Paging Nurse Florence (By: Greaver Blade)

Florence was resting in the medical bay of Little Miracles. Since she had been appointed as head nurse-fluffy for the rescue, she was spending most of her time there. Her nurse cap sat atop her head, clipped to her mane so it wouldn’t fall off. Florence was a grown-up now. Her training had toughened her to not lose her cool in a fluffy medical emergency.

“Fwowence nu scawed boo-boo-juice. Fwowence unnastan’ hewpies can huwties. Want hewp fwuffies, nu mo’ huwties.”, she thought to herself.

She heard a commotion in the hall. Dee Dee rushed in and held the door open for Nikki, Florence’s owner and the human medical intern helping out at the shelter. “Florence! Are you ready girl? We’ve got a badly injured foal here, and he’s going to need your help!”, Nikki called to her fluffy.

Nikki carefully laid the foal on the center table. Florence worked her way up the stepladder she used to reach the table top so she could see the patient up close. He was a charcoal gray earthie, with an off-white ‘X’ mark across his back. His mane and tail looked like they had just started growing in, little dollops of goldenrod on his head and rump. “Fwownce hab saddies. Pwetty babbeh am huwtie. Mus hewp babbeh!”

“Nikki? What do you think?”, Dee Dee asked the intern. “Ma’am, this little guy is lucky to be alive. One of his legs has been crushed, his left eye is badly damaged, he has cuts all over his body. And he’s mostly starved. He’s extremely lucky that you spotted him on the side of the road.”

Dee Dee nodded to her. “I think he was probably crossing with a feral family and he got clipped by a car. Probably caught his leg in the wheel, sent him flying, and damaged the eye and busted him up when he landed. At least that’s my best guess.”

Nikki ran to a medical supply cupboard and returned to the foal with a spray bottle. She spritzed the foals wounds with the antiseptic spray. The little foal squealed in pain as the harsh mist landed on his open injuries.

“Nu cwy, babbeh!” Florence was up close to the foal, right where he could see her with his one good eye. She was laying flat in front of him, gently petting the top of his head. She was cooing to him to try to calm him down.

“Good work, Florence.”, Nikki said, now with a syringe in hand. “Keep him calm while I give him this sedative.”

Florence gently hugged the foal around his upper body, and kept him mostly still while the needle plunged in to his flank. After a few seconds of cooing and head stroking, the foal was out cold.

“Again, thank you Florence. You did great.” Florence was pleased to receive the compliments, but she still had a serious look on her face, as she watched the small injured foal breathing slowly in front of her.

“Fwowence fink see-pwace and weggie hab see-we-oos huwties. Am sad fo’ babbeh, but pwababwy hab take weggie an’ see pwace.”

Nikki looked at Dee Dee. “She’s probably right. The leg is beyond repair; the bones are basically slivers. The eye is also ruptured and likely to become infected.”

Dee Dee nodded to the intern. “Do what’s necessary. I’m just glad you have Florence here to assist. And comfort the foal when he wakes up.”

“Will do, ma’am.”, Nikki replied.

Dee Dee left the med bay while Nikki got to work. She made a close examination of the foals injured legs and his bleeding eye socket.

“OK, Florence. You are right. The leg and eye both have to go to make sure this little guy doesn’t die.”

“Fwowence weady, doctuh!”

“Thank you, Florence. I’m not a doctor yet, but with a nurse like you helping me, I feel like I’m the real deal.”

Nikki worked quickly on the sedated colt. First went a saline drip in to his flank opposite his injured leg. He clearly hadn’t eaten in a few days, and having been abandoned he’d not had any milk in at least the past day. He was starting to dehydrate.

With the drip inserted, Nikki tied a tourniquet on the injured leg, as close to the damaged section as she could. “I’ll leave you what leg I can, little buddy.” She quickly amputated the destroyed limb, and applied liquid bandage to the fresh wound. The bleeding stopped immediately. She dabbed the area with antibiotic ointment from the end of a cotton swab.

After dropping the tiny leg in to the bio-waste bin, Nikki rotated the foal on the table and again examined the eye. What remained of it was still in the socket.

