Not so Good Day

The day after I posted my "Good Day" post, our 8 year old horse Skipper passed away. He was given to us as a wedding present when he was just a yearling. When Owen was old enough to understand, we "gave" him to Owen, thinking he could use him to rodeo or hunt off or whatever.

It was super sad. It was a rainy muddy day, and he must have slipped and fell - and cut his hind leg on a big pipe. It cut his tendon all the way through, which caused an enormous amount of blood loss, and no use of his hind leg at all. I was just pulling up to the temple when I got the phone call, and all of T's supplies to doctor him were in the truck I was driving. So I turned around and sped all the way home. Turned out we didn't need any supplies. He was going to have to be put down.

I don't want to forget the details, but I don't feel great about writing them down either. It was just sad to see him in so much pain. We went out to the field and gave him a couple carrots and said our goodbyes (all of us) and left him in the field for T to take away. I cried and cried and cried.

Owen was sad, but so innocent and naive at the same time. He was content when we told him that he was going to live with Jesus, and that Grandpa Allred and Grandpa Nelson were going to now have a horse to ride up in heaven! He giggled and said that was ok, as long as he could ride him when he got to heaven.

Anna was distraught - I think mainly because mommy was upset. She rambled on and on in her little language. I just caught words here and there about "ipper" "died" etc.

Anyway, we're glad he is out of pain and now happily running in his green field with all the food he could ever want!

Charlie (our hound dog) also had her pups. She had 10 total, and we are down to 4 as of tonight. Three were dead when I went out first thing in the morning on the 31st of May. Since then, 3 more have died. I have tried to revive 2 of them, because I found them while they were still warm. It has not been fun. More tears!

Anna has been so cute, and helped me wrap them up and told them "sorry puppy" and told me that she would be their mommy. I will post pics when I can. We are trying to figure out now whether to keep the pups with their mom, or separate them. Being a first time mom, we think she's just accidentally lying on them. So sad & ironic. She is trying to protect them, keep them warm, etc... and ends up killing them.

Thanks for listening! I needed to write this down because I don't want to forget about these darling little puppies and also Skipper.