to lock eyes with him. Her voice was quiet, but he heard the stress and felt the immediacy.

“They are eating it, whatever it is that’s making them sick! Look at that horse Dusty!”

She pointed to a large thoroughbred that had backed himself into the corner of his stall, as far from the offending food as he could get. Dusty asked the worker to show him where the feed is kept. Claire continued walking the line of stalls.

She found the breeding wing and it almost crippled her when she touched the mares, fat with foals. She touched them and made promises to help, overwhelmed by how many had given up, ready to accept death because they were so sick.

She was running again trying to find Dustin or the owner that let this happen. She felt the enormity of loss that was coming as all these horses would lay down today for the last time. She started yelling for Dusty at the top of her lungs until he was running toward her. His face told her he found something, whatever it was. Dear God, she thought, who could do such a thing.

“I think I found it, Claire, there’s a shiny coating on the rolled oats. I told that man to lock down the feed room, stand guard, and not let anyone in. Fraser is in a meeting you need to pull him out."

“Triage Dustin, back the truck into the complex, park halfway down this aisle, don’t let the motor run for a second longer than you have to. Hurry!” Minutes later her enormous dually was backing down the aisle, just as Jamie Fraser was running for it yelling at Dusty to get that vehicle out of his barn.

Claire watched him run up on Dusty who stood his ground and pointed at her. Fraser was yelling but she couldn’t be bothered with that, she felt a distinctive change in the energy around her and looked to her side in time to see a horse collapse.

When the first horse went down right in front of her, she shrieked for Dustin to bring fluids and rushed into the stall.

“No, no, no, no! Don’t go” she shouted grabbing her stethoscope pressing it into a quiet chest. She heard another horse fall nearby and another. She bent over, sobbing, and held her stomach. They would all die if she didn’t galvanize against the horror. She was running for the truck as Fraser turned wicked eyes on her. He was roaring at her and she hit him at a full run telling him to get out of the way!

She called out a cocktail of drugs to load into 20 CC syringes and a large gauge needle to shoot the life-saving mixture into the jugular. They were both filling syringes as fast as possible.

“I assume you are James Fraser. Your horses have been poisoned, they will all die in the next few hours, many already have. If you want to help, call every veterinarian you know to help us. On the double Mister Fraser!”

Jamie put fingers to his mouth and blew a loud strange whistle. Two men ran toward him, white-faced, and stopped, waiting for orders. Three cell phones came out and the men called for reinforcement. Dusty ran behind Claire with a sack full of filled syringes. She administered the drug cocktail very fast and listened to the heartbeat stabilize before running to the next. Other men were driving their rigs into the complex and running for the drug protocol. Dusty gave the drugs and dosage and the veterinarians stared back at him frozen in place.

Jamie Fraser was on the verge of collapse, but he ran behind one of the doctors holding the precious syringes. Claire was on her knees doing an emergency cesarean section of a dead mare. Her hands were a blur and Dusty stood above her ready to split the tissue and pull the distressed foal out. Another vet stood watching Claire, eyes wide at her ability to move that fast. He grabbed a blanket to cover the foal and rubbed until he saw movement.

Jamie Fraser looked at the body of his favorite broodmare, ripped open savagely to save a baby that was worth a fortune. Claire ran by him coming back in five minutes with a large bottle of warm milk and enormous nipple. She pressed it into Jamie’s hands and looked into his anguished eyes.

“Please, save the ones we can.”

She pushed him gently toward the baby who was clearly needing some comfort. Jamie wrapped his warmth around the baby and offered the bottle, encouraging the colt to drink.

Claire watched with gushing eyes. She knew they had to assess the loss, pronounce prize horses dead, and prepare for the next round of drug therapy. Fraser was so big and strong. He seemed so capable and willing. She felt her body inch toward him and then kneel next to him. She corrected the angle of the bottle and then leaned against him and sobbed.

Jamie was overwhelmed with this little veterinarian who took command like a general and was spot on with the drugs that would save his horses. When she collapsed into him, he quickly wrapped an arm around her and supported her while she fell apart. He held the bottle for the colt in the other hand. Dusty walked over to her and bent to help her up but Jamie shook his head.

“It’s alright laddie. I’d say she’s earned it.”

Just like that, Claire stopped crying and stood up. A nod to Fraser and she was onto her next task.

The next half hour culled the sickest from the rest. Those that were on death’s door were struggling. Claire put her hands on one gelding’s face and heard or felt how sick he still was. She was very sympathetic at how awful he felt and let him know she insisted he live.

“Dusty! Positive-feedback hypovolemic protocol with 5 cc of digitalis, mix with a quarter dose for hypertension, on the double if you please. Claire grabbed a loaded syringe and ran for the sick gelding. He had given up and was taking his last few breaths as she pushed the cocktail into the huge vein in his neck. He seemed paralyzed, his big head suspended and shaking very low to the ground. She watched him as the other veterinarians questioned her protocol suspiciously. She moved to the gelding’s side and he pushed against her needing her reassurance. Dusty sat on the corral bars watching and waiting, hardly breathing.

The horse gave a healthy snort and lifted his head to a normal position. His tail whacked at flies and he shook his head like he was throwing off the illness.

“Dusty, you know the cocktail.”

Dusty dropped off the bars and jogged to the truck with the other vets watching the mixture he pulled into multiple syringes. Three of the vets left saying the protocol was too much risk. Those that stayed bravely followed Claire’s orders and pulled numerous horses from death’s door.

