Page 22 of Vet in a Spin

shirts, quite cert ain that this was when they rushed me and beat me

  up, but my fears were groundless.

  All they wanted was a speedier delivery and about a dozen of them swept

  past me behind the counter and began to follow my example.

  Whereas there had been only a single missile winging over the heads the

  sky was now dark with the flying objects. Mid-air collisions were

  frequent. Collars sprayed, handkerchiefs fluttered, underpants

  parachuted gracefully, but after an unbearably long period of chaos the

  last airman had picked up his scattered laundry, given me a disgusted

  glance and departed.

  I was left alone in the hut with the sad knowledge that my prestige was

  very low and the equally sad conviction that the RAF still did not know

  what to do with me.

  Chapter Twenty Occasionally my period in limbo was relieved when I was

  allowed out of camp into the city of Manchester. And I suppose it was

  the fact that I was a newfangled parent that made me look at the

  various prams in the streets. Mostly the prams were pushed by women

  but now and then I saw a man doing the job.

  I suppose it isn't unusual to see a man pushing a pram in a town, but

  on a lonely moorland road the sight merits a second glance. Especially

  when the pram contains a large dog.

  That was what I saw in the hills above Darrow by one morning and I

  slowed down as I drove past. I had noticed the st range combinatidn

  before on several occasions over the last few weeks and it was clear

  that man and dog had recently moved into the district.

  As the car drew abreast of him the man turned, smiled and raised his

  hand.

  It was a smile of rare sweetness in a very brown face. A

  forty-year-old face, I thought, above a brown neck which bore neither

  collar nor tie, and a faded striped shirt Iying open over a bare chest

  despite the coldness of the day.

  I couldn't help wondering who or what he was. The outfit of scuffed

  suede golf jacket, corduroy trousers and sturdy boots didn't give much

  clue. Some people might have put him down as an ordinary tramp, but

  there was a businesslike energetic look about him which didn't fit the

  term.

  I wound the window down and the thin wind of a Yorkshire March bit at

  my cheeks.

  "Nippy this morning," I said.

  The man seemed surprised.

  "Aye," he replied after a moment.

  "Aye, reckon it is.

  I looked at the pram, ancient and rusty, and at the big animal sit ting

  upright inside it. He was a lurcher, a cross-bred greyhound, and he

  gazed back at me with unruffled dignity.

  "Nice dog," I said.

  "Aye, that's Jake." The man smiled again, showing good regular

  teeth.

  "He's a grand 'un."

  I waved and drove on. In the mirror I could see the compact figure

  stepping out briskly, head up, shoulders squared, and, rising like a

  statue from the middle of the pram, the huge brindled form of Jake.

  I didn't have to wait long to meet the unlikely pair again. I was

  examining a cart horse's teeth in a farmyard when on the hillside

  beyond the stable I saw a figure kneeling by a dry stone wall. And by

  his side, a pram and a big dog sit ting patiently on the grass.

  "Hey, just a minute." I pointed at the hill.

  "Who is that?"

  The farmer laughed.

  "That's Roddy Travers. D'you ken 'im?"

  "No, no I don't. I had a word with him on the road the other day,

  that's all."

  "Aye, on the road." He nodded knowingly.

  "That's where you'd see Roddy, right enough."

  "But what is he? Where does he come from?"

  "He comes from somewhere in Yorkshire, but ah don't rightly know where

  and ah don't think anybody else does. But I'll tell you this he can

  turn 'is hand to anything."

  "Yes," I said, watching the man expertly laying the flat slabs of stone

  as he repaired a gap in the wall.

  "There's not many can do what he's doing now."

  "That's true. Wall in' is a skilled job and it's dying out, but

  Roddy's a dab hand at it. But he can do owt - hedgin', dit chin', loo

  kin' after stock, it's all the same to him."

  I lifted the tooth rasp and began to rub a few sharp corners off the

  horse's molars.

  "And how long will he stay here?" ~ "Oh, when he's finished that wall

  he'll be off. Ah could do with 'im stop pin' around for a bit but he

  never stays in one place for long."

  "But hasn't he got a home anywhere?"

