Thunderwolf Ranch

Our loss and an up date

We have had a few animals pass away. On June 20th we lost Beauty our 15 yr old daughters horse to colic and her baby goat T. K. was killed by a dog ( not ours). Our girls went to visit grandma at the river on June 18, it was just hubby and I. We had a blast until the 20th of June when we went to feed the animals  my hubby found T.K. I started crying, he was so cute and sweet! I go over to the barn to get a trash can to put him in it until we can bury him after we feed. I did not like the other animals looking at him and then to me , it was like fix him. I put him in the trash can I go back to the barn to get a shovel and I peak in on Beauty and she was down! Ok, I think she is still sleeping. I go in her stall and call her she wont move. I go behind her and push her, trying to get her up, no luck. I yell for hubby to get me a halter, I am crying even more, hubby comes with the halter and says she is just stuck on her bad hip. I put the halter on her and pull and call her to get her up, no luck. I am even crying harder now. I give hubby the lead and run out of the barn to get a small stick to tap her with, I return and hubby pulls while I push and tap. Beauty gets up, she is so bloated!! I am crying way to hard at this time, saying not Beauty over and over. We get her out of the barn I tell hubby to walk her and keep her head up while I call the vet. I call the vet he can't come, he says to bring her in. I go to the house to get the hitch hubby keeps walking her. I take over walking her he hooks up the trailer we load her and off we go. The vet is only 4 miles away. We get there the vet looks at her and says it might be to late already, here I am crying so hard I am shaking and saying over and over again not Beauty. The vet asks us to hose off her belly so he can do a test. Hubby says to not give up on her, I tell him I having been praying non stop.  The does his testing and tells us her small bowel is twisted,he asked how old she is I say 16yrs, when we got her almost 10 yrs ago she was a year older than our baby , her mommy, The vet says no she is closer to 30!!. He tells us there is a 10% chance she will live through the surgery to see if she can be saved. I tell hubby we have to try I can't tell the baby we did not try, he agrees, then he says to call her at grandmas to see if grandmas cell phone is working where they are at the river, we both look in our phones we do not have grandmas cell number. I call my sister-in-law cry so bad she think it was about hubby getting hurt, hubby gets on the line we get the number. We try the house 1st hoping they are home still and have not left for the river yet. He calls the house and they are home, I am with Beauty in the exam room they are preparing her for surgery , hubby walks out and away to talk to the baby. He is talking her then he comes over with tears in his eyes and gives me the phone. I break down this is my baby hurting so bad a state away I can't fix it or hold her, the pain I felt and still do over that was so much. The baby asks me what should I do? by then the vet was waiting on us. I tell her I do not know. She asks to talk to the vet, I go to give the vet the phone I tell him she is 15 yrs old and has been in college vet classes she will understand him. He looks at me shocked I tell him she was raised around horses and started riding on race horses when she was 3 years old, looks at me like are you nuts, I tell him I will tell him how she got started later. The baby and the vet talk for a few minutes then he gives me the phone, she is still lost as what to do, she knows Beauty only has a 10% of living through the surgery and knows she is suffering, but she can't let her go. We talk more , she talks to the vet again and makes the most hard choice a best friend ever has to make for another best friend, she decides to let her go home to God. We are both crying so hard, I tell her I will kiss her good-bye for her and stay. My girls and I believe that no one should die alone or with strangers so we stay and keep loving them while they go home. Yes, it is hard on us, but we want them to feel love and know they are loved and we will not leave them.I tell the vet the baby's choice he agrees with her, I ask for all her hair on her tail and main they cut it off ever so nice and tell me while they are doing this that it is the right choice for Beauty. Hubby tries to walk me away I tell him no! I have to stay! He walks off I walk Beauty for the last time to the spot, I ask the vet again if this is the right choice he says yes, she would never make it, if she did live through the surgery she will not live through recovery. I say ok, He asked me to step back I did but not tp far, Beauty goes down I go to her they tell me to back up because she might kick, I said no, I went and sat by her head I rubbed her head and kissed her over and over, I told her to stop fighting to go home, I told her this because earlier I told her she had to fight for her little mommy. I kept patting her and kissing her tell her how much we all love her and how she was the best horse any one could want. I tell her to go play with Desi (a baby mustang we lost 2 yrs ago) to go bite her but and run off! I told her that because that is how they played. I told her to say hi to Dream and Bossie , but don't let them boss her around too much. We lost Bossie then Desi and then Dream 2 years ago in a week and a half. I kept patting her and kissing her telling her how much her mommy loves her and wished she was here. Beauty went home a few moments later. We went inside and did the paper work, hubby turned the truck around, I went to give her more kisses and to say good-bye again. We left. I called the baby to let here know Beauty went home to God and while we are talking about going home to God I told her dogs killed T.K. too. The baby screamed and said could this day get any worse. I told her we wanted her to know all in the same day so she can mourn both at the same time. The rest of the week was shot. Hubby and I worked on the house. We both we dreading the baby coming home and seeing Beauty's stall empty. We decide to put the rest of the goats in Beauty's stall to keep the dogs away. When the baby got home she saw beauty's hair she was happy and sad. We went out to feed she saw the goats in beauty's stall and was happy they were safe. The baby did ok with the stall, it is still a process we are going through daily. But a surprise on Sunday morning helped. I will tell about that next time.

Here is a link to see beauty's picture, Beauty is the bay.

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f256/smmagers/mia_and_ranchanimals_a_few_month-1.jpg">Beauty

Thank you and God bless all.