Claire wrote the milk recipe on a notepad and went to find James Fraser. It took all her strength to hold tears back when she saw his grave face. He moved toward her and the little colt followed so close he plowed into his butt when Jamie stopped in front of her. Even this newborn had the strength to knock Fraser right into Claire’s arms as she laughed nervously feeling a jolt of lightening shoot to her feet.

“Sorry. Ye have a theory lass?”

“I’m sorry to say I do Mister Fraser but it’s not a theory. Someone who has access to the horses and their food tried to kill them, all of them, near as I can tell. Dusty, my assistant, is taking blood and fecal samples and we must carefully get samples of every bag of feed, guarding against cross-contamination. Fortunately, we were able to lock the feed room within minutes of arriving.”

“There are feed rooms throughout the building!” Jamie whistled again and the two men came running. Hearing the order to lock down the other four grain rooms they took off in opposite directions. Claire watched them and prepared to tell Fraser what would be needed for the samples when she went rigid and pale. Fraser could see her hands shaking at her sides.

“What is it!”

“Do…do you have a water main that can shut off the water to the horses?”

Fraser heard the tension in her voice and started running. Claire was very aware of the thirst from her drug protocol and wondered how much they had consumed already.

“Sweet Jesus.” Claire ran along the stalls spilling the water as she went. This high-tech facility used floaters in the water buckets to make the water turn on automatically. She pushed the buckets sideways to spill the water only to hear the faucet above them run a fast stream to refill it. “Come on Fraser, turn it off.” Finally, she could spill the water and the faucets did not turn on. She ran along the stalls spilling the water and reached for her phone.

“Dustin! Hold off more samples we need to get the water out of the stalls. The water main is off, hurry!”

Jamie and his two managers came back and joined the effort to empty the water buckets. When Fraser came back to Claire his face was a mixture of fear, sorrow, and white-hot rage.

“Take a breath, Mister Fraser, there will be time for punishment unless we blow it and start making mistakes. I need to think for a few minutes and form a plan” She walked away mumbling and touching her fingers like she was making a list. She intended to lock herself in her truck for some quiet time but there wasn’t time for such a luxury. She ran back to Jamie panting from the effort.

“Those two men you work with can they be trusted?”

“Aye, with my life.”

“Please call them, or whistle, and tell them to listen to me, please hurry.”

Claire watched the large roll away doors to the outside clearly terrified about something. Fraser whistled again and his two best friends since childhood were racing toward him. “Listen to the doctor boys, do as she says.”

Claire pulled the group into a tight circle so she could speak quietly. She explained her fear of the next strike against Jamie.

Someone who was trusted to have access to the horses and feed tried to poison them. Dusty believes it’s a glycol-based poison so it’s cumulative, over time. Somehow they got all the horses to peak at the same time. I would not think it possible, but it happened so this person is knowledgeable, smart, and determined to bring this place and Fraser down in a glorious murder fest by ruthlessly killing the world’s best horseflesh in the process. I don’t know how long it took to pull this off, but I know the person responsible is close by and may know we thwarted the grand plan with minimal loss. This fucked up bastard will be coming for you Fraser, tonight, now!” Pretend you’re him and you can barely contain your rage, what would you do? Right now, what would you do!”

The three men flinched when she yelled the question. “Call the boarders and the trainers. Anyone with notoriety and a horse stabled here. Tell those people they’re all dead and its Jamie’s fault.” Claire waited while the men wrapped their heads around the enormity of the hatred behind this attack. Jamie’s voice was heard above the others,

“He’ll call the press and start a media frenzy that will go around the world. It will be so easy. People will stampede this place and destroy evidence, prevent the samples, maybe put me in jail until every animal is gone and the evidence is ruined. Jesus Sassenach please help me, tell me ye got a plan.”

Claire looked up, surprised all three of them were looking at her to answer. “Dusty has water and bowl swipe samples and every grain that was opened. If we can clear the water as the source and get the buckets full it’s a win for us. She looked at Dustin sitting on corral bars nearby and told him to go. Dustin drove slowly until he was out of the barn where he left tread on stones racing away.

“We need to pull in the authorities. If there’s anyone you know and trust, call them. Mister Fraser, can you estimate the financial loss attempted today?”

Jamie scanned the stalls as he calculated a rough estimate. “Fifteen to twenty million.”

“Well, that pushes into the territory of the FBI and I’m in favor of bypassing local police, at least until we can process the crime scene. For that, we need a forensic team. Let’s hope a twenty- million- dollar loss will get us one. Last, and most important, we need to remove the dead horses and hide them. I am so sorry gentlemen but six horses dead in their stalls will seal your fate. Game over, you lose.”

“I know what to do.” Jamie pulled Angus and Rupert to walk with him while Claire called her friend at the university where a pacing Dusty waited.

The horses were getting desperate for water and Claire felt their tremendous thirst and heard the hooves banging against the bars. What could they do if the water was the source? Turn them all out and let them fight for the little that collected after a rain? It would be brutal and bloody.

Claire felt like she would split down the middle from the accumulating tension. She walked the line of stalls watching for distress in the horses. She stopped and looked up and down the aisle, noticing for the first time how many stalls were empty. She saw name tags on each of them but no horse. She estimated half of the animals were gone.

The walking calmed her down a little but she couldn’t wait any longer to call the lab. She prayed they were done with the water.

“Hello Michael, you are my hero today. Do you have any results on the water yet?” She held her cell phone so tightly she feared it would crack and still could not relax her hand.

“I love hearing your accent, Claire. I’m so sorry about what happened today.”

“The water Michael?”

“Yea, I have the results of the water. The phone in the lab actually has a cord, can you believe it?”

“Michael?”

“Yea, hold on I’ll grab the report.”