By late May, the numbers in my black notebook were becoming difficult to look at.<\/p>\n
I had spent more than forty-four dollars feeding and caring for Patch.<\/p>\n
That was on top of the thirty-one dollars I had paid at the auction.<\/p>\n
I knew exactly where the money had gone.<\/p>\n
I had written down every purchase.<\/p>\n
Nothing fancy.<\/p>\n
Nothing wasteful.<\/p>\n
Just the ordinary things a hungry horse needed.<\/p>\n
But the total kept increasing.<\/p>\n
And the money available to me did not.<\/p>\n
I began opening the refrigerator and studying its contents longer than necessary.<\/p>\n
There wasn't much in it.<\/p>\n
I could make things stretch.<\/p>\n
I had been doing that for years.<\/p>\n
Still, there is a difference between being careful and wondering whether you've made a serious mistake.<\/p>\n
I was beginning to wonder.<\/p>\n
Patch looked better than he had when I brought him home.<\/p>\n
He was eating more consistently.<\/p>\n
His coat looked cleaner because Maggie brushed him every day.<\/p>\n
He no longer seemed like an animal nobody wanted to touch.<\/p>\n
But his right front foot still hurt.<\/p>\n
That was the part I couldn't ignore.<\/p>\n
I had tried to give him food he could manage.<\/p>\n
I had kept him comfortable as best I knew how.<\/p>\n
Maggie had worked without complaint.<\/p>\n
Yet every time Patch walked across the yard, I saw the same uneven movement.<\/p>\n
One step.<\/p>\n
Then another.<\/p>\n
Then that careful shifting away from the painful foot.<\/p>\n
He was still suffering.<\/p>\n
And I didn't have enough money for a full veterinary examination.<\/p>\n
I hated admitting that.<\/p>\n
A person who brings an animal home takes responsibility for it.<\/p>\n
I believed that before I bought Patch.<\/p>\n
I believed it even more afterward.<\/p>\n
But believing something didn't put money in my purse.<\/p>\n
I was standing near the house one day when a truck came up the driveway.<\/p>\n
I recognized it.<\/p>\n
Frank Tally.<\/p>\n
He was a livestock buyer, and I knew him from the auction.<\/p>\n
I watched him pull in and stop.<\/p>\n
He got out and looked toward the pasture.<\/p>\n
Patch was grazing.<\/p>\n
Frank leaned against his truck.<\/p>\n
For a few moments, he simply watched the horse.<\/p>\n
Then he looked at me.<\/p>\n
"He's filled out a little."<\/p>\n
"He's eating better."<\/p>\n
Frank nodded.<\/p>\n
His attention returned to Patch.<\/p>\n
"That front leg hasn't improved much."<\/p>\n
"No."<\/p>\n
I didn't see any reason to pretend otherwise.<\/p>\n
Frank had seen the horse when I bought him.<\/p>\n
He knew exactly how badly Patch had been limping.<\/p>\n
And I knew he wasn't standing in my driveway just to compliment the feed.<\/p>\n
He took out his wallet.<\/p>\n
"I can give you seventy-five for him."<\/p>\n
I looked at him.<\/p>\n
"Seventy-five dollars?"<\/p>\n
"Cash."<\/p>\n
He held the wallet in his hand.<\/p>\n
"You could be done with it today."<\/p>\n
I didn't answer immediately.<\/p>\n
Seventy-five dollars.<\/p>\n
I had paid thirty-one.<\/p>\n
Even after accounting for the feed and hay I had bought, it was an offer I had to take seriously.<\/p>\n
I knew that.<\/p>\n
I looked toward the pasture.<\/p>\n
Maggie stood next to Patch.<\/p>\n
She had one hand against his neck, scratching near the white marking.<\/p>\n
She wasn't looking at us.<\/p>\n
She was paying attention to him.<\/p>\n
I watched the horse lower his head a little under her hand.<\/p>\n
And I remembered the cap in the water trough.<\/p>\n
The laughter.<\/p>\n
The sound that had brought me to the kitchen window with a dish towel in my hands.<\/p>\n
Frank followed my gaze.<\/p>\n
"You'd be getting more than double your purchase price."<\/p>\n
He wasn't wrong.<\/p>\n
That was what made his offer difficult.<\/p>\n
I could have taken the money.<\/p>\n
I could have written the sale into the notebook.<\/p>\n
I could have watched him lead Patch away and told myself I had made the sensible choice.<\/p>\n
There was no shortage of reasons to do it.<\/p>\n
The horse remained lame.<\/p>\n
The food was costing more than I had expected.<\/p>\n
The refrigerator was nearly empty.<\/p>\n
And the electric bill hadn't disappeared.<\/p>\n
I was an old woman trying to manage a household and care for a grieving granddaughter.<\/p>\n
A horse with a painful foot was not the responsibility anybody would have recommended adding to that situation.<\/p>\n
Frank waited.<\/p>\n
I looked at Patch again.<\/p>\n
Then I thought about something Maggie had said while examining the shoe.<\/p>\n
Somebody should have checked.<\/p>\n
Those words troubled me.<\/p>\n
They had troubled me since the morning she first noticed the twisted iron.<\/p>\n
I still didn't know what was wrong.<\/p>\n
I had not found someone qualified to examine the hoof.<\/p>\n
And selling Patch without knowing whether the problem could be treated felt like giving up before I had really tried.<\/p>\n