Holding the eyelid open with a pair of tweezers, Nikki slid a curved scalpel in to the tiny socket and severed the remains of the eye from the optic nerve. She then extracted the destroyed orb with another pair of tweezers.

“Florence, I’ll need your help with this part. Please hold the eyelid open while I cauterize the end of the nerve.” Florence took the tweezers between her teeth and carefully kept the eyelid raised. Seeing inside the tiny foals eye socket was scary to her, but she knew she was helping. She knew this was needed for the little fluffy to live.

Nikki slowly slid a heated needle in to the eye socket, steadying one hand with the other. A small puff of steam as the liquid in the end of the nerve boiled, and a small whisp of smoke as it cooked. Nikki then swabbed the socket with antibiotic ointment and recovered the tweezers from Florence. She carefully let the foal’s eye socket close.

“Well Florence, we’ve done what we can. Now he just needs to rest.” Nikki gingerly lifted the foal and placed him on a pad in tray on one of the side tables. She then helped Florence move to the new table so she could be with the baby.

After sterilizing the center table, Nikki left to follow up with Dee Dee. "Please keep watching on him while I’m away, Florence. "

Florence laid next to the hurt little colt, keeping him warm, cooing softly while he slept.

A few hours later, the foal woke up. “Hewwo? Owwies! Fwuffy see-pwace feew huwty! An’ weggie feew huwtie!” He looked at Florence with his good eye. “Who am fwuffy?”

Florence gave the foal a gentle pet with her hoof. “Fwuffy am Fwowence. Am nuwsie fwuffy! Fwowence hewp fwuffy nu huwty nu moaw!”

The little foal started to tear up as the sedative was wearing off. He was starting to feel both the heartbreak of being abandoned, and he was really starting to feel his injuries. “Whewe mummah? Whewe bwuddahs an’ sistahs? Fwuffy see metaw munstah, and see famiwy wun away! Fwuffy feew huwties and see dawkies… Hu…huhu…hu…” The little foal was crying in earnest.

“Fwownce nu can hewp wif babbeh mummah o’ sibwings. But babbeh am safe hewe. Nice wady wiww gib nummies! Miwkis an’ kibbew! Babbeh nu feew huwties soon. Fwownce pwomise!”

The baby nodded, and laid his head down. Florence resumed gently stroking him with her hoof and cooing to him. Soon he calmed down and went to sleep on his own.

Dee Dee returned with Nikki after another hour or so. The foal had woken back up, and was sitting on his rump. He’s rear two legs in front of him, and his remaining front leg on the ground. He was wiggling his extended stump. “Hewwo doctuh! Hewwo nice wady! Fwuffy am happy for hewp. Fuffy saddies nu hab weggie an’ nu hab see-pwace, but happy nu fowebbah-sweepies.”

“It looks like Florence has debriefed the patient for us.” Nikki chuckled while turning to face Dee Dee. “She’s a professional all right.”, Dee Dee smiled back.

Nikki went to the little foal and gently scratched behind his ears. “We’re going to get you some milk to drink. That drip has restored your fluids, and you seem strong enough to have something with more nutrition. This will hurt a little, but I promise it’ll be over quickly.” Nikki extracted the saline needle from the foal’s flank. He gave out a pained peep, but didn’t complain.

Nikki then brough a small bottle over and held it to the foal so he could drink his fill. “Slowly now. You don’t want to drink too fast or you could get sick.” The foal obeyed and took small sips of the milk.

While he fed, Nikki fetched a brown plastic cap and fitted it to the end of the colt’s missing leg. A slight squeeze with a pair of forceps and it was snugly attached to the stump.

“There you go little friend! Now you have a full leg again!”, Nikki told her small patient.

“Wub doctuh! Fwuffy hab heawt happies! Hab weggie, 'gain!”, the foal replied, clapping his hoof to his tiny prosthetic.

“I’m not done quite yet. I’m sorry I can’t fix your eye, but I can at least help keep the socket clean and make sure you don’t get sick.” Nikki clipped a small hear-shaped eye patch to the colt’s fluff, covering his closed, empty eye socket. “Now, don’t rub at that. We don’t want it to get infected.”

