Wednesday morning at 6am I was awakened by my cell phone ringing. It was my daughter. She prefaced what she was about to tell me with "don't freak out". Don't you just love that? You know something is wrong when you start a conversation that way! She went on to say her close friend had called her and said that a horse had been found in a residential neighborhood across from where I keep Clyde. If I wasn't fully awake when the phone rang, I was now!
I literally jumped out of bed and frantically grabbed for clothes. Doyle mumbled "what was that about?" I quickly tell him and dart out the door. As I make the 2 miles across town my mind is racing and arguing with myself that it can't be him. There is no possible way he could have gotten out of the pasture as the gate is locked unless someone cut or drove through the fence. Halfway there it begins to rain. Great!
(This is a view of the driveway I use to get to the barn from the 4-lane street. )
I turned down the drive to the barn scanning the pasture for a silhouette of a horse. None! I turn the corner where the gate is located and my stomach drops. The gate is standing open! The lock undone! Now there is no doubt my horse is wandering around the neighborhood in the rain, in the dark and hard to see because he is dark colored which makes him an easy target for a vehicle! Now my heart is pounding out of my chest as I fight feelings of sheer panic! I go in the barn and grab his halter and start walking back down the driveway to the street. I see police car lights straight ahead across the road. Not the emergency lights but the spotlight bar they have on their cars. I make my way that direction pretty confident that's where Clyde is.
I get to the police car and the officer asks me if I'm looking for a horse. Guess that was kind of obvious since I was carrying a halter and rope! "Yes", I say. "where is he"? He points toward the house he's parked in front of. I couldn't see him because I had been blinded by the lights from the car. I look over and sure enough there he stands with his head hung low. I speak to him and he jerks his head up. A voice he recognizes! I walk right up to him and put the halter on. Asking him what the heck he was doing over here! He was standing in the driveway right in front of a garage door and front door.
(This is the house. He was standing in front of the garage with his butt to the door.)
He had been there long enough he had left them three piles of fertilizer! I wanted so bad to take a picture but the officer was watching me and I decided it wasn't a good idea! As best I could I scrapped each pile of poop off of the driveway using my boots. I am very glad at this point 1) that he is found 2) he's not hurt 3) he's not young or he would have been more more frightened damaging property and possibly himself!
(This is looking toward where I keep him from in front of the house I found him at.)
We left the area without incident walking back to the pasture. We stopped before crossing the major 4-lane street as traffic has picked up by now. A young girl yelled from her upstairs window "hello horsey"! Made me smile. That would have been me when I was young!
We make it back to the pasture and I make sure the gate is locked. As I make my way to the barn to feed Clyde I am racking my brain trying to figure out how this could have happened. Then a memory comes to me. Several days ago I had Kennedy with me. She wanted to walk through the gate. Being the doting grandmother, I obliged. I thought I had locked the gate back but OBVIOUSLY I didn't. It had stayed shut several days but I guess because of wind and possibly Clyde pushing against it the lock not being secure came loose from the chain causing it to swing open.
(This was taken Thurs. All that keeps the gate closed is the chain wrapped around the posts. The chain isn't tight enough to keep the gate from giving a little bit when pushed on.)
Odd thing was the day before I thought the gate looked funny to me (it was bowed out just a bit) but I dismissed it because I knew it was locked and didn't bother to check it. In hindsight I realize that was Holy Spirit telling me to check the gate. Papa God is so good that even though I ignored that "gentle warning" He was still faithful to make sure Clyde didn't get hurt.
You will never convince me that it was just "coincidence" that a young woman in that neighborhood was going to be up that time of morning to go to workout at the same place my daughter's friend does. I could not thank Papa enough for keeping Clyde safe for me and keep him from causing any serious damage to property. All is well again.
Who? Me??!!
Have a good one!
