Sad goodbys and rough days

It has been a very rough past two days for my wife. Her old Border Collie Ben, had to be put down on Thursday. Ben must has been deaf for years now, but recently his hips gave out and it was time to put him down. The same day our vet came by to take x-rays of my wife's horse Dan B. and the prognosis wasn't good. My wife has owned her longer than she has known me, by about six months.

Dan B's real name is Rosanne, or at least that is what her papers say. She was born 1986 and SNL was big in the 80s. If your an old curmudgeon like me you know who Rosanne-Rosanna-Danna is. So Rosanne, became Rosanna Danna, then my father in law, who has a habit of slaughtering names with regularity, started calling her Rosanna Banana and then Danna Banana and somehow the horse became Dan B.

She was a Quarter Horse of uninspired breeding, but good looking. She was a 14.3 hands tall sorrel with a flaxen mane and tail. She was basically unbroke when my wife bought her and so I volunteered to ride this short ornery horse to score points with my future wife. Bad Idea. I am not sure if there are city horses, like there are city people, but this horse was terrified of cows. She took one look at those smelly four-legged-horse-killing cows and said no thank you, I'll be over here eating hay if you need me. I learned this the hard way as I was in hot pursuit of a rather fast bovine who decided to make a run for the gate at the other end of the pasture. I whirled Dan B around and off we went, hoofbeats and dust flying up behind us as I took a direct line for the gate to beat the wayward cow and foil her escape.

It was tie, and just like in baseball, the tie goes to the cow, or the runner, I always get those confused.

Moments before our tie, I was thinking this could be a pretty good horse, she runs fast and she doesn't seem to mid the cattle anymore, just then Dan B. looked over and saw the object of the chase, a cow, and not just any cow, a fast mean cow. I thought we had beaten the cow to the gate when I looked down and found I had no horse under me. In a move that would make Michael Jordan proud, she did a crossover dribble and turned 90 degrees in one stride leaving me suspended in the air traveling at a high rate of speed. This seemed to go on for three or four seconds, but I am sure it was no longer than the time it takes for an airbag to deploy, and mister, let me tell you how I wish I had one right then.

I landed on the point of my hip and rolled four or five times in flailing ball of boots, chaps and Wranglers. I had torn off most of my shirt and had a double handful of dirt and gravel down my pants. My wife to be and my father rode up and asked how I was, I lied and said I was fine and was just going to ride back to the house.

The next day I had classes over in Sacramento but I could make it. I had a really cool and oh so painful bruise on my hip for two weeks. It started on the outer ring as the normal purple color you are familiar with, and then an inner ring of black and in the center was a bullseye about a silver dollar size patch of yellow.I still don't have any feeling in that spot to this day.

That was my first ride on Dan B. but not my last. She turned out to be good horse and she hauled both our kids all over the ranch. She has been a pasture ornament for the past few years, just eating and doing horse things, she deserves it.

When the vet called back Thursday night and said that both her coffin bones were completely rotated, I had to tell my wife that Dan B. would have to be put down. My wife is usually off on Fridays and I work, but I told her to go to work and I would handle everything. I am the one who takes the old dogs into the vet to be euthanized or the one who has to get a pistol if there is an emergency on the ranch. I know this is my job as the husband, but sometimes it gets to me in a bad way.

I spent the rest of the morning cleaning the house. I started in our bedroom, and I mean clean, windows, baseboards, mini blinds, the whole deal. I just wanted my wife to come home to a clean house and dinner ready. It worked for a while until our daughter drew a picture of a horse under blue sky with the words 'Remember Dan B' over it. My wife broke down in tears and sobbing asked our daughter to put it up on the fridge, She said it looks great.

Rough days are part of the package, you can't feel really good on a good day unless you've known the pain of really bad one.