Maria and I went over to check on Rocky after the storm, and we are going away for a few days. I started to tell him, and then didn’t. You can’t talk to animals that way, alas. It is touching to see how he and Maria are beginning to connect. In the way he hears her, senses her, permits her to touch him, nuzzles his nose against her. Sometimes, when I look through the viewfinder, I could swear I see the two of them speaking to one another. And, in their own way, they are speaking to one another. Animals sense the emotions in Maria, and trust what they sense.

Rocky follows us around now, but as he can’t see much, we have learned to move slowly and let him find us. He knows his way around his pasture well. I am posting a photo of his barn and stall. I do not have the time to answer each of the messages urging me to take him to the farm each day, to do something about him, but there is not anything to do. He is not my horse, he is well-cared for, he has food, water, shelter, and nothing else is my business. I know some people struggle to accept the idea that a 33-year-old pony could be content alone in his pasture, weeks after his owner is gone. I believe he is. It is good to see him, bring him his daily apple, talk to him, and I can see he is comfortable with our visits, that they mean something to him. I see they are comforting in some way.

There are many good reasons not to move Rocky now, and one of them is I don’t want to bring him here. I don’t wish to take Rocky  to the farm, I think it would be inhumane, cruel. It would be disruptive to him and to us, and there are places for him to go, if that becomes necessary.  He lives in his life, as we all do, and it is a good life. If I saw anything else, I would react to it, believe me.

But I don’t want to go any further than that, and I won’t. Every sense I have tells me that.

So we will keep at it. It is enough. There is a boundary, and Maria and I both see it clearly and respect it. I confess it is somethings difficult to see Rocky, but I always end up celebrating his very good life.  On to Madison.