Frank shifted his weight.<\/p>\n
"Well?"<\/p>\n
I turned back to him.<\/p>\n
"I'm not selling him."<\/p>\n
Frank looked disappointed.<\/p>\n
"You're sure?"<\/p>\n
"Yes."<\/p>\n
He put the wallet away.<\/p>\n
"You're making this harder than it needs to be."<\/p>\n
I didn't argue.<\/p>\n
He shook his head.<\/p>\n
"Still as stubborn as ever."<\/p>\n
"I suppose I am."<\/p>\n
He didn't press me further.<\/p>\n
A short while later, he climbed back into his truck.<\/p>\n
I stood near the driveway while he left.<\/p>\n
The sound of his engine faded.<\/p>\n
Then the yard became quiet again.<\/p>\n
I watched Maggie scratch Patch's neck.<\/p>\n
For a moment, I felt relieved.<\/p>\n
I had said no.<\/p>\n
The decision was made.<\/p>\n
Then I went inside and opened my checkbook.<\/p>\n
The relief didn't last.<\/p>\n
There was still the matter of what I could afford.<\/p>\n
I sat down at the kitchen table.<\/p>\n
The black notebook was beside me.<\/p>\n
I opened it.<\/p>\n
I looked over the entries again.<\/p>\n
April twenty-second.<\/p>\n
Thirty-one dollars for the horse.<\/p>\n
April twenty-fourth.<\/p>\n
Four dollars and ninety-five cents for hay.<\/p>\n
April twenty-seventh.<\/p>\n
Three dollars and seventy cents for feed.<\/p>\n
Then the other expenses that followed.<\/p>\n
I added the amounts again.<\/p>\n
The figures hadn't changed since the last time I counted them.<\/p>\n
I knew they wouldn't.<\/p>\n
But I kept doing the arithmetic as though I might have overlooked something.<\/p>\n
At the edge of the table lay the electric bill.<\/p>\n
It was unpaid.<\/p>\n
I picked it up.<\/p>\n
I studied the amount.<\/p>\n
Then I put it down.<\/p>\n
I thought about the examination Patch needed.<\/p>\n
I thought about what it might cost to have someone investigate his foot properly.<\/p>\n
And I felt that familiar, sickening uncertainty that comes when every sensible solution seems to require money you don't have.<\/p>\n
I wasn't angry at Patch.<\/p>\n
He hadn't asked me to buy him.<\/p>\n
I wasn't angry at Maggie.<\/p>\n
She was doing more than her share.<\/p>\n
I was angry with myself.<\/p>\n
I had taken responsibility for a suffering animal without understanding how expensive even basic care might become.<\/p>\n
I had refused a cash offer.<\/p>\n
And now I couldn't explain how I was going to solve the problem that mattered most.<\/p>\n
His pain.<\/p>\n
That was what kept me staring at the checkbook.<\/p>\n
Not whether I could sell him for a profit.<\/p>\n
Not whether somebody else might think I had made a poor investment.<\/p>\n
The horse was still hurting.<\/p>\n
I knew it.<\/p>\n
And I didn't know what to do.<\/p>\n
That evening, Maggie came into the kitchen.<\/p>\n
I heard her approach but didn't look up immediately.<\/p>\n
The electric bill was still on the table.<\/p>\n
My checkbook lay open beside it.<\/p>\n
She stopped in the doorway.<\/p>\n
"Grandma?"<\/p>\n
I raised my head.<\/p>\n
"What is it, honey?"<\/p>\n
She looked at the papers.<\/p>\n
Then she asked something I had been trying not to think about.<\/p>\n
"Are you going to let that man buy Patch?"<\/p>\n
I closed the checkbook.<\/p>\n
"No decision like that has been made."<\/p>\n
She watched me.<\/p>\n
"Would you want to sell him?"<\/p>\n
I asked.<\/p>\n
She shook her head at once.<\/p>\n
"No."<\/p>\n
Then she looked down.<\/p>\n
"But I don't want us to lose the house."<\/p>\n
I stared at her.<\/p>\n
She was young.<\/p>\n
Too young to be carrying that fear.<\/p>\n
I wanted to tell her she had nothing to worry about.<\/p>\n
I wanted to say we had plenty of money and everything would be fine.<\/p>\n
But she had been watching me count pennies.<\/p>\n
She knew the refrigerator wasn't full.<\/p>\n
And she had seen the bill on the table.<\/p>\n
There was no point treating her as though she couldn't notice what was happening.<\/p>\n
"The house belongs to us, Maggie. We don't owe money on it."<\/p>\n
She lifted her eyes.<\/p>\n
"I didn't mean it exactly like that."<\/p>\n
"I know."<\/p>\n
And I did.<\/p>\n
She was afraid that caring about Patch would cost us more than we could afford.<\/p>\n
She was afraid of becoming another problem for me.<\/p>\n
That realization hurt.<\/p>\n
Maggie had lost her father.<\/p>\n
She shouldn't have needed to worry that loving a horse might make her grandmother's life worse.<\/p>\n
I reached across the table.<\/p>\n
She gave me her hand.<\/p>\n
I held it.<\/p>\n
For a little while, neither of us spoke.<\/p>\n
I wanted her to understand that I hadn't bought Patch expecting her to carry the burden.<\/p>\n
I hadn't known whether she would take any interest in him at all.<\/p>\n
And I certainly hadn't expected a thin, lame horse to become so important to our days.<\/p>\n
But he had.<\/p>\n
And now there were decisions to make.<\/p>\n
I thought about Frank's money.<\/p>\n
Seventy-five dollars.<\/p>\n
Cash in my hand.<\/p>\n
Enough to ease some immediate worries.<\/p>\n