  "Nay, nay." The farmer laughed again.

  "Roddy's got nowt. All 'e has in thc world is in that there pram."

  Over the next weeks as the harsh spring began to soften and the

  sunshine brought a bright speckle of primroses on to the grassy banks I

  saw Roddy quite often, sometimes on the road, occasionally wielding a

  spade busily on the ditch.

  around the fields. Jake was al ways there, either loping by his side

  or watching him at work. But we didn't actually meet again till I was

  inoculating Mr Paw son's sheep for pulpy kidney.

  ~' re were three hundred to do and they drove them in batches into a

  smaD ~ere Roddy caught and held them for me. And I could see he was as

  at this, too. The wild hill sheep whipped past him like bullets but hc

  Neir fleece effortlessly, sometimes in mid-air, and held the fore leg

  up hat bare clean area of skin behind the elbow that nature seemed.

  put ~for the veterinary surgeon's needle.

  I could. je, on the windy slopes the big lurcher sat upright in

  typical p~

  OV~

  Iloo king with mild interest at the farm dogs prowling intently around

  the pens, but not interfering in any way.

  "You've got him well trained," I said.

  Roddy smiled.

  "Yes, ye'll never find Jake da shin' about anno yin' people. He knows

  'e has to sit there till I'm finished and there he'll sit."

  "And quite happy to do so, by the look of him." I glanced again at the

  dog, a picture of contentment.

  "He must live a wonderful life, travelling everywhere with you."

  "You're right there," Mr Paw son broke in as he ushered another bunch

  of sheep into the pen.

  "He hasn't a care in "'world, just like his master."

  Roddy didn't say anything, but as the sheep ran in he straightened up

  and took a long steady breath. He had been working hard and a little

  trickle of sweat ran down the side of his forehead but as he gazed over

  the wide sweep of moor and fell I could read utter serenity in his

  face. After a few moments he spoke.

  "I reckon that's true. We haven't much to worry us, Jake and me."

  Mr Paw son grinned mischievously.

  "By yaw, Roddy, you never spoke a truer word. No wife, no kids, no

  life insurance, no overdraft at t'bank you must have a right peaceful

  existence."

  "Ah suppose so," Roddy said.

  "But then ah've no money either."

  The farmer gave him a quizzical look.

  "Aye, how about that, then? Wouldn't you feel a bit more secure, like,

  if you had a bit o' brass put by?"

  "Nay, nay. Ye can't take it w
ith you and any road, as long as a man

  can pay '~s way, he s got enough."

  There was nothing original about the words, but they have stayed with

  me all my life because they came from his lips and were spoken with

  such profound assurance.

  When I finished the inoculations and the ewes were turned out to trot

  back happily over the open fields I turned to Roddy.

  "Well, thanks very much. It makes my job a lot quicker when I have a

  good catcher like you." I pulled out a packet of Gold Flake.

  "Will you have a cigarette?"

  "No, thank ye, Mr Herriot. I don't smoke."

  "You don't?"

  "No don't drink either." He gave me his gentle smile and again I had

  the impression of physical and mental purity. No drinking, no smoking,

  a life of constant movement in the open air without material

  possessions or ambitions - it all showed in the unclouded eyes, the

  fresh skin and the hard muscular frame. He wasn't very big but he

  looked indestructible.

  "C'mon, Jake, it's dinner time," he said and the big lurcher bounded

  around him in delight. I went over and spoke to the dog and he

  responded with tremendous body-swaying wags, his handsome face loo king

  up at me, full of friendliness.

  I stroked the long pointed head and tickled the ears.

  "He's a beauty, Roddy - a grand 'un, as you said."

  I walked to the house to wash my hands and before I went inside I

  glanced back at the two of them. They were sit ting in the shelter of

  a wall and Roddy was laying out a thermos flask and a parcel of food

  while Jake watched eagerly.

  The hard bright sunshine beat on them as the wind whistled over the top

  of the wall. They looked supremely comfortable and at peace.

  "He's independent, you see," the farmer's wife said as I stood at the

  kitchen sink

  "He's welcome to come in for a bit o' dinner but he'd rather stay

  outside with his dog."

  I nodded.

