Goodbye my old friend – I will miss you more than you know!

***The promised “Vacation Photo Challenge” pictures will be posted tomorrow please come back to vote – I will be sending 2 prizes out!

Last night somewhere around 11:00 my beloved Needles drew her last breath as Jim and I sat beside her talking about all the wonderful times we have had together I remembered the day I fell in love with that old bag of bones and how crazy a “weekend” it really has been.

I was twelve years old and too big for my little white pony and so it was time to find a horse – we were on limited funds which meant we were more creative than most ($600 – I still remember thinking that my mom loved me a LOT to spend her $600 in savings to get me a new horse) I looked at a large pony with one eye named chief but although he did everything I asked I just didn’t love him, and then we went to look at Bum a HUGE chestnut standardbred and although I loved how big he was and beautiful the vet said no he had heaves (horsey (heehee) asthma). There were many others the unremarkable ones – those that were meant to share someone else’s lives and hearts but not mine…

We got a call that there was a soon to be rescue in the forest and we could go look at her before they called someone to come and dispose of her, Mom and Robyn said yes I said NO (I didn’t want anybody else’s trash), I literally went there kicking and screaming. We walked down the muddy slope and Robyn and the animal control officer of the town walked by one horse and towards the barn, I looked at the horse they had just passed by and started talking to it – the poor thing was up past her knees in mud and was a skinny tiny eared little beast… She walked right up to me, and I couldn’t get over the gentleness of her eyes and the patient sweet face, mom was right behind me and I looked up at her and told her I loved this horse – that this was the feeling I was waiting for and I didn’t want to see the horse inside the barn I wanted THIS ONE – she needed me and I needed her! Sadly, mom nudged me towards the barn and for every step I took the skinny horse took the same step with me with each step I fell more and more in love! When the ACO and Robyn saw what was happening they laughed and said “I guess we don’t have to get some grain to get the horse to come to Joy” and my eyes welled with tears when I realized that THIS was the horse we had come to see the one who had already stolen my heart. In short order we learned that she hadn’t been fed in months and was eating sheep’s manure for it’s nutrients and that was all that was keeping her alive – when the person bought the house for some reason the horse had come with it and they were afraid of horses and actually called her a kid killer. The mud in her pen stole my boot when I went to hug her and was well taller than my knees – she hadn’t been allowed any shelter in the time they had owned the house and that mud was her day in and out companion. Robyn got her out of the “pasture” and brought her to me – I was in love I put a gentle leg over her skinny beyond words back and was happily sitting on my BFF a position that for the next 21 years was my safety net. A week later we were FINALLY able to pick her up and bring her home EVERYBODY was convincing me that it was just for the weekend and that then we would put her to sleep on Monday but she would die in a place that she was loved… I knew better I knew that she would indeed die in a place that she was loved but it would be a lifetime first… And it has been! Thank you Needles for giving me the best that you were, thank you for making me into the best that I can be… And last night? I kept my promise, you died surrounded by those who love you (including Robyn who promises me that God lets horses into Heaven and you and Mom are finally going on that long awaited ride) I love you – goodbye my old friend!