So this doesn’t have anything to do with horses per se, but it does have everything to do with the love that we all feel towards our animals, whether it be a horse, dog, cat, bird, etc… We had to say good bye to our amazing dog, Jessie, last week. She spent a wonderful 15 years with us and for anyone who loves animals, you know how much they are part of the family. It was a very hard decision to make, but instead of dwelling on that, we are tyring to remember all the wonderful memories we had with her. We first met her living at a gas station in Florida. She was only about 3 months old at the time. I came out from paying for the gas and found Kyle sitting on the curb with this little black ball of fur curled up in his lap. Of course we already had 2 other dogs and didn’t need a third, but thought we would take her to the farm to see if we could find a home for her. But from that moment on, she definitely was our dog and wouldn’t let either one of us out of her sight! Its amazing that she realized right off that we had rescued her and felt this bond with us. We even tried to just leave the farm for a few hours that first day to go do errands and she jumped out of someones arms and chased us down the driveway!! This from a dog that had been bypassed by the caring public for at least 3 weeks at the gas station.(we found that out later from anouther rider who had seen her there) Well, that pretty much cemented it, she was staying!! She was such a smart dog, one time we were playing fetch with our jack russell cross and after pretending to throw the ball we hid it under a dog bed, the jack ran around for a few minutes looking for the errant ball. Jessie had lay there watching the game and the silly puppy until she could take it no more, up she got and over to the bed she went to peel back the dog bed, turn around with an air of disappointment at her companions lack of brains, back to where she continued to watch us throw the ball for the puppy. There is no doubt she judged those around her. There were moments when we questioned her judgement though, like when we were living in Ontario and we had packed up everything to move south for the winter. We were heading to compete at Fairhill on the way. About 30 minutes before we were planning on pulling out, we noticed that all 3 of our dogs were MIA. So, we started calling them and the other 2 came running back and then Jessie followed, having been very freshly sprayed by a skunk!!! To the point that she still had the froth all over her face!!! Well, several frantic tomato juice bathes later, we were off. Since she was still smelling so wonderfully, she traveled in a crate in the horse trailer. I did feel kinda bad for the horses, but it was by far the fastest border crossing we’ve ever had with horses because the vet didn’t want to have to smell that for too long!!! She wasn’t much for children for the better portion of her life until we had our first daughter. She seemed to know instantly that Riley was part of the family. She still wouldn’t let other children pet her, but Riley could pretty much do as she wished. This behaviour continued with our second daughter, Trista. Right up until the end, Trista could pull on her and flop on her and she wouldn’t get mad, just get up and move away when she had had enough. Well, all the good and bad memories we will cherish and we feel comfort in knowing that she is now running around (pain free) with her buddies, Spot and Bailey. We would like to thank all the irresponsible dog owners out there for giving us the best dogs you could ask for and then turning them lose to walk into our lives. nothing against knowing the breed of your dog and the traits that come with it, but knowing you changed an animals life that some idiot let loose only to find out it was your heart that was healed because of one instinctive decision.