- Elaine the Not So Wild Mustang died today.
-
- Her front leg problems have been slowly and steadily
breaking her down. Over the years the gentle little horse had many bouts
with laminitis, a hoof condition that often proves fatal. Always, she managed
to survive. To bear the pain until it lifted.
-
- For the past week, though, Elaine was in pain so great
that not even Bute, the horse wonder drug, could alleviate it. All Elaine
could do was stand still or slowly drag herself to food. And I mean slowly.
It took her thirty minutes to stiff-leg herself thirty feet. The pain from
the laminitis and bone spurs she'd been developing over the twenty years
since she was born wild in the Nevada desert was evident in every ragged
breath along the way.
-
- J.L., the Big Animal Vet, and his wife, L.J. (yes, they
compliment each other as perfectly as their names), came up to The Mountain
this morning to examine Elaine while Huck the Spotless Appaloosa and Rosie
the New Girl in Town looked on.
-
- Elaine's always been very chary about relaxing around
humans, but outside of Dan the Farrier her favorite human is L.J. L.J.
held Elaine while J.L. tried to examine her feet, but the pain was too
great for the mustang to let them be touched.
-
- J.L. gave her a sedative, and, in his wife's arms, Elaine
slowly sank to the ground to doze on her side. Gwen the Beautiful sat down
beside her and cradled Elaine's head, and J.L. scraped the mud from the
bottom of Elaine's hooves so he could get a good look.
-
- Only there was nothing good about it.
-
- "See the abscesses?" he said. "How tender
she is here? And here? Look at the hoofline."
-
- "It looks like a human foot in a shoe," I said.
- "That's because her toe has changed position. It's
growing out the wrong way."
-
- "What can you do for her?" Gwen said.
-
- "Nothing," he said. He looked stricken, as
though he was about to cry. "I won't tell you to put her down. That
wouldn't be fair. But I'll suggest you consider the option.
-
- "Right now, Elaine's in the worst sort of pain,"
J.L. continued. "Except that as bad as it is it'll still increase.
She'll suffer more. She won't eat. Finally she'll lie down and you won't
be able to get her up again. You'll call me and ask me to come back and
wish you'd made the decision today."
-
- I looked at Gwen, who was crying. She managed a nod.
I went over to Huck and Rosie, who were standing side by side, the closest
they'd been since Rosie got here.
-
- "You heard the man," I said. "What do
you think?"
-
- "She loves me," Huck said. "She's afraid
to be anywhere I'm not."
-
- "She'll still be here," Rosie said. "Just
in another way."
-
- "Just so she's not afraid."
-
- I wrapped my arms around Huck's neck so no one could
see my tears and went back to the others. "Bye, Elaine," I said.
And, together with Gwen, "I love you."
-
- J.L. injected her again. Elaine breathed lightly, then
blew the way she did when she was really enjoying her food. Then stopped.
-
- It was over.
-
- Almost immediately, it started to rain. Gwen stayed out
with Elaine and the others while I went inside to find a neighbor with
a backhoe so we could bury Elaine as quickly as possible.
-
- After two phone calls the Reverend Fred up the road hooked
us up with Vance, a young construction type. Two and hours later Vance
was digging beside Elaine and then using the backhoe to nudge her body
into the hole so he could cover it over.. The entire process took about
an hour, and Huck and Rosie stood right beside me the whole time. Nothing
could make them go away.
-
- After Vance left, Huck and Rosie stood exactly where
the hole had been, their heads bowed. Stayed that way for almost an hour.
-
- I decided to feed the horses early. Gwen and I carted
over some hay. Huck and Rosie came to eat it togethersharing as they'd
never shared before. Suddenly they stopped, whirling and staring at the
woods at the far end of the corral.
-
- "What's the matter?" I said.
-
- "Can you see her out there?" Huck said. "Can
you see Elaine running?"
-
- "She's running like the wind," Rosie said.
-
- The rain kept on.
-
- So did Elaine.
-
-
- Copyright C 2007 by Larry Brody. All rights reserved.
-
- Author Larry Brody's weekly column, LIVE! FROM PARADISE!
appears on his website, www.larrybrody.com. He has written thousands of
hours of network television, and is the author of "Television Writing
from the Inside Out" and "Turning Points in Television."
Brody is Creative Director of The Cloud Creek Institute for the Arts, the
world's first in-residence media colony. More about his activities can
be seen on www.tvwriter.com and www.cloudcreek.org. He welcomes your comments
and feedback at <mailto:LarryBrody@cloudcreek.org>LarryBrody@cloudcreek.org.
Brody, his wife and their dogs, cats, horses and chickens live in Marion
County, Arkansas. The other residents of the mythical town of Paradise
reside in his imagination.
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