How I got my DOBBY

How I got my Dobby

Dobby

Well, while I was standing in my kitchen feeling quite sorry for myself, looking at my mismatched cabinets clinging desperately to my wall, my bent faucet and my big, dumb, wet dog…. it washes over me, the sadness of not seeing my horses in the pasture when I got home, the fear that something bad had happened to all of them, the pressure of doing it all on my own, the fact that I still didn't even have a real job!  I allowed myself to have a “moment” I stood in my kitchen and had a nice, old fashioned cry over all that is unjust in my life and in the world (I tend to be a bit mellow dramatic when I have a moment) 

It occurred to me in that moment of self pity and mellow drama of ‘oh how difficult it is to be me’ that I do not have to live this way….  *Now, this would have been a fine time to start thinking positively about all that I had accomplished, and about how far I had come and about the fact that all is well and the horses are safe and we have the supplies for Gypsies eye, and we had the car to drive to get the horses, and the house is warm despite the ice-storm…well you get the idea *

 Here is what really happened….

I don’t have to live this way.  I don’t!  I can get a Dobby.  I know one.  He is my friend.  He will come here and save me from the evil spirit light, and shovel my porch, and maybe even hold a horse once in awhile.

I look furtively at the clock again…. it’s late…but I bet I can call.  I tell myself to only let it ring 2 times in case he is asleep.   I swallow my tears and call him… He answered on the first ring.

“Hello” he says in that quiet, secretive way of his ~ always managing to sound as if every call is a top-secret interaction.

I clear my throat and give him the brief version of my little bit of insanity, ending with “Will you come live with me?”

We struck a deal and I was off to get the Dobby.

He has been here ever since, and yes, he shovels the porch, lifts the bales, mows the lawn, chops the weeds, moves the heavy things and does all the general Dobby things that need to be done around here.  

Dobby mowing in the rain..remember he is allergic to rainwater!

Most importantly he prays with us.  

The REST of the HORSE Story

THE REST OF THE HORSE STORY!

Upon finally arriving home, I inspect the horses under the big security light and find that Gypsy has an injury.  Her eye, her poor eye.  Gypsy has always had a tiny spot in her left eye, nothing to even note really.  But now, now Gyspies eye is closed tight and slightly swollen and weeping.  I just want to cry for her.  But no time for pity, I must take care of her eye.  Before doing so, I closely look at the other two horses to ascertain how they faired in their jaunt through the country.   Polo and Libby are quite fine, and asking if they can please go eat the pile of waiting hay.  I release them to the hay and get the supplies needed for Gypsies eye.

Gypsie

After spending time doctoring Gypsies eye and hoping that she will see again I say another prayer of thanks that they all survived and that the spirit light has not followed me home. 

I blanket all three horses whom are steadfastly refusing to go into the barn, and take note of my surroundings.

If the horses got out there is a reason they got out.   It had not escaped my notice that when I put Polo and Libby into the pasture the gate was wide open ~ the electric wires crack - cracking on the ground.   Now, why in the world would this be open?  Not torn down, not run through, but open as if I had opened it and just left it that way.  But really, why in the world would I do that?  I thought back in my mind the days before I had left WindyHill to visit Weedy Flats….it slowly dawned on me.  The training horses…the training horses has been in this pasture…when they went home the gate was left wide open, thus stopping the electrical loop and making it easy for my horses to simply walk out of the pasture and traverse the country side like Bedouin followers! 

Standing there in the sleet on the frozen ground with a frozen lead rope and eye ointment in my gloved hands, I got angry.  How could ANY horse person just leave a gate wide open like that?  We all know that if you find it closed to close it back up?  Doesn’t everyone know that electric fence needs to be connected to itself in order to be…electric?!  It’s indecent!  It’s rude!  Gyspy has a hurt eye because of someone else’s carelessness and thoughtlessness! 

I forced myself not to have a breakdown, not yet…there was a Mastiff standing on my cold foot with his giant paw looking up at me as if to say “Inside now mom?”

Doom the Mastiff

With another big sigh, I let myself, and the dog in the house.  I rallied forth, telling myself that at least I didn't have to fix the fence, the horses we now home safe and sound and they hadn't gone too far and that it the fence was just forgotten.  It was not done on purpose.  It was an accident I tell myself: no one would do that intentionally…at least, not this person.  I trust this person more than that.  Nope, it was just a mistake and that is all there is to it.  These things ran through my mind as I dried off myself, my dog and put my things away. 

I glanced at the clock, it was close to midnight, I was frightened of being alone in the house with the dogs and the potential threat of a visiting spirit light.  I was tired of being here with no help ~ no one to double check the fences when people leave, no one to help me hunt for horses in the night.  No one to move the heavy bales of hay or break the waters, or check the water heaters, or shovel the porch, or hold frightened horses when I doctor an eye, or …protect me from spirit lights….okay, I admit it ~ despite my little pep talk I was frightened, and lonely and feeling quite sorry for myself in that moment standing in my kitchen with wet hair and a big dang dog once again on my foot.

