We lost a part of the family yesterday and I thought writing about it might be therapeutic for me. I was at work when my wife called to tell me that a veterinarian had been called out to the stables to euthanize Annie, our horse. As I’ve mentioned here before, Annie was 27 and had been having problems with arthritis in her joints and so we stopped using her for Krystal’s 4-H competitions. Charlie, where we had been stabling her was kind enough to care for her and let her stay there free and she earned her keep by giving rides to kids on the weekends. We have been looking for horse property off and on in the hopes that we could move her and the horse we are leasing out to our own place. Well, this past week she just got so bad that she didn’t even want to get up to eat. Charlie and Grace were taking food and water out to her so she could eat since it was so difficult for her to stand. I guess Friday was especially bad, so the decision was made to end her suffering.
Charlie called Kris to let her know the vet was due to arrive at three. She called to let me know and said she was on the way to Krystal’s school so they could both go out to say goodbye. Now, you need to know that I purposely tried not to get to close to Annie because ever since she was given to us, I figured I would have to be the one to put her down. I guess I was too ignorant to think a vet would be called to do it. Little did I know how much she means to me. When I called the school to ask them to get Krystal out of class, I couldn’t even verbalize the reason without starting to cry. I had to compose myself and call a second time to get them to understand what was going on. Then to embarrass myself even more, I started to cry when I went into my boss’ office to ask to leave work early. Hell, I’ve even had to stop writing this a couple times in order to compose myself enough to continue. Sometimes, no matter how much you try not to, you just can’t help but fall in love with your critters.
I arrived at the stables first to find the vet had already done his job and was leaving. I called Kris to let her know so they wouldn’t come on out, but they both insisted on seeing Annie one last time. It was hard to keep it together after they showed up, but you know sometimes you have to be strong for your girls. One of the hardest things I’ve ever done is to watch my daughter saying her goodbyes to the ole girl.
Annie was eleven days shy of her twenty eighth birthday. She was born Louisa Nubar, March 30, 1982, and came into our lives on March 15th, 2008. She was registered with the American Quarter Horse Association
We loved her and will always remember her loving nature. Please keep her and our family in your prayers.
