The painting on the right was a birthday present for my wife. It was painted by our next door neighbor who is now a famous artist. His name is Steve Boaldin. He painted it for me for practically nothing. He is a real cowboy.
Some time in 1990 my wife and I had gone on a trail ride and I got it in my head that if I owned the horses I wouldn’t have to pay so much to ride them. I decided that it would be a good idea to buy a donkey to sort of see how it would be to have horses.
Having a donkey is absolutely nothing like having a horse. A few months later we went down to east Texas and bought baby and a few months later we bought Ace. Over the course of 30 years, we probably rode them 4 or 5 times but they were our children.
In 2002 we wound up in Iowa. This stray cat was coming to the back door begging for food. We relented and after a few days we took her in. We immediately took her to the vet and had er fixed. When she came home, she wanted out right then and I understood why she might want to get away. But the vet said not for 24 hrs. The next day we let her out and she ran under the air conditioner compressor. This is where we found her 4 kittens. When they were old enough, we gave two to good homes and kept the ones above.
All of these animals gave us so much pleasure over the years but alas, everything must come to an end.
At the beginning of covid Ace was the first to go. We never figured out why but it was respiratory. He died in my arms in the back yard. Then it was poncho’s turn a few months later. He also died in the back yard. I was afraid that something on our property was doing this so I had her boarded a few miles away.
Then it was MJ’s turn. He had a blockage. The vet said they could fix it but we couldn’t afford it so we had to put him down.
Then it was miss Kitty’s turn. She just stopped eating. She passed on the morning I was going to have her put to sleep.
Then it was Baby’s turn. After being boarded for 2 years, she quit eating and she was put down 3 months ago.
Yesterday it was Sam’s turn. He had a pancreatic blockage.
RIP:
ACE. 34
BABY. 35
PANCHO. 33
MISS KITTY 16
MJ. 14
SAM. 15