Thursday, January 24, 2013

Goodbye Pretty Girl & Heartbroken Max

I had to come back into town for barn emergency. In the 2 months that I have been gone for my operation, Pretty Girl's mom has had 3 incidents on the trail with verbally abusive hikers. So she decided to take her away from Max and board her in Burbank. Yesterday was a very sad day for Max. My friend and I(as I am still not allowed to handle him) took him on a walk down the path, and Pretty was walked up the path to the top gate where her hauler was waiting. After a little grass snacks, Max started getting ancy and wanted to go back to be with his girlfriend. As soon as we arrived back home, his ears pricked up-she wasnt there. He had already started getting upset and my friend qwickly slipped his halter off. It was heartbreaking to watch him as he ran in circles screaming for her, working up a sweat. He carried on for a few hours, then running to one side and cried loud and waited to hear a response from her. No response. He ran to a different side of the corral and screamed, stood at attention with pricked up ears. Still no response. It was heartbreaking to watch him experienceing such greif over his loss. The sun set, we got him cooled down, and got him to eat a little, then he would go back to the fence and just watch and wait for her to come back. Shes not coming back. We left to go eat, then I drove myself back alone. Yesterday was the first day I drove my car since my incident at Thanksgiving. That is a great step for me. I just wish it was under better circumstances. Because of the fact that I need to return to Vegas to begin my Physical Therapy for 2 or 3 months, I have made the very difficult decision to move Max an hour north to his trainers Ranch. He will have 8 other horses to play with and 2 acres to run free. During this time I plan to have his feet done, and next month I should be able to afford to have his teeth finally done, and he will be in the best of care with the most wonderful trainers that I have learned alot from. He will return in better shape physically and behavioraly. I pray when I am more healed, I will be able to work with him again, and I intend on bringing him back to Runyon this Spring. Hopefully by Summer I will be allowed to ride again with Doc's approval. I am very torn about Delilah, as they do have a very special bond-especially when she had her leg amputated. I now am left with worrying about no horses being around, and the cyotes coming to get her. I am making efforts to take her with Max for "Spring Boot Camp". I am still waiting to see if this is possible. I would be beside myself if anything happened to her. We WILL be back by Spring. Today is Max's last day and we will be moving him tomorrow. Very sad indeed, as it is all brought about by hikers(guests in our driveway), who refuse to leash their dogs where signs are posted, and yell at us. Yes it IS an active driveway-there is a posted sign for that as well; so I dont understand why people get mad & yell ugliness, when we are creeping at 4 MPH in our own driveway-where we pay to be. Please keep your dogs on leashes. Please dont listen to your ear buds(or your phone) so loud that you cannot hear a car, or a horse on the trail-then you get upset and yell. It is non-sensical & YOU are in the wrong, not us. I dont understand. I thought Runyon was a beautiful place to come and hike, relax, and enjoy the beauty of life. My heart is heavy. Tomorrow there will be a few less beautiful things at Runyon, that so very many people loved to visit so much. I have enjoyed meeting many of you and seeing you on a daily basis. We will miss you greatly. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers, and we will be back. Pretty Girl & Max Runyon Kiss Goodbye 01-23-2013

1 comment:

  1. Those abusive people are probably dog walkers, not hikers so much. We Runyon hikers are pretty consistently peaceful, at least I hope we are! Anyway, I'm sorry that so many dog walkers are disrespectful and refuse to leash their dogs. I've been attacked by vicious dogs a few times myself. Usually, in Runyon, the owner apologizes, in other places they usually start yelling at me for being there. We are talking about arrogant, entitled people here and they are more numerous than they used to be. Terrible that these people's dogs maimed poor Delilah and caused the horses so much stress and wish the city would monitor the dog walkers in the park. Still we hikers really miss Max and Delilah and the other Runyon animal guests and hope they return to better circumstances some day.

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