For Joshua Rockwood, his deeply troubling ordeal has ended in some ways, is only beginning in others. The good news is that his four horses were returned to him from the horse rescue farm where they were taken 10 months ago.  Joshua won a great victory this week, all but one of the 12 charges against him has been dropped in the Arrest That Should Never Have Happened. The remaining charge – not having visible water for a sheepdog one winter day – will remain open for six months, then there will be no trace or record of the charges.

Joshua’s case is known and celebrated all over the country today (my post on him yesterday went viral, with more than 5,000 shares in 24 hours on Facebook alone) and is part of a new social awakening. People who love animals – especially farmers – and live and work with them are beginning to wake up and  take them back, as he has, from a runaway rogue movement that is  “liberating” animals from people everywhere.

There is other news as well. Joshua’s vet came to examine his horses and said he was concerned at the condition of at least two of them, one of whom appeared thin. He and the farrier Ken Norman recommended better and more nourishing food for them, and Joshua went right out to buy some.

The vet also warned Joshua that he should expect strangers – informers, actually, to be precise  – to be driving by his farm forever, day and night, hoping to find some trouble, hoping to see an animal stumble, or be sick, and return him to jeopardy and persecution. He has seen it many times, he said.  It was hard to think of that and celebrate too much, this is not the America my grandmother fled to in order to escape the secret informers of the Czar.

But still, it was a powerful thing to see Joshua and Brian Jerome from Blue Star Equiculture unload his four horses and walk them into his barn. Blue Star, a horse rescue farm and sanctuary in Palmer, Mass. offered their big trailer for transport free of charge. It was one of the last promises Paul Moshimer, my friend and Blue Star’s co-director, made before he died last year.

Joshua is both strong and forward-looking, but the fear and worry that has marked the last year of his young life and threatened his freedom and his farm may not ever fully leave him. I imagine in one way or another it will shadow him for most, if not all of his life, although I know he will resume his full and productive life.  Having your life nearly ruined iis not something you blow off and forget.

Even on a happy day, it is important to remember that it was an injustice, and should not have happened.

I asked Joshua this morning if he felt that he was free, but I could see that he is not yet fully free, a door has been opened that is difficult to close. He will, as he said, be looking over his shoulder for much of his life.

There was, for sure, an air of celebration at West Wind Acres Farm, and it felt awfully good. The horses are back, two big draft horses, a foal and a small pony. Their stables are big, clean and well prepared.

People were gathering all day, friends, reporters, neighbors.

I am always deeply touched at the love and connection and loyalty Joshua inspires in people. The people around him love him and are eager to support him, something that is telling in and of itself. And they are good people to meet and know. I hope I live a life in which so many good people stand by me when and if I need it, it is something to aspire to.

One of his horses came home thinner, and  he is afraid to let her out on pasture for fear  one of the secret informers will call the police, as they did once before. This should not be on his mind. These informers will always be around, said the vet, spying on people and abusing themin the name of loving animals. A kind of blasphemy for our time, loving animals is never about hating or hurting people for me.

Ken Norman the farrier and his wife Eli,  who spend much of their lives helping horses and the people who love them, came early to West Wind Acres and made sure the stables were ready and stocked with fresh hay and heated water. Nobody had to ask them, they just came.  They tightened and moved things without asking, in the practiced way of animal people who know what they are doing.

What did i take from this week, from this victory?

I love the idea of taking back our animals, it is the perfect metaphor for the future of animals. All over the country,  ponies, elephants, horses, dogs and cats are being taken from people, sometimes for good reason, sometimes for no reason. Poor and elderly and hard-working people are denied dogs and cats to love because other people tell them their fences are not big enough, or they work too hard, or are too old run and walk far. A homeless man in New York has his dog taken and killed because someone thought it looked ill.

And people who treat their animals well are being told how they must live with them.

Everywhere, farmers tell me stories just like Joshua’s, only they are not so lucky, they don’t have a community around them, they can’t afford the best lawyers or have the money to fight long and hard. They have to surrender or quit.  Sometimes, their cows are covered in snow, sometimes their horses lie down for a nap, sometimes someone driving by sees an animal that is sick, sometimes a bull is limping. The lives of animals seem increasingly to be in the hands of people who know nothing about their real lives and care nothing for the people who live with them and care for them.

It’s easy enough to rail about the police and the prosecutors, but I suppose the real responsibility lies with us.

While others lobby politicians and throw money at them, redefine the very idea of cruelty and abuse, manipulate the police, legislators and the courts, we were hiding in our own bubble. It had nothing to do with us. Except it does. Joshua Rockwood is us, that is why so many people rushed to support him.

We let this happen and have been slow to awaken to the implications – the animals are being taken from us, disappearing everywhere, never to be seen again – the horses, the elephants, the ponies, often  the dogs and the cats.  He almost lost his horses for good, and he loved them and they love him.

It could happen to Joshua, it could happen to me. Those secret informers, driving by in the dark, hoping to find a reason to invade a life and take an animal away. Joshua got his horses back, we need to get our animals back, and a measure of our freedom and dignity. Very few people in my experience acquire animals to abuse and mistreat them. Most of the farmers I know are the world’s greatest animal lovers, they deserve better than this. They work hard and feed us.

From what I’ve seen in the Joshua Rockwood case, there are many good people ready to take the animals back. Thousands have helped him and stood with him. It seems we are waking up now. We can thank Joshua Rockwood in part for that, he stood his ground, stayed in his truth, stuck his neck way out for the right thing.

And today, he got his animals back. A very good thing.