Day: March 28, 2017

Chloe has been gone for a day or so now, and the farm feels peaceful, the animals have moved on. The donkeys switched feeders with the sheep this morning, perhaps they are reasserting themselves, they did defer to Chloe.

We are not planning on any more visits to Chloe in the near future, she is in good hands with Treasure and Donna, and we are not worried about her.  She needs to move along also, our presence would only be confusing, as I think it was yesterday. She needs to live her life, as we need to live ours.

It’s time to look ahead,  we both are much inclined to look ahead than backwards, and there are so many things we wish to do.

I enjoyed writing about Chloe, my continuing, and sometimes sparky dialogue with my readers is a good thing for me, and I h ope, for them. I learn a lot, and I hope to make people think a lot, however much they disagree. Everything involving animals seems to bring that opportunity, it makes my blog and writing life exciting.

The dialogue via e-mail and social media that I had with my readers and blog followers was both interesting and useful. There were the  usual kinds of responses – good wishes, kind thoughts, useful experiences, much empathy, beautiful and thoughtful messages that really made me think, and then, people disagreeing, people telling me how cruel and un-feelling I am,  telling us things we already know about horses, people reassuring us about things we were not worried about, people tell us what we should be feeling and are feeling, and people offering advice we were not seeking.

A rich tapestry, across the spectrum, I am flattered so many people care about me at all. And I am learning to live with the joys and trials of social media. I guess it would be hard for me to survive without it.

As I wrote yesterday, there is no reason for anyone to be sadder than we are, and we are not especially sad. It was the right thing to do. Chloe could not be going to a better place for her, we did have some kid-goes-to-camp jitters yesterday, they were gone by dinner last night. Every pony should be as lucky as Chloe is, living with Donna and Treasure, we are letting go, not looking for or needing more updates or offering many.

In a couple of weeks, we’ll go see her again, but it will be in a very different context, for her, for us. She will no longer be our pony, but somebody else’s pony. We will be visitors, we will give her some cookies and get on with our demanding and interesting lives. We don’t really need to fuss about it every day.

Chloe does not belong to us any longer, and is no longer really our business. Do not be steal our sadness, we can handle that ourselves.

We have lots to do. I am so grateful for knowing Chloe, horses are amazing creatures, she and the carriage horses and Rocky have changed the way I see the world. Maria can speak for herself, and will. Time for me to keep changing.

Bedlam Farm is an ever-changing landscape, it adapts to the track of our lives and growth and love. If you don’t like change and cannot bear to be around someone with whom you might disagree, this is not the place for you. Lots of people just can’t bear me. Our animals, like us, live very real lives in the real world.

Real life happens here, every single day. This is not the story of the perfect life for them or for us. But it is a pretty damn good one.

We went for an early morning walk today with Red (Fate is limping) and I was suddenly reminded of what is so different and wonderful about my life now. All of a sudden, Maria looked down at her feet and announced, “I’m So Purple Today”, and it is true, she is.

I told her that never in my lengthening life has anyone suddenly announced that they are “so purple today,” or any other color, for that matter. It is uniquely Maria. On any given day, she can be just about any color, although rarely one.

I wanted to get a shot of her in all of her purpleness, but she doesn’t ever pose, so I went to my standard back of tricks and told her there was a baby rabbit in need of help by the side of the road.

She turned quickly, then claimed not to be fooled, so I went to my second favorite trick I said something I can’t repeat  on a family website, and she not only turned, she gave me one of her very wonderful smiles. That one works every time.

The life of the photographer is not simple or pretty.I love Purple Maria, as I love Maria in all of her many incarnations. I am glad I have lived long enough to hear someone I love say “I’m So Purple Today.”

Fate has “come up lame,” as the farmers say, we had to carry her down the stairs this morning from our bedroom, where she sleeps in her crate. She can’t put any pressure at all on  her right front paw and leg, so she was shut out of the pasture and banned from any running or jumping (not a simple task.)

She will spent most of the next day or so her in a crate, where she will have no choice but to rest. We’ve had some cuts and limping before, we are not taking her to the vet as of now. We are giving her baby aspirin, an anti-inflammatory, and we will see what happens.

Border collies often get paw and leg injuries from the mad racing around they do, each trip to the vet tends to run about $400  and there was nothing much they could do, it’s clearly not broken.

So we’ll skip that option for now, and I don’t think it’s necessary. Most of these border collie injuries heal quickly, but we will keep her from running for awhile. I told her she is lucky to be out of her crate at all.

She was heartbroken to have to sit at the gate and watch the sheep, sitting their piteously with  her paw hanging in the air. She’ll get over it.

The Army of Good has helped to rack up another very meaningful victory in the long march – okay, struggle –  ahead. We are not arguing, we are doing good.  The gofundme project for Piper has surpassed its goal. We raised $3,640 as of 3 p.m. Tuesday.

People are so good, given the chance, I loved seeing the small donations pile up, one after another. Piper will get her much needed surgery in Pennsylvania.

Piper, a glorious and hard-working draft horse at Blue Star Equiculture, the draft horse sanctuary and farming center, needs an emergency tooth extraction, he is in great pain, and her tooth is a time bomb.

There people who fight and complain about what is happening in our country now (and people who are happy about it, also), but for me, and clearly for many of you, the task is not to argue, but to do good and support our values.

As social media and all media demonstrate every day, talk is, in fact, quite cheap. You all speak with your hearts and souls. Money too, I have to say, it makes so many things possible.

Everyone has the right to their own values, and we are  demonstrating ours almost every day – in support for animals, for the refugees and their children, for the residents of the Mansion, for the poor and oppressed, for the idea of America as a compassionate, welcoming and generous nation.

I thank you again, as I find myself doing a lot these days. Today, I’m off to Albany with Maria this afternoon to meet with three refugees, hopefully take some photos and earn some trust. I’m bring a big box of Rachel Barlow’s art kits with us, and thanks for your support of her as well.

If the fund should exceed its goal, I can assure you, the money will be put to good use. There are many needs there.

In the meantime, Piper’s surgery is set for Sunday at the George D. Widener Large Animal Hospital in Pennsylvania, where the famed racehorse Barbaro had his surgery in an ultimately unsuccessful effort to save his life. Pamela Richenback of Blue Star scheduled the surgery late Monday, when she felt certain that her gofundme project would be successful.

You are amazing people, I saw so many of your names on the donor list.

Blue Star is important, they are one of the great hopes for the future of domesticated animals, they are the Third Way For Animals, they exist in between the emotionalizing of pets and and the angry and failing ideology of the animal rights movement in the age of animal extinction. That sadly disconnected movement has no real agenda other than to drive animals away from people. Blue Star works every day to keep them with us.

Blue Star is all about giving working animals a role in our greed and amoral world, and also treating animals and the people who love them with dignity and respect. They save these wonderful working animals (they recently rescued an injured Providence, R.I., police horse) and they save people. You can donate here or join their herd.

Thanks so much for helping Piper get healthy and ease her pain.