There is one especially painful and enduring horror of a life with animals, it comes when you see them suffer and are absolutely helpless to do anything about it. For nearly two hours, we watched Simon struggle to live, and we watched him lose that struggle. We are fortunate to be able to spare animal’s the eternal struggle people go through at the end of their lives.

We knew we had to end Simon’s suffering, we understand there was no light at the end of the tunnel or him. That doesn’t make it easy or painless, of course. It was wrenching to watch the spirit and life drain out of Simon, it was a gift to be able to end his pain. Godspeed, Simon, I hope you are standing by some pasture gate, long lines of admirers bring you carrots. It happened often here on earth.