Creatures of the Rock by Andrew Peacock

Author:Andrew Peacock [Peacock, Andrew]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-385-68260-2
Publisher: Doubleday Canada
Published: 2014-11-18T05:00:00+00:00

20. The Slide

BY THE TIME LIAM WAS SEVEN, his two sisters, Adrian and Astrid, were five and three. Like most mornings, Liam was up before everyone else to draw and had to be pulled away from his latest creation to come to the breakfast table. Adrian stopped running through the house with Mats just long enough to devour a bowl of Corn Flakes. Astrid sat smiling as she placidly watched the excitement of the morning. Once the family was fed, we had to get Liam and Adrian ready for school. Ingrid put together lunches while I searched the house for the crucial page of homework Liam couldn’t find.

Outside, freezing rain pelted out of the grey sky and there was a slippery skim on the pavement, so I walked Liam and Adrian to the bus stop. All three of us managed to stay on our feet for the full expedition.

Astrid’s babysitter arrived, and after hugs all around, Ingrid, Mats and I left for work.

I spent the first hour answering phone calls in the office and then took a quick trip to a local chicken farm. Even though it was freezing outside, the birds were suffering from overheating. A simple change to the ventilation of the barn brought the temperature down to a healthier level.

When I got back to the office, Sharon handed me a note to call Louise McGurk out near Holyrood.

Mrs. McGurk was worried her cow was dying. “My man’s in Alberta and I don’t know what to do.”

“Can you tell me a little more?”

“She just calved last night, everything looked great, she had a beautiful little calf, but when I came out this morning she was out flat and barely moving. Can you come and see her?”

“What kind of a cow is she, Mrs. McGurk?”

“She’s a Jersey, a real darlin’, and her calf is beautiful.”

“I’ll be right out to have a look.”

It was a good bet that this was a case of milk fever. The physiological stress of producing milk in unnaturally large quantities is worse in small breeds like Jerseys. These diminutive cows are pushed to make so much milk relative to their body size that they can lose a lot of the calcium they need to keep their bodies healthy and to maintain normal brain activity. Without enough calcium, cattle can get very sick and even die.

Mrs. McGurk’s cow needed help fast, and it was normally about an hour’s drive from my office to her home in Holyrood. Today, though, I had to balance the urgency of the call with the terrible icy driving conditions. It took me a little over an hour to get to the barn, but I stayed on the road for the full trip.

The McGurk barn was small and neat. Tucked in behind their modern bungalow, it wasn’t visible from the road. I gathered up my drug case and carefully picked my way to the barn.

Mrs. McGurk met me at the door. She was a small woman with bright red hair. Her fashionable clothes suggested that she didn’t spend much time in the barn.

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