“Losing Romeo Change my Life Forever” (Continued…)
I loaded Romeo into the trailer and took him to an indoor barn where I could keep an eye on him at all times.
It was the end of November and just going into December, so it was cold and my mom told me to put a hood and blanket on him so he didn’t have to use most of his strength to generate heat. He was doing good for a horse that had part of his skull shattered.
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I remember it like it was yesterday. It was a Wednesday, December 10, 2009. The last day I saw “MY Romeo” alive. I had left school like five minutes early, so I could go and check on him. It was just before the basketball game that I had to cheer, it started.
I walked in the barn and he was laying down. I didn’t think anything of it. I only had like ten minutes to clean his stall out, feed and water him. I had just spend a little time with him. Normally, I would have taken his hood off so he could have a little breathing room while I was cleaning his stall. But, today I didn’t. I put him back in his stall, and I told him I would come up on Saturday and spend all day with him. Since I would not get to see him for the next two days because I was jam packed with cheerleading, school, and other activities.
After that I hugged him and left. Heading back to the school, to get ready to cheer and then get ready for my birthday party, which was the next day.
When I woke up on my birthday I could instantly tell something was wrong. Because my mom and brother were being overly nice and acting really fake, but no one would tell me what was wrong.
I went through the next two days very curious as to why everyone was acting so weird! It was friday night, when I got home I told my mom of my plans to go and spend Saturday with Romeo. And that was when she sat me down and told me what had happened.
Wednesday night after I left Romeo had laid back down and a friend of ours, who was also keeping his horses at the same , noticed that something wasn’t right and called my mom.
My mom went to Romeo right away, loaded him up and took him to the vet. She stayed there all night with him, while the vet found out what had went wrong.
Romeo had developed an infection around the shattered area and the swelling pushed the shattered pieces back towards his brain, putting pressure on it. There was nothing they could do to save him.
It was very early in the morning on December 11, 2009, my 16th birthday, when my mom made the decision to put him down. So, that he would no longer be in pain.
After that she called my brother, who met her at a friends ranch south of New Underwood. To bury him. “My Romeo.”
It wasn’t until two days later, did I find out that if I had taken his hood off when I was cleaning his stall, I would have noticed the swelling and, we might have been able to save him from all the pain he went through.
Have you ever lost a horse that your cared about deeply? Please send us your story here at EveryDayCowgirl.com!
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- “Losing Romeo Changed my Life Forever!” (everydaycowgirl.com)
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I have a folder in my pictures of all of the animals that have blessed my life. I can recall most of the tears shed at their passing. Realizing that it does not coincide with the Christian religion, I still have a hard time thinking that all of the souls of the “Romeo’s” in our life will not, somehow, reconnect on the other side. I’ve never lost a large animal but my sister has and she said it is a whole different sorrow.
Very interesting entry, I look forward to the next! Thx for share
Wow Patty! That is heartbreaking! I just lost my 22 year old mare I had since she was 4. I had sold her to a good friend of mine that was using her as a broodmare and when she colicked, my friend had to make the decision to put her down. She was frantically trying to get hold of me so I could be there, but I didn’t get her message in time. I wasn’t with her when she died.
My friend has offered me one of her last colts — a three year old gelding — and while I need another horse like a hole in the head, I accepted her offer. So I have a little piece of her to carry on!
Life does go on and the tragedies and adversities in our lives are here to teach us about life and ourselves. To appreciate everything we have in the moment because they can be taken from us in the next. We never know what God has in store for us! Thanks for visiting do come back!
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