Animal friends

Two animals raised me, and trained me. Yes, my parents raised me, but I didn't respect them until much later. My sister had much to teach me, as did my grandparents who lived just down the road. But I didn't take in those lessons until much later. I'm a bit of a slow learner, I've found out.

Feather, my mare, and Smoky the dog though, I learned from daily. Maybe I could take it in because I thought I was the trainer! When we got Smoky, it was from someone who had to get rid of him because he had bit a child through the fence, as I recall. I never saw evidence of meanness though. He had not been taught to walk on a leash, sit, or other commands, which I did teach him. What I know now, is that developing the discipline to train a dog, also trains a child.

So later, when Feather came into my life, I was developing the discipline that helped me care for her at the end of her pregnancy and when Quill was born. I even was able to train Quill for awhile, until his testosterone became overpowering and I became scared to trust him.

That was when I convinced my dad that he had to be gelded. I remember the day well. After the vet gave him a shot, I held him by the halter as his eyes slowly glazed over, and he sank to the ground. They quickly cut his scrotal sac, and pulled out the testicles. They used steel nippers to cut the connection, and then quickly sewed up the sac, although I don't recall that part. I think by then I was just petting his neck.

Soon enough, he regained consciousness, and was able to walk back to the pasture. And I was able to continue training him first on the ground, then to the saddle, and eventually able to sit on his back and then ride him. Eventually Quill became my dad's horse, taking him on many trail rides in the mountains, and hunting trips.

Feather was an experienced horse, and seemingly could do anything I asked her to do. The more we rode together, the more we trusted one another, until I could ride her bareback in the field with no reins, and not even a rope to the halter.

As I went through tough times emotionally in my young teens, especially when my grandfather (Thomas Cowan, my father's father) died, I felt that Feather and Quill were my only friends, and closer than family. That was not true, but as my thoughts and feelings roiled, I felt I could say anything to them, and they would understand, and still love me. This is one of the things that animal companions give to us: unconditional love. Sometimes it is hard to give that to other humans, so I have so often been thankful to give it, and receive it from Brandy, Smoky, Feather, Jet, Rhys, Mollie, and Lilly. Alice? maybe. :-)