Cherokee

[SusanLR]

So sorry to hear about this.
You'll always remember and love her. Bless.

 

[Ken]

I have mentioned this several times on this forum; all of my best friends in all my life were not of the human species. When I say "best friends", that is actually a gross understatement. I am now 73 years old and all of my (non human) friends were real true friends. Don't remember ever having a human true friend.

I now suffer a tragic PTSD due to my friends deaths. They were all closer to me than any member of my family. They truly loved me and I them. We spent many hours every day just hanging out, enjoying each others company. My PTSD is due to discovering what the term "live stock" meant. That's about all I am able to say without totally loosing it.

But, I know that a horse friend, at least in my view is an absolute true, loving friend.

 

[Crossbreed]

I am sorry for your loss.

 

[FayetheADHDsquirrel]

Another thing I loved about her was her little dance. She was supposed to be a mix of Quarter Horse and Arabian. She had the little feet skittering dance like the Arabian horses do.

 

[FayetheADHDsquirrel]

She was such a prankster. Sometimes I would sit on the edge of the water trough while she drank and she would hold water in her mouth and spit it out on my head or try to push me into the trough. Once, when I needed to check one of her hooves, she would not lift it. I told her to " give me a hoof". Note my poor choice of wording in saying a hoof. Pretty as could be she held up the hoof opposite the one that I was trying to look at. I would pick at her too. Once, I pretended not to recognize her and asked my Mama's horse, Socks, who Cherokee was. She was puzzled and I let her know that I knew who she was so her feelings wouldn't be hurt. Then I proceeded to clean the barn. When I scooped the poop, I held up the scoop and looked puzzledly at the poop in it and asked " Who are you ? You look like horsey poo poo!" She thought I had lost it. She put noses together with Socks and they did that nose to nose communication that horses do. Another time, I asked her if I was crazy and she literally nodded "yes". We both had a bit of jokesterish energy that kinda bounced off each other perfectly, yet she could be so sweet and gentle enough so that I could balance on my knees on her back or crawl between her hooves.

 

[FayetheADHDsquirrel]

 

[FayetheADHDsquirrel]

I miss Cherokee.
I miss Socks.
I miss walking the fence or even getting to take a walk outside at all.
My Mama and I don't have a pasture to go to now as well as losing both horses.
If my Dad is home I can't hardly take the dogs out without him standing at the door watching or something. Going to the pasture used to give us a break from that.
I don't feel free to go walking or do photography in the yard or anything.
I feel like I am being more and more restricted and it is all being put off as me choosing to not do anything because of autism routines and such when I am actually feeling quite stir crazy.
My horse being dead doesn't make me suddenly love football and such. I never liked it before I had worked a job, saved up my money, and bought Cherokee either. Why would her death make me a sudden carbon copy of him when I wasn't before? I had more freedom as a child than I do now. I could play in the backyard as long as I didn't take off somewhere else. I could play pretend or swing on my rope swing or observe behaviorial patterns of insects or smell flowers. It's gotten such that if my Mama or I get caught enjoying a flower, it very likely it broken off.
I felt so alive going out in rain, sleet or snow to care for Cherokee.

 

[Ken]

I miss Cherokee.
I miss Socks.
I miss walking the fence or even getting to take a walk outside at all.
My Mama and I don't have a pasture to go to now as well as losing both horses.
If my Dad is home I can't hardly take the dogs out without him standing at the door watching or something. Going to the pasture used to give us a break from that.
I don't feel free to go walking or do photography in the yard or anything.
I feel like I am being more and more restricted and it is all being put off as me choosing to not do anything because of autism routines and such when I am actually feeling quite stir crazy.
My horse being dead doesn't make me suddenly love football and such. I never liked it before I had worked a job, saved up my money, and bought Cherokee either. Why would her death make me a sudden carbon copy of him when I wasn't before? I had more freedom as a child than I do now. I could play in the backyard as long as I didn't take off somewhere else. I could play pretend or swing on my rope swing or observe behaviorial patterns of insects or smell flowers. It's gotten such that if my Mama or I get caught enjoying a flower, it very likely it broken off.
I felt so alive going out in rain, sleet or snow to care for Cherokee.

I really feel for you. Much of your feelings, what you loved to do, but is now disrupted parallels my early life. I loved to be alone with my friends out in the back yard, back fields and my favorite place - an abandoned gravel quarry. It still amazes and disappoints me how it seems that everyone discounts other species as just "dumb animals". They are not dumb they are real people. They have feelings just as powerful as any human. Most humans are just too blind to see that.

I would spend hours sitting in the middle of a well established harvester ant bed enthralled in how they work. They are the big ones that build giant cities complete with roads that lasts and continues to grow for decades. No, I never got stung. I feel I was their friend as I felt they were my friend.

I too had father issues. He actually hated me. I could not be like he wanted me to be. I was always being punished for not wanting or participating in things he liked, such as fishing and hunting. I was forever terrified of him.

Just curious, have you moved to a new location?

 

[FayetheADHDsquirrel]

@Ken We can't move. It seems like we are more and more restricted as time goes by and it's so hard just to keep an eye out for our own safety and the safety of our indoor pets. The horses were never with us. We had to rent pastures and we kept having to move from pasture to pasture because the problems of our horses being bothered would always follow us after a short repreive. We couldn't get them moved this time and things escalated and my horse was murdered. Now we don't have horses. We wanted to get away and take all our pets with us to a home safe together. We almost had enough saved, but then lost our jobs giving Daddy more control and our savings got used for necessities and such.

 

[Ken]

I'm so sorry to hear that. Similar to my life situation. We were eventually evicted and had to move away. That was decades ago, but I was never able to get a house in the country again. Now I live in a densely populated neighborhood.
So, I now provide food and shelter to many "wild" animals. I have to keep that a secret, because that is very unpopular here. The animals that currently reside in our back yard are mice, possums, raccoons and a family skunks. I built a three room den for the skunks. They seem to love it. They have been living in it for a few years.
I haven't become personal friends with any of them because I fear if they were not afraid of humans, that that would be the certain death of them. So, I just enjoy watching them live, play and enjoy life in our back yard. Gives me great pleasure just knowing they are all safe and happy.

 

[RemyZee]

@Ken We can't move. It seems like we are more and more restricted as time goes by and it's so hard just to keep an eye out for our own safety and the safety of our indoor pets. The horses were never with us. We had to rent pastures and we kept having to move from pasture to pasture because the problems of our horses being bothered would always follow us after a short repreive. We couldn't get them moved this time and things escalated and my horse was murdered. Now we don't have horses. We wanted to get away and take all our pets with us to a home safe together. We almost had enough saved, but then lost our jobs giving Daddy more control and our savings got used for necessities and such.

So sorry you are going through all of this. Holding you in the light.