A Puppy and Some Ponies

So, um yes, if you read my last post you know that I was in need of some lifting up and not all of it by my own dang bootstraps. I needed something tangible, more than thoughts, to affirm to myself that life does indeed conspire towards happiness. First, let me say that I am doing better on the newest drug regime and fingers crossed that we can stay in that safe zone. But, in the aftermath of that drug-induced broken-down period, I find myself with a whole lot of want — for expansion, for distraction, for more ways to live in love.

The Universe jumped right on that one.

We started by fostering Journey and Bitsy,  two miniature horses safely in rescue with Howey Horse Haven, but in need of trust-building and training to help them become adoptable. Journey is blind in one eye and both Journey and Bitsy are nervous about people and especially about being trapped or confined.

I am having the most amazing time with my sister, Kim, working with these two little ones. Kim is not a “horse person”, but she is a kind and nurturing soul and that works like magic.

I am in awe of Teresa and her daughter, Katie, who run Howey Horse Haven, but they have been swamped with high-need cases this year, including another recent bunch of unhandled, neglected miniature horses, all of which you can read about here.  Now, we have plenty to do working with Journey and Bitsy, but one little fellow in that new bunch of minis caught our eye. Pudge is a dwarf miniature horse, somewhere over a year old. Pudge and the horses he came in  with were extremely neglected and the curse of that fell particularly hard on Pudge because of his condition. The Rescue has worked diligently to meet his immediate needs, but Pudge has other medical concerns that were daunting. So we thought we would foster him, too.

We started fund-raising for Pudge and have been overwhelmed by the truly astounding  generosity and caring response from the folks in our lives. It’s the kind of thing that cracks a person’s heart wide open and lets love just gush right out. Pudgie is settling into his new digs with us.

He misses his old friends, but seems to be enjoying his new adventure. He is scheduled for a surgical consultation this Monday. If all goes well, he will have surgery Tuesday. We are all rooting for him. We are all nervous wrecks. You see, it takes about a nanosecond to fall in love with Pudge. He is spunky and sweet, all in one package.

But, wait! That’s not all! Somewhere in the midst of this fostering frenzy, a call came from the Wheaten Rescue asking if we could foster a three month old puppy. Well, heck, yeah! Ryder was hand-delivered to us last weekend, courtesy of the great volunteers of the Rescue and has brought a whole new level of energy and enthusiasm to our lives.

Ryder was in full puppy coat and cute as a dickens when he came. We tried, we honestly tried, to keep him clean. But this happened:

Which lead to this:

Which finally led to this:

Ryder is a happy, sometime tentative little puppy, but every day showing more  confidence about how to navigate life with humans, horses, and other dogs.

I sometimes think my wiring is more amenable to the wanting of something than it is the having of it. I say that now from an awareness of how much having has smacked me up full in the face here. Wanting is orderly. It exists in your head and is packaged in bows. Having is messy and requires a lot of paper toweling. I have lost my mind thinking that twenty-three animals (yes, that is how many we are sharing life with right now) is exactly the right solution to my drug-induced vertigo. Except that it is. I am drunk with the voluptuousness of it all and oh, so grateful for the conspiring ways of the Universe that made it happen.

Journey and Bitsy and Pudge are looking for forever homes through Howey Horse Haven. Ryder is looking for his forever home through Florida Wheaten Rescue.  If you live in Florida and think you might need more having in your life, check out either of these fine non-profits. There is always room for one more….right?