Paisley wasn’t a hunting dog, but when I lost her a few months ago, it hurt as much as it did when I lost my retriever Cricket years ago. I didn’t realize I could bond that strongly to a dog that didn’t hunt with me, but there you go.
And losing Paisley was extra hard, as well, because it was shortly on the heels of losing both my horse and my wife’s barrel horse. It was like a triple-whammy. But then, a few weeks later, we lost the barn cat. Yes, it was just a cat, and a barn cat, at that. But Izzy wasn’t your typical barn cat. He hung out by the front door for scratches and attention, and he went out to feed the horses with me every morning. He may have been a cat, but he was one of the best dogs we’ve ever had.
The ol’ Bobwire-S Ranch was getting pretty short on animals at that point. We were down to my wife’s new barrel horse, the foal who will hopefully someday be a barrel horse, and my Golden Retriever. And as hard as my wife and I were taking the losses of those four-leggers, the dog seemed to be even more depressed than both my wife and I put together.
So we got Copper a puppy. It’s only a temporary puppy – he’s another Golden, but he’s a future service dog, so we’re only raising him for his first year. But it’s exactly what Copper needed to get his spirits up again. And truth be told, he’s been a big help to Amy and me, too.
But we didn’t stop there. We also got a couple of kittens to help keep the mouse population down in the barn and to keep the horses company.
But then we accidentally bought me a new horse of my own, too.
So if I look a little tired lately, I am. But I’m happy to be tired for these reasons. The dog has a puppy, and two of the horses each have a cat. I don’t think my new horse needs a kitten, though. But I think maybe he needs a puppy.
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