“Babben nu pway wif see-pwace. Nu wan’ get sickies!”, Florence told the baby fluffy.

“What do you think?”, Nikki asked the foal, holding a mirror so he could see the patch over his missing eye.

“Babbh wub patchies! Am heawt!”, the foal replied.

“Now!” Dee Dee said, “You are going to be staying with us for a while. I’m sorry to say I didn’t see your family when I found you. And I don’t know if I’ll be able to find them. But I promise you’ll be safe here, and we’ll do our best to find you a new mummah or daddeh. A human mummah or daddeh, at that.”

The little foals ears perked up at that. “Find fowebbah home fo’ babbeh?” “That’s the idea”, Dee Dee replied.

The foal was starting to tear up from his good eye. “Fwank ‘ou nice wady. Fwank ‘ou for nummies. Fwank ou’ for wub fo’ babbeh.”

“Well, you are just a little treasure, aren’t you?”, Dee Dee replied to the fluffy. “Wait, that’s perfect. One eye, and the patch. Peg leg. ‘X’ on his back. He’s like a little pirate!”

Nikki looked at Dee Dee. “I mean, yeah, I guess.”

Dee Dee lowered herself to be eye level with the foal. “I have great news little guy. You are going to get a name!”

The foals ears perked up again, and his eye went wide. “Namsies fow babbeh?!”

“Yes!” Dee Dee nodded to him. “I’m going to call you Treasure.”

“Tweasuwe wub namsies!”

Treasure was brought to meet Dee Dees fluffies, Mustard, Paprika, and Cloudberry. “Babbeh am han’sum!”, Paprika told him. “Tweasur am stwong!”, Mustard stated. “Bwave babbeh, wiww fin’ gud mummah o’ daddeh.” “Cwoudy am biggest sistah again! Tweasuwe am gud widdew bruddah!”

Dee Dee decided to let Treasure live with Paprika and family so he wouldn’t be lonely. Paprika as a feeding mare, was elated to have a baby to keep fed.

Once he was strong enough, Nikki started rehabilitation for the foal and Florence spent as much time with Treasure as she could. She would help him up when he stumbled learning to walk on his prosthetic leg. She would encourage him when he struggled to find things due to his missing eye. Florence was a perfect attendant for her little charge.

Once Treasure’s rehab was complete and he was able to manage on his own, he was added to the adoption roster. Dee Dee was sure the tiny pirate would find a home quickly. Who wouldn’t love him for that adorable little “pat, tap, pat, pat” walk he did with his little peg leg.

Dee Dee and Nikki sat in the medical bay with Florence. “Florence”, Nikki said, “You have been an excellent nurse. Thanks to you, Treasure woke up to somebody warm and caring. I’m very proud of you.”

Dee Dee spoke after her, “I’m proud of you too. The time your spent helping Treasure recover and learn how to adapt. We did’t even ask you to do that. You are a top tier nurse. I think you really learned well from Paprika what it means to care for other fluffies.”

Florence was embarassed to be receiving the compliments, but also very grateful. “Fwowence weawn aways wub odda fwuffies, especiawy babbehs. Fwownce wub hewp babbes an’ fwuffies when fwuffies hab owwies!”

Nikki gave Florence a pat on the head. “You are going to help a lot of fluffies, Florence. And I’m thankful every day that you are here to do so.”

I wanted to try something new with this story and present in a quasi-light novel format. It was a bit too long to kick out as a comic, but I thought the story would benefit from some visuals. I’m overall very happy with the end result, and I’ll encourage any writers who want to spice up with some artworks to consider this approach.

This story is set in the Gal-With-Pastels universe, centering around the Little Miracles fluffy rescue. I’ve been requested to help build up the world with some new characters. To that end, I decided to start with the addition of a medical team. This story also serves as a lead in to my next Cayenne and Jolene story.

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this was cute!

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Very cute and wholesome. I would trust Florence to help extract my eye!
I do like the format, it’s nice to have the text broken up with an image of the characters or a scene in between.
Lovely writing, Florence and Treasure are both wonderful characters. :slight_smile:

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Good format, good writing and heartwarming.

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