Ilse Peterson

Ilse Peterson is a veterinarian at the Quincy Veterinary Clinic whose decisive role in the story is to treat Rex after the dog is badly injured. Young but assured, she combines exacting surgical skill with direct, practical care. Her clinic becomes the setting for a reversal in Ben Givens’s journey: instead of dying in the sage country as he had intended, he finds himself washing for surgery and helping her save his dog.

Identity and Introduction

Ben first sees Ilse Peterson kneeling in the parking lot, examining Rex. He judges her to be not yet thirty, and notices her sturdy hands, thick glasses, and farmgirl appearance. Her country-direct manner and unhesitating focus suggest experience, even though he also senses a private youthfulness beneath her professional composure. She notices Ben’s blackened eye but does not pause to ask about it; her attention stays on the dog until Rex has been treated. That prioritization establishes her way of working: personal conversation can wait when a patient needs immediate care.

The clinic’s business card names her as a doctor of veterinary medicine and describes the practice as dedicated and caring. Its orderly, well-lit rooms contain an aquarium of angelfish, a caged canary, veterinary pamphlets, and practical notices about pet care. The surroundings give her work a distinctly everyday setting: this is a working clinic, not a dramatic operating suite detached from community life. Ben imagines that she grew up among the Petersons scattered across the plateau, in a family and region shaped by farms, dams, and fruit and potato growing. He further guesses that she rode horses as a child and persisted in her childhood ambition to become a veterinarian after the romance of the idea gave way to hard work. These are Ben’s conjectures, not confirmed details of her biography; what he can observe directly is her competence and the trust it inspires in him.

Treating Rex

Ilse assesses the scale of Rex’s injuries and explains the practical demands of treatment: she will need to anesthetize him, establish IV support, and resuture extensive wounds. She estimates two or three hours of work and a cost of $150 to $300, and requires Ben’s consent. When he insists on staying, she accepts the help, telling him it will get Rex off the table sooner. Her frankness makes the stakes and obligations clear without turning the exchange into ceremony.

In the operating room, Ilse directs a careful sequence. With Ben holding Rex, she administers ketamine and Valium, places a catheter in the dog’s cephalic vein, and sets up the IV. Ben helps keep Rex’s mouth open while she inserts and secures an endotracheal tube, then connects him to oxygen and isoflurane and adjusts the anesthesia while watching the meters. She invites Ben to administer Keflin through the IV; she gives Rex butorphanol for pain. Her delegation is measured: she checks his work and, as their cooperation proceeds, settles into a basic trust in him.

Ilse evaluates the wounds, removes the field stitches, and recognizes that Ben’s one-handed suturing has nevertheless kept most dirt out. She irrigates the injuries, checks for debris, and cleans them before closing them. She and Ben discuss stitching methods and choose a mattress pattern. Ben watches her place the sutures with precise turns of the wrist, smooth tension, and close attention to the skin’s lay; she makes small adjustments to avoid dimples and wrinkles. She also places a Penrose drain, closes the subcutaneous tissue and skin, and treats wounds at Rex’s shoulder blades and throat. Her work is vigorous but unhurried, combining technical judgment with patient tidiness.

Working with Ben Givens

The operation changes Ben’s role from anxious owner to surgical assistant. He tells Ilse he was in a car wreck the previous day, but she postpones hearing the long story until later and gets on with the immediate work. Ben removes his field jacket, washes his hands, and feels excitement as he prepares to assist. It has been nineteen months since he last operated—then on a human heart—and he reflects on the strangeness of scrubbing for surgery when he had expected to be dead in the sage country. Ilse does not cause this return to medical work by herself, but her practical invitation gives his expertise a place to act.

Their collaboration rests on complementary knowledge rather than a reversal of roles. Ben contributes medical experience and steadiness with instruments and medication; Ilse remains responsible for veterinary assessment, anesthesia, and the repair. He admires her skill and tells her she is an accomplished doctor. She responds matter-of-factly that caring for animals can be harder for a doctor than for a veterinarian, given how much people love their dogs. The exchange acknowledges the emotional weight of the work without distracting from Rex’s treatment.

Recovery and Narrative Significance

After the operation, Ilse gives Ben antibiotics and pain medication for Rex, explains that the dog will stay overnight with her, and sets out a clear recovery plan. Rex needs thorough rest, the drains should come out in forty-eight hours, and the staples can be removed by Ben’s veterinarian in Seattle after they return home. She specifies that the antibiotic course should be completed, limits exercise for ten days, and advises no hunting for a while. With luck, she says, Rex may hunt birds again around Thanksgiving; when Ben insists that the dog lives to hunt, she suggests that Ben may be projecting his own desire onto him, while estimating that Rex could be hunting again in about six weeks.

Ilse’s significance lies in the combination of precise professional care and practical human exchange. She treats Rex as a patient whose wounds, anesthesia, infection risk, and recovery all require attention, while allowing Ben to help without surrendering her own judgment. The scene also makes medical work a source of renewed purpose for Ben: the man who had planned to die instead uses his hands in an operating room. Ilse’s steady competence is not a cure for his crisis, but it helps convert a moment of impending loss into one of care, cooperation, and the possibility of Rex’s return to the field.