  "Where does he sleep when he's going round the farms like this?"

  "Oh, anywhere," she replied.

  "In hay barns or granaries or sometimes out in 8U4 Vet In a :Yptn ~ .`

  IS in the open, but when he~s with us he sleeps upstairs in one of our

  rooms. Ah know . ~ j this afternoon. He was right as rain, lark in'

  about on the grass, then he went for a fact any of the farmers would be

  willinto have him in the house because ~into a sort o'fit."

  he all us keeps himself spotless clean." E ~"How do you mean?"

  "I see." I pulled the towel from behind the door.

  "He's quite a character, isn't #, "Just kind of seized up and toppled

  over on 'is side. He lay there for a bit he?" ~ ~gaspin' and slav

  erin'. Ahtll tell ye, I thought he was a goner." His eyes widened She

  smiled ruminatively.

  "Aye, he certainly is. Just him and his dog!" She ~and a corner of

  his mouth twitched at the memory.

  lifted a fragrant dishful of hot roast ham from the oven and set it on

  the table. ~ '~ "How long did that last?"

  "But I'll tell you this. The feller's all right. Everybody likes

  Roddy Travers _ ;~: "Nob but a few seconds. Then he got up and you'd

  say there was nowt wrong he's a very nice man." : with 'im."

  "But he did it again?"

  Roddy stayed around the Darrow by district throughout the summer and I

  grew "Aye, time and time again. Drove me near daft. But in between 'e

  was normal.

  used to the sight of him on the farms or pushing his pram along the

  roads Normal, Mr Herriot!"

  When it was raining he wore a tattered over-long gaberdine coat, but at

  other It sounded ominously like the onset of epilepsy.

  "How old is he?" I asked.

  times it was al ways the golf jacket and corduroys. I don't know where

  he had "Five gone last February."

  accumulated his wardrobe. It was a safe bet he had never been on a

  golf course ~ ~Ah well, it was a bit old for that. I reached for a

  stethoscope and auscultated in his life and it was just another of the

  little mysteries about him. ;: the heart. I listened intently but

  heard only the racing beat of a frightened I saw him early one morning

  on a hill path in early October. It had been a ~animal. There was no

  abnormality. My thermometer showed no rise in night of iron frost and

  the tussocky pastures beyond the walls were held in a .~

  ~temperature.

  pitiless white grip with every blade of grass stiffly ensheathed in

  rime.

  "Let's have him on the table, Roddy. You take the back end."

  I was muffled to the eyes and had been beating my gloved fingers

  against my The big animal was limp in our arms as we hoisted him on to

  the smooth knees to thaw them out, but when I pulled up and wound down

  the window the surface, but after Iying there for a moment he loc~ked

  timidly around him then first thing I saw was the bare chest under the

  collarless unbuttoned shirt.

  sat up with a slow and careful movement. As we watched he reached out

  and "Morn in', Mr Herriot, "he said.

  "Ahtm glad I've seen ye." He paused and gave licked his master's face

  while his tail flickered between his legs me his tranquil smile.

  "There's a job along t'road for a couple of weeks, then "Look at that!"

  the man exclaimed.

  "He's all right again. You'd think he didn't I'm movie' on." ~ ail a

  thing."

  "I see." I knew enough about him now not to ask where he was going.

  Instead And indeed Jake was recovering his confidence rapidly. He

  peered tentatively I looked down at Jake who was sniffling the

  herbage.

  "I see he's walking this at the floor a few times then suddenly jumped

  down, trotted to his master and morning"

  Roddy laughed.

  "Yes, sometimes 'e likes to walk, sometimes 'e likes to ride.

  pull hllSkPadWStatGhalndt hlstchedst the t il i f i I

  "W 11, h ' He pleases 'imself. relief, anyway. I didn't like the look

  of him just then, but whatever's been Right, Roddy,; said. No doubt we

  11 meet again. All the best to you. ~ troubling him seems to have

  righted itself. I'll . . ."

  He waved and set off jauntily over the icebound road and I felt that a

  little My happy flow was cut oflf. I stared at the lurcher. His fore

  legs were on the vein of richness had gone from my life.

