Chapter 15: The Worst Day of Her Life

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“Keep your eyes on your work,” Noah would quietly remind Kaybri as one dog after another was extracted from its wooden cage. Since most of them were too weak to walk, they were put on a litter and brought to her. After living their entire lives in a confined space, the dogs’ muscles had atrophied.  

     Kaybri sympathetically examined each dog, looking for any shimmer of hope they could be saved. She used all of her strength to hold back the tears as she injected sodium pentobarbital into those she knew would never recover. Even though barely alive to begin with, some fought against the drug and tried to survive. Kaybri never ceased to be amazed by how creatures, no matter how much they were abused, would fight to live. 

     Kaybri’s goal, which she didn’t express to anyone, was to save 60 of the 112 dogs on the Stoltzfus farm. But now that she was seeing them up close, she realized she had been overly optimistic.  

     Noah’s brothers worked steadily to carry the dead dogs from Kaybri’s station to the raging bonfire Frank was tending behind the barn. The heat and smell were almost unbearable. Kaybri wondered if Frank had taken the worst job of all as penance for not working to shut down the puppy mills. Or maybe it was because he knew that within a year or two he wouldn’t remember the experience. It took six hours to get through the first set of tasks. For Kaybri, it was the worst six hours of her life. In all, 86 dogs out of 112 needed to be euthanized. 

     Her emotions suddenly switched from sorrow to rage as she calculated the income the dogs had produced for Thomas Stoltzfus. With 112 breeding animals, each producing three to four litters a year, with an average of eight puppies to a litter, the operation had been generating between $500,000 and $1 million a year. Kaybri turned her head away and took a few deep breaths as she used all her might to keep herself from exploding.  

     “What now?” Kaybri asked Noah when all the kennels had been emptied. 

     “You get rid of some of that tension. Grab a hammer. We’re going to break the kennels apart and then drag them out to be consumed by that fire.” 

     Kaybri picked up a hammer. Seeing Thomas Stoltzfus, who was also demolishing the wooden pens, she started toward him. Noah jumped down from a ladder to intercept her. He was able to stop her progress but not her words.  

     “These dogs produced a million dollars a year, and this is how you treated them?” Kaybri shouted at Stoltzfus, who was about twenty yards away. 

     “Kaybri, remember why we’re here,” Noah said sternly. 

     “I hate him. I hate that bastard with all my heart,” Kaybri yelled.  

     Stoltzfus pretended not to hear her. But after a minute, he put down his hammer and left the barn mumbling about other matters that needed his attention. 

     “You're right, Kaybri, but he’s trying.” Noah said. 

     “It’s not enough.” 

     Noah grabbed Kaybri by the shoulders and turned her so he could look into her eyes. "And please don’t call my father a bastard. He is dismantling his entire life. He will be excommunicated. For a while, he will lose a sizable portion of the family’s income, and he’s exposed his negligence to you, the Stevenses, and his entire family. The man is not without pride.” 

     “I know,” Kaybri said quietly. “But I want him to pay for what he did, and I don’t want him to ever breed dogs again.”  

     Moments later, Elizabeth entered the barn bringing pitchers of water. Sensing Kaybri’s distress, Elizabeth took Kaybri by the hand and led her out of the barn. “Come. Take a break.” 

     Next to the corral, which was full of cows, Elizabeth and Dorothy sat on a bench and patted the space between them.  

     “Look at these cows,” Kaybri said. “They’re healthy. They’re not mistreated. Why would that bastard do that to the dogs?” 

     Elizabeth winced at the harsh word but let it go. “It’s tradition. It’s how his father and his grandfather conducted the farm’s business. I know that’s not much of an excuse.” 

     This was the first time Kaybri had spoken to Elizabeth Stoltzfus alone. She was surprised by the woman’s poise and calm.  

     “Sometimes, we do things in a certain way for so long that it seems natural.”  

     “There’s nothing natural about what was going on in that barn.”  

     Elizabeth put her arm around Kaybri’s shoulders. “The Lord is showing us another way.” Kaybri looked up to see tears in her eyes to match her own. “He sent you and Noah to us to help us make changes. What you don’t know is that Thomas has been called before the council. When he does, he’ll need to stand before them and explain his actions. For now, he’s doing all of this without the council’s permission. He could be excommunicated and shunned. For Thomas, it will feel like he’s lost a substantial portion of his family. Losing three of our children was hard enough. I don’t know if he can withstand the strain.” 

     “He seems like a strong man.” 

     “He’s not the same man he was ten years ago. Like you, I thought Thomas would clean up the breeding operation and not continue to breed dogs the way his father and grandfather did. He doesn’t have the energy he once had. He’s like a shell of the man I once knew.” 

     Elizabeth and Kaybri sat holding hands until they both had their emotions under control. Kaybri thought of her own mother and remembered that she had not had Elizabeth’s soothing voice and calm disposition. She thought Noah was lucky to have been brought up by a woman who was comforting and caring. Not for the first time, Kaybri wondered how her life would have been different if she’d had a mother like Elizabeth or Dorothy to guide her. 

     Kaybri left Elizabeth and returned to the barn. When she went inside, she found Thomas Stoltzfus swinging a hammer against the wooden slats of the kennels. He seemed both angry and defensive at the same time. Instead of being aggressive, Kaybri quietly asked everyone if they could wear surgical masks and gloves because of the risk of infection. 

     At one o’clock, Autumn arrived with the clinic’s van. With the help of ten members of the Stoltzfus family, the twenty-six surviving dogs were gently loaded into the van. Autumn left and drove to the clinic. Once they arrived, the dogs were unloaded and brought into the clinic by a slew of volunteers. Dorothy had sent out an emergency call on Sunday night to her friends and neighbors to say that their help was needed. Even though it was short notice, dozens of concerned neighbors, including Tandy and Ethan Danzig and Fred Atkins and his daughters, heeded the call. The volunteers spent the entire day bathing the dogs and shaving away matted fur.  

     The next step was to settle the dogs into their new kennels. Some of them had to be carried around because they couldn’t walk. For those that could walk, some couldn’t find their water bowls, having gone blind from living their lives in the dark. Some needed special food because they had lost most of their teeth and had trouble chewing. The volunteers were given schedules so that the dogs were constantly observed. 

     Meanwhile, it took the Stoltzfus family another two weeks to excavate the top six inches of soil and waste. Noah went there every day to lead the effort. Kaybri did some research and found an environmentally safe but potent disinfectant that could be used on the ground, rafters, walls, and columns of the barn.  

     When Noah returned from the farm the day he did the spraying, he told Kaybri his father had asked him if he thought that she would ever forgive him. 

     “And what did you say?” 

     “I said, ‘She will. Time and progress will bring her around.’” 

     “How do you know that?” 

     “That’s exactly what he asked me.” 

     “And what did you say?” 

     “I said, ‘Because she loves me, and she knows that my work and my family are part of who I am.” Noah was blushing as he spoke and sent his gaze everywhere except at Kaybri. 

     “Oh, so you think I love you?” She felt herself smile for the first time that day. “We’ll see about that.”