Veterinary Bears - Looking After Horsey

 We bears have an important job to do at the moment, as we have a very special guest at our house.

His name is Horsey and he is, as you might guess from his name, a small horse.  His usual human guardian is called Rachael, and she is Polar's god-daughter.  Rachael is a medical student in her last year of study and training and, as she is nearly a doctor now, we bears call her 'Nearly-doctor Rachael'. 

Nearly-doctor Rachael has loved Horsey since she was a human cub but, a few weeks ago, she tried to wash him in her washing machine and had a horrible accident.  It makes us bears shudder to think about it, as poor Horsey's stuffing got squished into all the wrong places, some of his seams came apart and two of his hooves exploded!

Nearly-doctor Rachael knows a lot about mending humans but not about mending anipals.  When you put stitches in humans, they are only meant to last until their skin mends itself and then either dissolve or be taken out, but we need strong stitches that will hold together forever, even when we are having adventures.

Knowing that Polar can sew, Nearly-doctor Rachael sent Horsey up to us, by post.  Polar told us that he was on his way, so we started organising things to make him comfortable.  Hanley decided we should make him a stable from a Titanic beer box, Endon fetched some shredded paper to use as straw, and we found a scarf of Grizzly's that looked like a horse blanket for him too.

However, when Polar unwrapped Horsey's parcel, we found he was bigger than we had expected and won't be comfortable in the beer box, so Polar brought in one of the boxes we use to store our potatoes from the shed and, after giving him lots of hugs to make him welcome, we lined that with the shredded paper and made that into his stable instead.  

When he was settled, we gave him a nice carrot to eat and told him stories about some of our adventures to stop him worrying about his injuries, and we gave him extra hugs before bedtime as he was missing his human guardian.

In the morning, Polar looked at Horsey's injuries and decided that the first job would be to make his new hooves.  'I'm going to have to use that pair of Grizzly's old trousers I was hoping to make into new dungarees for you bears,' she said.  'They are about the same colour as actual horse hooves and the right sort of texture.  Don't be too sad, though - Grizzly has some other old trousers we ought to replace soon and there might be enough this fabric left for a pair for one of you.'

We all agreed that Horsey's new hooves were most important and that if there was enough fabric left, Hanley Bear should have the dungarees, as he doesn't have any at the moment.  Soon Polar had made four little hooves; Horsey sniffed at them, and decided they would do so, that evening, Polar did the operation to fit the front ones. 

'When Horsey is better, do you think he could stay with us?' Waverley asked, while we were giving him his carrots for tea.  'He's really nice, and we could have lots of fun together, riding him across the fields.  He might even pull a little cart for us, if we asked nicely and gave him more carrots.'

'Or even a Gypsy caravan, like the one we saw at the boat festival!' suggested Endon.  'We could ask Grizzly to make one for us!'

But Hanley Bear gave them hard stares.  'Don't be selfish bears!' he growled.  'Nearly-doctor Rachael has a very tough job, and it has been extra tough this year, because she has been looking after very poorly humans with that nasty virus.  Horsey needs to be with her, to give her hugs whenever she is tired or sad.  Our job is like hers - to help him get better, so he can go home to someone who loves him.'   

Waverley and Endon said they were sorry and hadn't meant to be selfish, so Hanley and I gave them hugs until their eyes stopped leaking.

In the morning, we took Horsey some oats and bran for his breakfast, before Polar fitted his other new hooves.  They looked very smart and we couldn't really complain about not getting dungarees as we do have plenty of nice bear clothes.

'Horsey can listen to the match with us,' said Hanley, realising it was Saturday.  'He'll have to support Stoke, like the rest of us!'  Hanley explained this to Horsey, then he ran out and climbed the coat-rack in the hall to fetch Grizzly's best Stoke City scarf, before going back for his hat.

Despite having four bears and a small horse on their side, Stoke City lost the game by two goals to nil.  I think Horsey might secretly support QPR!

On Sunday and Monday, while it was wet and stormy, Horsey had his major surgery.  Polar had to take out a lot of his stuffing and fluff it back up properly, mend some of his seams (which were strengthened with more of Grizzly's old trouser fabric) and then put his stuffing back in.  

The most important job was to sew his neck seams together in the right order, so his head was supported across his shoulders instead of being all skinny.

The next day he had surgery on his back legs, tail and tummy.  Polar needed some extra stuffing for him, so we found some (unused) washing-up sponges in the kitchen, and let Polar have some of the stuffing from the old cushion which we use as the mattress in our bear basket.  She didn't want to over-stuff him and put pressure on his other seams, but she didn't want him to be too floppy either.

When she had finished, Horsey looked much better!

Since then, we have been looking after him, giving him more carrots and apples and encouraging him to do some exercises.  We hope he can come into the garden with us when he is feeling better and eat grass and canter about in the sunshine.  We know he will have to go back to Nearly-doctor Rachael soon, and we will miss him, but Hanley Bear is right: he has a very important job to do giving her his love, and he will take some of ours with him to her.