For several months now, Honey has been walking five miles a day, five days a week. I walk most of the days that she does, but I only walk about 1/2 mile or so – I don’t walk any further because it is so boring. Honey has come up with several ways to keep the walk interesting, but none of them work for me, and it seems the only exciting things that happen on the trek are usually bad – a rattlesnake on the road, or the dog bite that had her limping for weeks.
Yesterday was that kind of day.
Honey hadn’t been gone very long when I got a phone call. There was an injured horse in our next-door neighbor’s ditch, and she needed me to try to get some help.
We first thought that the horse was from across the road – they have sixteen – but when I went over to let them know, nobody was home. The injured horse, almost too red to be called a sorrel, looked a lot like one of the foals born across the road last spring, but theirs was still in the pasture.
We were sure that the poor horse had been hit by a car (or, out here, more likely a truck) but there were no skid marks and no broken glass, so it must have gone some distance before collapsing in the ditch.
Who do you call in a situation like that? The 9-1-1 operator had me call the Sheriff’s Department non-emergency number and ask for the livestock control division. She also recommended that I contact the Harris County SPCA’s injured animal hotline.
An agent from the SPCA called me back almost immediately and told me she would coordinate with the Sheriff’s Department. Only a few minutes later. deputies from livestock control arrived on the scene.
Sadly, they determined that the horse was too badly injured, so they put it out of its misery. They told Honey that was the one thing about their job they really hated.
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