Then I change Thor’s bandage, put Freya back outside, and take Thor for his walk while I reply to emails and look over some reports that were submitted to me for approval. I have no say over who’s hired, and it seems a new entry-level analyst has been brought onto the team.
And he sucks.
None of what the entry-level analysts do is necessarily hard. It’s quite literally plugging numbers into a program and letting the computer do its thing. This guy seems to have copied and pasted the same thing more than once, hence, screwing up the numbers. I send him an email telling him he needs to go back and fix his report. I make an effort not to use exclamation points after each sentence since I know that’s a bad habit of mine.
I get an almost instant reply from him, saying he’s “out of the office” since he got his report done, and asks if I can make the “appropriate changes” so he can “use them as an example”.
“I wasn’t born yesterday, buddy,” I grumble out loud and spend way too long constructing an email that is friendly but firm. I send the email and pocket my phone, walking Thor up and down the driveway a few more times before letting him graze.
Remembering the look of surprise on Jacob’s face when he saw how clean the barn was, I spend a decent chunk of time cleaning and straightening up out there before going back into the house to finish work for the day. I had a lighter than average workload today, which probably means that tomorrow is going to be brutal.
Gunther is back again today, and I’m seriously considering now just keeping him in the fenced-in yard until his owners actually do notice. And when—or if—they do, I’ll just play dumb and act like I had no idea he wasn’t a stray. I let Riley out so they can play and go inside, getting a small pot of vegan chili made right in time for Everly to come home.
“Hey, pumpkin,” I call when I hear the screen door open and shut. Right away, I can tell that more than one person is in the house.
“Hey, Mom!” Everly calls back. “I brought some friends over. Hope you don’t mind.” She comes into the kitchen with Maria, some boy I don’t know, and one of the girls from the other day trailing behind her. After a quick you need to run this by me first chat, I scramble to make something else that will feed us all and end up putting a few frozen pizzas in the oven, saving the chili for another day. My irritation lessens when the kids go out to the barn to brush the horses and to make more posts for Everly’s horse rescue social media accounts.
I’m setting the small kitchen table when my phone rings. It’s the vet, but the main clinic line, not Jacob’s personal number this time. Still, it could be him calling from his office and I quickly run my hands through my hair and then shake my head at myself, remembering that no one can see me over the phone.
“Hello?” I answer.
“Hi, is this Josie Walker?”
“It is.”
“Hi, this is Darla from Harrison Animal Clinic calling to give you an update on Pongo.”
“Is he okay?” I rush out.
“Yes,” she assures me. “He is responding very well to his treatments and the doctor thinks he could be ready to be discharged as early as next week. I wanted to reach out to you beforehand to make sure you were set up to come get him.”
“Oh,” I say, surprised and happy. “We have a stall ready for him and I have a trailer to pick him up. Is he going to come home on medications?”
“Yes, and I will have our equine tech call you tomorrow to go over a plan of care.”
“Sounds good,” I tell her and then end the call. It will be great to have Pongo home, and Freya will be happy to have her friend back. But picking him up also means paying his vet bill, and I’m honestly terrified to see how much it’s going to be.
The kids leave around seven, and after dealing with a little bit of sass from Ev, she finally listens and gets her homework done. Then she gets ready for bed early so she can sit around and play on her phone until it’s time to go to sleep. The house is still a mess and now there are double the amount of dishes stacked in the sink since this morning, but I need a freaking break.
Taking my phone, I go into the living room and look outside, watching Riley and Gunther doze on the porch. Pulling the blanket from the back of the couch over my lap, I get comfy. I’m reading through the comments on Everly’s latest post and am happy that most are positive. One asshole, who probably got their degree in equine medicine from Facebook, commented about how skinny Freya was and we need to learn how to properly feed our horses. But a bunch of people jumped in on our behalf, telling the dummy that Freya came to us that way and we’re most definitely not starving our horses.