[Rocky]

Fitch
"Forever Young"
June 16. 2006 - March 5, 2007

Fitch fought his potential abductors and by doing so he saved the life of his brother Abercrombie.
Unfortunately Fitch could not recover from the injuries he received from these cruel and heartless people and he succumbed. Fitch lost his battle for life on March 5, 2007 at 11:56pm at the University of Georgia.
Rest in Peace Dear Brave Fitch... For you we will continue to fight!!!

SAVE THE HORSES BRACELETS

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This is a story of a very precious horse who briefly came into our lives and will remain in our hearts forever... It is horses like Rocky that change our lives, that make us work harder and clear our vision as to what need to be done to help the horses...

Thanks to Rocky there will be a fund set up solely for medical purposes so that we are able to help more horses like Rocky, so that the funds are always there to help horses in need no only at this rescues but other rescues too, there should never be a question of whether a horse can be helped and a horse should never be passed by because of their needs/condition... even if it means that they have a few days of knowing love, peace, a full belly, clean water and a gentle hand. Rocky's expenses were unexpected but whatever it took we would do all we could for Rocky.

Rest In Peace Rocky

I have tried to write this so many times this week and I could not get through it.. I have had troubles putting my thoughts into words. I have had trouble expressing the depths of my heartache and despair over his death and at the same time the overwhelming warmth I felt by being around people who care for the horses, care for us, care for the cause and who, although just meeting him, opened their hearts and souls to Rocky and he became their horse. For a horse who probably spent a good portion of his life wtihout an owner or a family or anyone that really cared he left this world with a HUGE family that was there at his side and loved him and he knew it..He even had a brother, Gorphan, the orphaned goat who was there from the time Rocky arrived and they shared a flake of hay together as the sun came up.
I am a firm believer in the saying of "That which does not kill us makes us stronger" and I could not figure out why Rocky is not that for me.. As I said to Avonda he seems to keep bringing me to a place I cannot get out of, the hurt far exceeds any hurt I have felt and maybe it was because the fight was so great and so involved for everyone, even our doctor was fighting for this boy. So I was thinking about it this morning and I was trying ot figure it out... why I cannot shake it.. why does life seem not right... why is this horse controlling my thoughts and the ache of his loss not going away... That is the type of person I am ... I need answers .. I truly believe everything has a reason, absolutely everything.. I also believe in God and I believe in the end he makes the final decision. I cannot compare Rocky to any horse or siutation. Colic, we have never lost a horse to colic, we always can get them through, even when we had an iliad impaction and the doctor said I will be back to put her down... well he came back alright... and his mouth dropped open.. Underweight and dehydration.. forget about it.. if we were able to bring back Blahnik, I could not imagine that we couldt bring Rocky back, there was never a question my mind, he was no where near the conidtion of Blahnik... so I have been racking my brain as to why not him... why could we not save him.. and I have to go back to my beliefs and my beliefs are that someone beyond myself, Brad, our family and friends and the doctors makes the final decision.
So I talked to Brad this monring about my feelings and I said why can I not shake this.. why is the pain not going away...why is it not turning into something stronger that makes me fight more. Again.. me and my need for answers.. We had a long talk and as we were talking we realized why, it is because Rocky's purpose is not over, we are not meant to think back on him and smile yet, we are not meant to be thankful that he died peacefully, knowing he was loved and not thirsty and not hungry, we have more to learn that will come to us.. We realized that after talking about what we have discussed as a result of Rocky's death.
We have discussed the need for rescues to have a large medical fund, you never know when a Rocky is going to come off your trailer and once a horse comes off that trailer he is no longer some "unwanted horse" or a "rescue horse" he is a part of you, your family, your organization and you treat him as you would any other horse.. you go the end of all means to do what you can for him, you stop short of nothing... that is the commitment you make to these horses. Rocky had a vet bill of $1228 and that was probably less than half of what it should have been.. Our doctor was here 9 times in the course of two days, he even ate dinner here Saturday night and answered people's questions, at one point Rocky had two doctors tending to him. A hospital room was basically set up in the front lawn where he collapsed. There needs to be a fund for just these types of situations. Then we discussed the ability to put horses down humanely and how even that cost money, to put Rocky down was $150 and to bury him was $200.. Albeit not nearly as much but we discussed at GREAT length that if there was a fund like this how many horses could avoid slaughter, because lets face it.. every horse is a candidate for slaughter fat and thin and the torture they go through before slaughter is almost as bad as the practice itself. We also discussed the need for individuals to have horse insurance and we may incorporate that into our adotion program.. This was a huge bill for us and our doctor cut us a break, we are also fortunate enough to have many of the drugs ourselves thanks to one of my dearest friends and we are fortunate enough that Brad can do so much of the vet work also. So we figured someone else may be looking at a bill of $2700 easy. Well insurance would have covered it. Most insurance I think runs about $250 a year, then you have a deductible but at least it is doable.. Individuals cannnot go out and write grants, get donations etc .. So we are starting to look into the different horse insurance policies and we are going ot start to offer it to our adopters. So after our discussion we realized, Rocky's purpose is not over and will never be.. The pain is not going away becasue he showed us we have work to do and there are needs to be met and it has to be done now... enough talk. Now it is time for action.
Rocky did not die alone, he did not die hungry ot thristy, he did not die inhumanely. He was surrounded by a family who loved him and so were we.. so many times Brad and I feel so alone during times like this but not this time... Rocky had his family at his side for the entire time and so did we... I cannot say thank you enough to the people that were here... Wayne, Avonda, Jeremiah, Gayle, Faith, Olivia, Amanda, Kati, Jessica, Cheryl, Debbie, Jimmy, John, Steve, Rebecca, .. that is a pretty big family for a young horse who once had no one.
Here are some special pictures. This was Saturday night and as much as we did not want to admit it Brad and I knew we were nearing the end.. I remember it so clearly and how my heart was breaking when Amanda was all teared up and telling her Mom that she did not want to leave Rocky because she did not want him to die. I told her that she can come back in the morning and see Rocky, my head knew I was lying but my heart did not want this little girl to cry herself to sleep knowing her new friend would be gone.. and you never know.. we have seen many miracles on this farm... and we were just praying for one more. It was hard for him to even sit up, we were able to keep him out of pain and when we knew we could no longer do that we knew it was time. At about 2:10 am and I was holding his head on the pillow and he looked at me, it was time, he told me he did not have the fight any longer and we could no longer manage the pain. I looked up at Brad and he said.. "I know.. I have known for a while I just needed you to know." The oddeset thing happened after we made the phone call to the doctor, Rocky , still laying down was trying ot eat the grass. I said to Brad he is in pain, can't get up, colicing and trying to eat.. Brad looked at me and said.. What the He[[ feed him as much as he wants.. and we did.. I ran and got more Equine Senior and Rocky ate Equine Senior out of my hand. Before the doctor administered the drugs he bowed his head and put a hand on Rocky and said "A Good fight by all" you could see that even he was upset by this. Rocky passed when only 1/4 of the serum had been administered he was gone.. Brad did a smudge ceremony as we do with any being that passes... We send them on their journey to Mother Sky not alone, a part of us goes withtheir soul through the smoke for their journey to the Rainbow Bridge, where they are met by the many others who are there waiting for them, free from pain. So, I made it through this post and you can all thank Rocky for that.. I have walked away from this no less than 5 times and tried to find something else to distract me..... but I could not.
Amanda and Olivia comforting Rocky