Ruby’s new life Part 1 - Staring death in the face
- The story of Ruby by Carpdime *
Located in the heart of nondescript suburbia, Valley Drive Fluffy Clinic served the middle class families that lived in the surrounding neighborhoods. The clinic was a tightly run operation. It relied on the free labor provided by a steady stream of student volunteers to supplement its bare bones clinic staff.
Becky Jones was one of these volunteers, a veterinarian student from the nearby university. As she burst through the doors of the clinic, Lucy the night shift nurse looked up from her game of Candy Crush with surprise.
“Honey, what the hell are you doing here! It’s 7:30pm on a Friday night, shouldn’t you be out partying?” nurse Lucy exclaimed.
“I’m on roster every day the clinic is open. I’m just sorry that I’m late! My class ran longer than expected and I just missed the bus.” Becky said while gasping for air.
“Well you shouldn’t have bothered, all the patient pickups are done already so I was abouts to close up shop for the day. Ain’t nothing to do but to wipe down and clean up the fluffy pens.” Lucy said.
“Let me take care of that for you head nurse Lucy! Just sit back and relax.”
Nurse Lucy nodded, smiled to herself and went back to her Candy crushing.
Becky paced quickly to the staff room to drop off her bags. In the change room, she donned a rough pair of overalls and slipped on two fresh gloves.
The first task at hand was to clean up the foal nursery. The nursery was a tiny room with just enough space for a single table where a number of small incubators were humming softly. Becky checked each of the occupied incubators, making sure that the temperature reading for each pod was safely in the green zone.
She tip toed as quietly as she could in the dimly lit nursery but her foot accidentally kicked a carelessly misplaced hugging toy that was sitting in the middle of the floor. Even this gentle disturbance was enough to wake one of the younger foals sleeping in a large basket underneath the table. Becky put away the toy and crouched down to check on the little baby that had awoken from the disturbance.
The weak cries from the lone lavender pegasus was luckily not enough to wake the other heavier sleepers in the basket. Becky reached her hands into the pen to comfort the restless foal. As she gently caressed the little wings that was folded away in its fluff, the tiny foal reached towards Becky’s fingers with its tiny muzzle. It bit harmlessly with its gummy, toothless mouth out of instinct rather than malice. She let the foal continue its suckling bites as she could feel the signs of damage on its malformed wings. Becky realized the discomfort from sleeping on the wing may have caused the shallow sleep. From the nursery cabinet, she took a small weighted blanket from the shelf and used it to pin the small pegasus on its stomach. A few gentle pats later, the little foal began cooing into slumber, joining the symphony of sleeping babies that were inside the basket.
With that taken care of, Becky used a small brush to remove the waste from the baby basket. She sprayed a cleaning rag with a flowery cleaning liquid and wiped down the bottom and sides of the basket. Becky took extra care not to wake the piles of sleeping foals that were hugging each other for comfort. As a final check, she also refilled the milk formula bottles clipped to the walls of the enclosure so that the foals had something to feed on first thing in the morning.
Next room down was where the adult fluffies were kept. With what limited budget they were given, the clinic staff tried their best to make the tiny adult pens less intimidating and un-prison like. The walls of the adult fluffy room were painted pink. Feeding bowls were decorated with hearts and cartoon rockets. During the day, cute nursery songs and lullabies were played on repeat over the room’s Bluetooth speakers.
As Becky approached the adult pens, she was surprised to hear saccharine melodies still playing on the room’s speakers. She had assumed that all the adult fluffies had gone home already. Becky carefully entered the room. Peering in from the door, she could hear the rhythmic sobbing sounds of a lone fluffy. In the darkness of the room lit by a single night light, a single cage on the second row off the floor was locked tightly with a fluffy rustling quietly inside.
The sobbing stopped momentarily as the fluffy noticed Becky.
“M…mummah?” The red fluffy with an electric purple mane stammered.
Becky put down her bucket and slowly approached the locked pen.
“Ruby?” Becky asked softly.
The fluffy’s head lifted with hope, but as her reddened eyes locked onto the strange lady who stood outside her cage, she realized that Becky was not her mummah and her eyes sank as she resumed her sobbing.
