We Will Miss You, Sweet Girl

Last year my friend Bennett brought Midnight and Jewel to live with Abbey at his farm. Midnight was the type that just went catatonic if she couldn't deal with what was happening to her, and when she got there she was like that a lot. You could hardly touch her, she wouldn't look at you, never really responded to anything. One day when Brandon was at the farm she seemed to take an interest in him, and Bennett had told me that she used to let kids ride her all the time, so my guess was that she had a lot more confidence around kids, that they wouldn't mistreat her. So Brandon came out to the farm pretty regularly last year and he spent a lot of time standing near her but facing away from her, waiting for her to get enough confidence to approach.

She came a LONG, LONG way. She not only let herself be touched, even haltered, but lately started seeking human contact and following me around like a puppy when I went to feed. She got really attached to Bran but he hasn't had a lot of time to come to the farm lately and hadn't been there for months and months.

Last week he came to help me haul some water for the herd when the weather was bad, and when she saw him she RAN to him, nickering "It's you!!" It was one of the most touching things I'd ever seen. The next day when he came again (the day that picture was taken), she followed us all over, and when we left she followed us all the way back to the car, and the rest of the herd followed behind her.

I didn't realize she was saying goodbye. This morning Bennett found her curled up in a pile of hay, and she'd breathed her last. A month or so ago when the weather got bad he'd found her down and she wouldn't get up, so we thought she might not last the winter, but she'd been so full of energy recently. I personally think she was waiting to say her last goodbye, to Bran, and then she was ready to go.

Enjoy the green fields wherever you have gone, my sweet friend. You will be missed.