  , floor agam and hls mouth was gaping as he fought for breath.

  Frantically he But I was wrong. That same evening about eight 0 clock

  the front door bell gasped and retched then he blundered across the

  floor, collided with the pram rang. I answered it and found Roddy on

  the front door steps. Behind him, JUst wheels and fell on his side.

  visible in the frosty darkness, stood the ubiquitous pram. "What the

  hell .

  . .! Quick, get him up again!" I grabbed the animal round the "I want

  you to look at me dog, Mr Herriot, he said. middle and we lifted him

  back on to the table.

  "Why, what's the trouble?"

  "Ah don't rightly know. He's havin' sort of . . . fain tin' fits." I

  watched in disbelief as the huge form lay there. There was no fight

  for "Fai
nting fits' That doesn't sound like Jake. Where is he,

  anyway?" breath now - he wasn t breathing at all, he was unconscious.

  I pushed my fingers He pointed behind him

  "In t'pram, under "'cover." inside his thigh and felt the pulse. It

  was still going, rapid and feeble, but yet "All right." I threw the

  door wide.

  "Bring him in." he didn t breathe.

  Roddy adroitly manhandled the rusty old vehicle up the steps and pushed

  it, He could die any moment and I stood there helpless, all my

  scientific training squeaking and rattling, along the passage to the

  consulting room. There, under useless. Finally my frustration burst

  from me and I struck the dog on the ribs the bright lights he snapped

  back the fasteners and threw off the cover to reveal with the flat of

  my hand.

  Jake stretched beneath. "Jake!" I yelled.

  "Jake, what's the matter with you?"

  His head was pillowed on the familiar gaberdine coat and around him lay

  05 As though in reply, the lurcher immediately started to take great

  wheezing master's worldly goods; a string-tied bundle of spare shirt

  and socks, a packet breaths, his eyelids twitched back to consciousness

  and he began to look about of tea, a thermos, knife and spoon and an

  ex-army haversack. ~ . him. But he was still mortally afraid and he

  lay prone as I gently stroked his The big dog looked up at me with

  terrified eyes and as I patted him I could head.

  feel his whole frame quivering. ~' :-There was a long silence while

  the animal's terror slowly subsided, then he "Let him lie there a

  minute, Roddy," I said.

  "And tell me exactly what yo~l ~sat up on the table and regarded us

  placidly.

  seen." ~"There you are," Roddy said softly.

  "Same thing again. Ah can't reckon it up ;~He rubbed his palms

  together and his fingers trembled.

  "Well it only ~L and ah thought ah knew sum mat about dogs."

  L. ~

  I didn't say anything. I couldn't reckon it up either, and I was

  supposed to be a veterinary surgeon. ' I spoke at last.

  "Roddy, that wasn't a fit. He was choking. Something was ;

  interfering with his air flow." I took my hand torch from my breast

  pocket.

  "I'm going to have a look at his throat."

  I pushed Jake's jaws apart, depressed his tongue with a forefinger and

  shone the light into the depths. He was the kind of good-natured dog

  who offered no resistance as I prodded around, but despite my floodlit

  view of the pharynx I could find nothing wrong. I had been hoping

  desperately to come across a bit of bone stuck there somewhere but I

  ranged feverishly over pink tongue, healthy tonsils and gleaming molars

  without success. Everything looked perfect.

  I was tilting his head a little further when I felt him stiffen and

  heard Roddy's cry.

  "He's goin' again!"

  And he was, too. I stared in horror as the brindled body slid away

  from me and lay prostrate once more on the table. And again the mouth

  strained wide and froth bubbled round the lips. As before, the

  breathing had stopped and the rib cage was motionless. As the seconds

  ticked away I beat on the chest with my hand but it didn't work this

  time. I pulled the lower eyelid down from the staring orb the

  conjunctive was blue, Jake hadn't long to live. The tragedy of the

  thing bore down on me. This wasn't just a dog, he was this man's

  family and I was watching him die.

  It was at that moment that I heard the faint sound. It was a strangled

  cough which barely stirred the dog's lips.

  "Damn it!" I shouted.

  "He is choking. There must be something down there."