THIS is how the Dobby came to be….

To be continued……

HORSES FOUND!!

HORSES FOUND ~ the continued Saga….

Okay, so I have Libby in tow, big mastiff following along like a good boy, and when I reach the car it occurs to me….. I have to lead this horse home out the window…not a big deal, Libby and I have done that before.  However, it is the Driver side back door that is frozen into the stay open for life mode.  This means that Libby will be smacked in the side with said door the entire trip home.  BIG SIGH….

Of course she will, naturally, because nothing can be easy at midnight in a sleet storm.  I get the dog in the car, I get the now frozen lead rope out the window (imagine those invisible dogs at the fair )  and Libby…Okay, we are now good to go.  The other two horses follow their fearless leader quite placidly…blinking and ducking their heads against the sleet.   Again, I feel a pang of guilt. 

I start the car and we drive very slowly out of the neighbors driveway, so far so good.  The door seems to be quiet.  At the end of the neighbors driveway…thump, thump the door hits Libby in the soft flank, she pauses and raises her head.  The other two pause and prick their ears squinting forward towards their leader.  I praise Libby and start rolling again, very slowly.  Libby snorts her disdain and we roll on.  Thump, thump , thump goes the door against her, her ears go back but she continues steadfastly onward.

Ahead, in the distance…. I see a single light bobbing along the road.  As if someone is jogging with a flashlight.  “Oh, now the neighbor comes to help”  I think to myself in a grumpy manner.  I quickly chastised myself for being ungrateful, “At least he came.”  

PHOTO CREDIT:  http://strangesounds.org/2013/06/mysterious-glowing-lights-the-paulding-light-or-the-dog-meadow-light-in-upper-michigan.html

Libby the ever-calm-mannered, stops suddenly and snorts.  The Mastiff in back is growling low in his throat.  I am suddenly stricken with panic….”Oh my gosh!  The door doesn't close!  What if the dog jumps out and attacks the helpful neighbor!”  I am suddenly wishing he hadn’t come to help.  Then…the light ahead begins behaving erratically, bobbing very high and very low and then going side to side.  “Is my neighbor drunk?”  As I watch I realize two things…this “flashlight” I am seeing does not cast a beam like my headlights do.  I should see the sleet falling infront of it, like I would with any light.  Secondly, a man carrying a flash light does not go that high and that low in that manner.  (Even drunken)  The other two horses have taken off and are slipping and sliding and running away and poor ol’ Libby is prancing next to my now parked car and looking about frantically, eyes wide with fear and nostrils flared.  But still, she holds her post, she does not leave my side, and does not pull on the rope.  Meanwhile Mastiff has all his hair standing on end and has his big head right next to mine, tail stiff behind him, legs stiff and that low menacing growl.  I get a sudden, bone chilling, fill my eyes with tears, deep seated fear feeling just wash through my body as I watch the “not flashlight” come ever closer to us.  I hear the other horses crashing threw the frozen fields, sometimes calling to Libby who does not respond other than a very loud snort, blowing clouds of breath from her nose like a wild dragon. 

“Alright” I tell myself, if this is the way I am meant to leave this earth then so be it.  “I shall be taken from this dark, cold, lonely stretch of road in an ice-storm with no one to watch my dogs and horses by a darn spirit light!”   As the final thought went through my mind, it occurred to me that I just need to pray.  Just pray.  Pray I did, calmly and with sincere meaning.  I prayed that God would be with myself and my animals on this lonely dark road and that whatever that was getting ever closer levitating in it’s maniacal way would just feel the Presence of the Lord Jesus in our midst and be on about it’s business. 

Though I did still have the chills rippling through me I knew I was fine….the other two horses found their way back to the car and flung their heads in agitation, frozen manes slapping them on the neck with a loud crack, crack as they did so.   The spirit light, as I had come to know it took a sudden quick turn to the left into the field on my right (I couldn’t help but note this) and winked out.   

Ah, I sighed, “See what a little Prayer can do?” I asked the dog and horses.  The dog settled back down on his haunches, big mastiff head still upfront with me.  I patted him kindly, and praised Libby for her bravery and on we rolled.  Yes, I did get a bit of that prickly sensation as we passed the spot in the field that the light had disappeared, but I paid attention the animals and though they were more alert now, they did not start at the spot or run away again.  

We did make it home in one piece after all.   In the telling of the story I remember this as if it happened yesterday with such clarity that I again felt the chills and the fear and tears sprung to my eyes.  I also remembered my Prayer and how it comforted me, and the animals as well.

TO Be CONTINUED….. (oh yes there is more) 

photo credit:www.fanpop.com