Run and not Grow Weary

Waylin, a.k.a. Slim, the horse didn't make it. Months of starvation took its toll, and he was just too weak. He died in relative comfort, covered with warm blankets, and a blanket under his head. HCF felt the enormous expense trying to save him was worth it, for the death he would have suffered in his previous home would probably have entailed the owner's dogs eating Waylin's freezing body while alive and the chickens pecking his eyes out. Since I know there are horses in heaven, I like to think of him racing the surf in a sleek and restored body. (I am not sure about "surf" in heaven but I sure hope there is because I love the ocean. However, I pray sharks have their own heaven.)

Meanwhile, HCF struggles on to try to feed, train, and shelter the hundred other animals they have on little money in the frigid, global warming arctic air that has settled over the southeast. Cowboy, their dog that is entered in the Bissell contest only needs about 450 votes to overtake the leader. If everyone reading this blog has their kid tell their class and all their friends to vote for Cowboy today, I bet he could at least beat out the hedgehog that is ahead of him. http://mvp.bissell.com/mvp_PetDetail.aspx?id=8589937301

Our dog, that HCF helped us rehabilitate, vicious when we found her, is snoozing in her lime green shirt that Asherel made for her. Soft and feminine ruffles replace the frost that likely lined her ruff in the year she was alone and starving, dumped in the country to fend for herself. Without HCF, she would have been euthanized or died alone in the wild, like Waylin- a bag of bones. We had no idea how to help her overcome her strong and understandable fear aggression. Within minutes, HCF taught us what to do, and Honeybun went on to win first place in her first agility contest, loose in a ring surrounded by dogs and people, joyfully following Asherel's commands. Honeybun's transformation is why I became a board member at HCF.

I am an animal lover. I know not everyone is, and that is more incomprehensible to me than people who think communism is a great ideal, just imperfect in its execution. So I wanted to write something light-hearted and funny today, but I just could not. I may lose followers since there is already enough grief in everyone's life. They don't need mine. But there is a happy message, a spiritual message even. There are people like Nicole and Gene in the world; people who will hold the head of a dying horse on their lap, spending money they can ill afford to spend, to ease his last hours on earth. That is the heart and soul I value.