And it would be the sum of all of these combinations that would get Josie in trouble.
Platonic, platonic, platonic.
“There she is!” Seth spurred his horse and took off for the downed heifer at the far edge of the field. Reeds of waist high grasses enveloped the struggling animal, making her almost invisible in the rural landscape. Josie would have missed her altogether if it weren’t for the painful noises she emitted, the moos that bordered on moans of shear agony. Seth was right. This heifer needed their help and judging by the sound of things, they hadn’t arrived a minute too soon.
“Would you mind tying off the horses for me?” Seth indicated toward the large wooden post that supported a gate. He unhooked his saddle bag and then passed Scout’s leather reins to Josie. “I’m going to check out what we’re dealing with and see if the heifer will let me tie her up, too.”
The horses were more than happy to rest in tall grasses they hardly had to lower their heads to snack from. Josie secured both Sally and Scout and then hurried toward Seth, trampling dry reeds to make her own path in the overgrown pasture. She almost lost track of him in the thick brush, but when he flicked on a flashlight, it was like a lighthouse beacon drawing her to their exact location in the field.
“Breech.” He had a gloved hand elbow deep in the struggling heifer. “You ever deliver a calf before?”
“Goats, pigs, horses, and a llama.” Josie ticked off each animal on her fingers, one by one. “But never a calf.”
“Any of them ever try to give you trouble and try to come out butt first?”
She shook her head. She’d been lucky. In all of the livestock births she had assisted in, she’d never experienced anything too out of the ordinary. Some help she would be.
“Should I call Dr. Cranford?” Josie started to reach for her phone in her jacket pocket.
“No. He was heading to an appointment down in Sacramento after our visit. That’s a couple hours away. If this storm kicks into gear like it’s threatening to, maybe even longer. We’re going to have to figure this one out on our own.” With his free hand, he reached into his saddle bag and withdrew another set of long, plastic gloves and then tossed a bottle of lubricant Josie’s way. “Glove up.”
Josie slipped one on and came up next to the cow. She ran her fingers and cast delicately along the side of the trembling animal, patting her at the widest point of her stomach. The whites of the heifer’s eyes flashed with fear, pain, and a look that came close to total resignation.
“If you can stay up by her head and try to keep her calm, I’m going to see if I can manipulate the calf manually. I’ll have to push it back in a little to move it around so I can pull the hind feet out. That’s the only way we’re going to get this calf on the ground at this point. Dead or alive.”
He said it so matter-of-factly, Josie assumed this wasn’t his first breech rodeo. His hand sank back into the heifer and he got to work.
“It’s okay, girl.” Josie tried to soothe the tired animal, her words hushed and low like a lullaby. Whatever Seth did at the other end, though, thwarted that attempt. The cow stomped and tossed her head in a wild circle, wailing a guttural noise that blasted into Josie’s eardrum. “It’s okay, girl. It’s gonna be okay.” She peered around the animal. “You doing alright back there?”
Josie felt the heifer lurch forward before being yanked quickly back.
“Got one foot into the birth canal!” Seth exclaimed, the rise in his voice full of energy from his success.
Another forceful tug.
“Once I get the other”—he continued in a heaving voice—“I’ll need your help with the chains.”
“Chains?”
The heifer rocked back again with Seth’s maneuvering. “The pull chains. We’ll have to use them to pull the calf out. It’s not going to come out any other way.”
The poor girl opened her mouth to let out another strangled groan just as a flash of startling white illuminated the sky. Josie didn’t even have time to count the space between the lightning crack and the ensuing boom of parched earth rattling beneath them. The storm was close, teetering right on the edge of an inundating downpour.
“We need to work fast.” Seth looked up at the angry skies. “Come on, girl. Work with me. We gotta get your baby out. We can do this together. I just need your help, sweet girl.”
There was a tenderness in his voice despite the gravity of the situation. Josie knew the odds weren’t good for a live birth in a situation like this. Even still, this mama needed the baby on the ground, and the sooner the better.
“Got it!”
The heifer exhaled a massive sigh that Josie felt skim across her cheek, hot and damp, the smell of cut grass. “Need my help yet?”
“Yes. I do.” Seth kept a hand bound around two spindly legs as he crouched to gather the chains and pull handles from his leather bag with the other. He’d come prepared and that didn’t surprise Josie one bit. “We’ll have to use all the strength we can muster to get this calf out.” He said it all as he twisted the chains above the hooves and around the fetlocks, securing them in place. “We’ll use her contractions to our advantage.” Seth motioned Josie over with a nudge of his head. “Take this handle. I’ll take this one. When she starts to contract, we’re going to pull.” He looked directly into her eyes. “Hard.”
Mother Nature waited until Seth rattled off his instructions before the sky made good on its earlier promise. It opened up like someone just unzipped the storm clouds. A burst of rain showered down in fat droplets, obscuring Josie’s vision in a disorienting blur that couldn’t be cleared no matter how many times she tried to blink.
“Ready?” Seth shouted over the growing storm.
Josie gave a quick nod. Water gathered on the tips of her lashes, sloped down her cheeks and drenched her shirt collar. In a matter of minutes, they’d both be soaked to the bone but there was little to be done to avoid that.
When the heifer wailed with the pulse of another mounting contraction, Josie slammed up against Seth’s shoulder, her feet digging into the now muddied ground to gain some sort of leverage. She slipped and slid like she had ice skates on.
“Hold on tight.” Seth slunk an arm around Josie’s waist to steady her. His fingers pressed into her hip and he bent his knees to brace for the pull. “Here comes another one. Ready?”
Another nod.
This time, the calf slipped out to its middle. A hoot of cheer broke past Josie’s lips. Seth shouted a similar celebratory noise.
“We’re almost there. Come on, mama.”
Another crack of lightning cleaved the sky in two.
“Come on, girl,” Josie encouraged as the contraction swelled again. “One more big push.”
The calf, Josie, and Seth all hit the ground just as a roll of thunder rumbled the earth beneath them.
“He’s breathing!” Seth wiped the calf’s nose and swiped his hand into its mouth to clear the mucous gathered there. “Looks pretty worn out, but alive. Thank God.”
Josie scrambled to her feet to untie the cow who strained against the rope to get to her new baby. “Hold on mama. Hold on. Just one second.”