“Whewe mummah? Wuby miss mummah.” Ruby walked forward in her tiny cage and reached out with her tear soaked hoof. “Nice wady hewp Wuby find mummah pwease?”
Ruby was always very polite. Becky had met the well behaved fluffy yesterday afternoon when she was checked in for some sort of tests. It appeared to be a routine procedure and Ruby was in high spirits after the doctor had confirmed a diagnosis and treatment had been found.
“Ruby, what are you doing here? How come you haven’t gone home yet?” Becky asked.
“Sowwy nice wady…wuby nu know whewe mummah is…” The confused fluffy tried to stifle her tears with little success.
“Oh no it’s okay sweetie, I didn’t mean to ask you to explain…” Becky reached in between the cold bars that kept Ruby in her small cage. Even through her gloved fingers, she could tell Ruby’s face was soaked with tears.
Ruby closed her eyes and nuzzled Becky’s hand lovingly as she could feel the comforting touch. Becky looked beside the caged enclosure and could see a note taped to the side. Apparently Ruby’s owner had decided the treatment for Ruby’s condition did not warrant the cost quoted. Ruby was to be given her final meal before she to be put down in the morning.
“Oh no…” Becky whispered to herself as she continued to scritch Ruby’s mane and head which calmed the fluffy down. A small tray of spaghetti, the final meal, sat cold and uneaten on the side. Becky could feel a lump in her throat, she tried her best to remain unemotional. It was one of the reasons why she had taken up work at the clinic. She needed to harden herself emotionally if she was to become a good veterinarian.
Becky pulled out her hand and opened the door to the cage.
“Here, let me warm this up for you Ruby.” She took the spaghetti tray from the cage. “And when I come back, you be a good girl and finish up all this spaghetti okay?”
“Wuby nu wan sketties…Wuby wan gu home wif mummah…wuv mummah…” The fluffy began sobbing louder.
Becky bit her lips, closed the cage back up and walked out with the spaghetti without saying another word. She popped the spaghetti into the microwave oven and set it to reheat for 1 minute. As she was waiting, she walked back to the front desk where head nurse Lucy was still engrossed in her Candy Crushing.
“I was about to clean out the adult pens but then I saw Ruby was still there in her cage. What happened to her?” Becky asked.
Nurse Lucy looked up at Becky and adjusted her thick rimmed glasses.
“It’s just heart breaking. Nobody gonna come pick up Ruby no more.” Lucy shook her head, “Old Ruby’s got a real bad case of liver infection. Only treatment available are a course of bona fide Hasbio medication.”
“Well, we can get her those easily from the Fluffy Mart Pharmacy over in Downtown.” Becky said.
“Ain’t nobody got enough money for that. Looking at over $900 for the full course Ruby needs.”
“Yeah but they provide installment payment options at Fluffy Mart. Ruby can get the treatment now and the owners can pay it back slowly.”
Nurse Lucy could tell Becky’s sentimental side was getting the better of her.
“Honey, she’s an old girl. Ruby’s had many good years behind her already. Not many fluffies live to be a grand old lady like her. You can’t expect a family in this neighborhood to fork out $900 to get an extra year or so out of a fluffy.” Lucy choked slightly and turned back to her game. “It sucks but it is what it is my dear…”
The ding of the microwave interrupted their discussion. Becky shuffled back to Ruby hesitantly with the tray of steaming hot spaghetti. Replacing it back into the cage, she gave the old fluffy a tight hug before closing the cage for the final time.
“Now be a good girl Ruby, have your spaghetti, enjoy it, love it and really have a good night. And no crying, be a really good girl for me okay?” Becky took a clean cloth from her bucket and dried the tears on Ruby’s cheeks.
“Otay nice wady…” Ruby replied and began slowly nibbling at the ends of spaghetti.
Becky quickly and quietly finished off cleaning and mopping the rest of the pens. By the time she was finished, Ruby appeared to be sleeping . Most of the spaghetti was still uneaten but Becky decided to leave it there in case Ruby had a change of heart later on.
With her tasks completed, Becky was feeling slightly tired but completely miserable. She said her goodbyes to head nurse Lucy and headed out into night towards the bus stop. She needed a distraction and she remembered that she had somewhere to be at before the night was done.
–
Continued in Part 2
