Three Fillies, continued ...
The next day she didn't hear from McCoy. The following day
Valerie, now beside herself with anxiety, called the McCoy residence.
As she held the receiver to her ear, I saw a look of astonishment
cross her face. She put down the phone. "Christine's mom
says she can't talk on the phone because she was at a party all
night!"
Every day, McCoy or her mom gave a new reason why she would
not allow Dorothy to get her filly. Meanwhile, we figured she
was continuing to starve, too young to be without her mother's
milk, and on a pasture with little but toxic blackfoot to eat.
Sure, there was a stack of alfalfa hay at the place. However,
the foals looked like they weren't getting any of it.
Part of the problem was that Dorothy is a short, wispy, extra-agreeable
kind of person. Some people think they can push her around. They
are always wrong. Dorothy knows how to call in reinforcements.
In this case she called my husband, John.
John is the descendent of Vikings, with physique and personality
to match. The two of them drove unannounced out to the McCoy
place. McCoy shouted threats to call the cops and sue them while
they caught and loaded the filly into Melody's horse trailer.
Because the filly had been starving so long, Dorothy got advice
from a vet on how to get a starving baby back on food without
delivering a fatal shock.
Because most horses and goats love each other, Dorothy's first
step was to pen the filly in with their dairy goats. This would
give the filly the herd companionship she needed to feel safe.
Next task was to give her small amounts of milk at frequent intervals.
Diana, Valerie and Virginia set up their sleeping bags in the
goat barn and took turns standing 24-hour watch over the filly.
They bottle-fed her every two hours. They encouraged her to nibble
on hay.
By the end of the first day, it looked like the champagne
gold filly would live. Diana got the courage to name her: Kiri.
Within weeks, Kiri rippled with muscles and would dash over with
a whinny whenever Diana called her.
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