Old Horses go to heaven.....

....as do old cats.

It's a gloomy, rainy day in Iowa and fitting for the job ahead of us this morning. With the help of our wonderful, young, vet, Lisa, we ended the suffering of our two old horses, Lacey and Spider, and one old cat, Ghost who was blind and incontinent, not a good combination for a house cat.

Ghost was a feral kitten, born to a wild mother in the corn field, she was so pretty, I just had to catch her. Her name came naturally because most people never saw her, she lived upstairs and only ventured to the first floor to eat, drink and use the litter box. 

We all lived in somewhat harmony until the years took their toll, high blood pressure caused her to go blind and soon she began to have accidents in the house. Bruce was not happy when he found wet jeans that he left laying on the floor by his chair or the little 'tootsie rolls' on the kitchen rugs.

Ghost would be okay for awhile but then would start up again, I never looked into cat diapers and put off the inevitable. Because she was such a strange cat, I didn't want to take her out of her safe zone and haul her to the vet's office, upsetting her more. Instead I kept cleaning up after her and didn't tell on her.

I raised both Lacey and Spider from birth, she was 30 and he was 29 in April. This is Heather riding their mother, Missy, leading baby Lacey, in the Whiting 4th of July parade.

Lacey was the horse anyone could ride, Christine and little Sophia, are riding in the round pen in our front pasture.

Spider taught little Kaiza to ride....

....Bruce found us on a ride through the pond and took this picture. Both horses were so strong and beautiful then.

Just three years ago, when we hosted the French family from CA, Spider and Lacey proved to be trusty mounts for Ian and Annie.

But age began to take a toll on both horses, they had bad teeth that made it hard to process grain and I was fortunate to find a distributor for senior horse feed at a reasonable price. It did wonders for them both and it seemed like they would live forever. But, of course, that was not to be, they both slowly began to go downhill, ribs and hipbones jutting starkly from their now dull coats. 

Two days ago Lacey started walking in circles in her stall, banging into the walls and it was obvious something was seriously wrong. I knew that Spider wouldn't get any better either and didn't want to go through this again in another few months or so.

Nephew Brian came with his backhoe and dug a grave on the top of the hill pasture where they spent a lot of time, Lisa came and did her job with compassion and efficiency, they truly do go to sleep. 

Anytime you give your heart away, whether it is to a human or animal, you can be assured at some point it will be broken. This was a hard decision to make but I know they are at peace and out of pain and I can live with that.

I picture Lacey and Spider once again young and strong, galloping across a green pasture, as for Ghost, I hope she is back in that corn field with her other wild siblings, living the good life.