I thought about the way Patch had learned to listen for the school bus.<\/p>\n
I thought about Maggie coming downstairs before sunrise.<\/p>\n
Then I thought about that twisted horseshoe.<\/p>\n
The pressure against the hoof.<\/p>\n
The unsupported heel.<\/p>\n
And the possibility that Patch's condition wasn't simply something we had to accept.<\/p>\n
We had not answered the question Maggie asked.<\/p>\n
I couldn't keep putting it off.<\/p>\n
After she went to bed, I sat in the kitchen again.<\/p>\n
I didn't make any more calculations.<\/p>\n
I looked at the telephone.<\/p>\n
There was a man I could call.<\/p>\n
Silas Boone.<\/p>\n
He was seventy-three years old.<\/p>\n
He had spent more than forty years shoeing horses around central Kentucky.<\/p>\n
He wasn't a stranger to my family.<\/p>\n
He had known my husband.<\/p>\n
That mattered to me.<\/p>\n
My husband had trusted people who knew their work, especially the kind of work that couldn't be learned from simply watching somebody do it once.<\/p>\n
Silas had made a living understanding horses' feet.<\/p>\n
If anyone I knew could look at Patch's shoe and tell me whether it was making things worse, it was him.<\/p>\n
I should have thought of him sooner.<\/p>\n
Instead, I'd spent days staring at the expense notebook and wondering how to afford answers.<\/p>\n
I sat with that thought for a long time.<\/p>\n
There are times when pride disguises itself as being practical.<\/p>\n
I had been so worried about asking for help I couldn't afford that I had almost stopped looking for help at all.<\/p>\n
I didn't know whether Silas would come.<\/p>\n
He was retired.<\/p>\n
He had no obligation to drive out and examine a horse I had bought at auction.<\/p>\n
And I didn't know what he would be able to do even if he agreed.<\/p>\n
But I knew I needed to ask.<\/p>\n
The next morning, I picked up the telephone.<\/p>\n
I reached Silas and told him about Patch.<\/p>\n
I explained the limp.<\/p>\n
The shoe.<\/p>\n
The way Maggie had noticed that it didn't sit properly.<\/p>\n
And the fact that the horse remained in pain.<\/p>\n
Silas listened.<\/p>\n
He asked about the foot.<\/p>\n
I answered what I could.<\/p>\n
When I didn't know something, I said so.<\/p>\n
There was no use pretending I understood more than I did.<\/p>\n
Then he agreed to come.<\/p>\n
Two days.<\/p>\n
That was when he could make the trip.<\/p>\n
I thanked him.<\/p>\n
Afterward, I stood in the kitchen holding the receiver for a moment before putting it down.<\/p>\n
I hadn't solved anything yet.<\/p>\n
Patch still needed attention.<\/p>\n
The bills were still there.<\/p>\n
And I had no idea what Silas would find.<\/p>\n
But I had finally taken a step toward answering Maggie's question.<\/p>\n
I went outside.<\/p>\n
She was brushing Patch.<\/p>\n
I told her that a man who knew horses' feet was coming to look at him.<\/p>\n
She stopped moving the brush.<\/p>\n
"Will he know what's wrong?"<\/p>\n
"I hope so."<\/p>\n
She looked toward Patch's front leg.<\/p>\n
Then she nodded.<\/p>\n
"Good."<\/p>\n
And she went back to brushing him.<\/p>\n
That was when I understood why I had refused Frank.<\/p>\n
I hadn't been holding on to Patch because I believed he would become valuable.<\/p>\n
I hadn't been waiting for some miracle.<\/p>\n
I simply couldn't sell him while there was still a chance we could find out why he hurt.<\/p>\n
And Maggie, who had already watched one person she loved disappear from her life, deserved to know that I wasn't going to give up without trying.<\/p>\n
Source: news1.shoptonytv.net<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n By late May, the numbers in my black notebook were becoming difficult to look at. I had spent more than forty-four dollars feeding and caring for Patch. That was on … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11796,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drama-sory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastestdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastestdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastestdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastestdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastestdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11799"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastestdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11819,"href":"https:\/\/lastestdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11799\/revisions\/11819"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastestdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastestdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastestdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastestdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nClick here to continue reading: PART 4: An Old Horseshoer Removed One Crooked Shoe and Discovered Why the Horse Everyone Had Given Up On Was Still Fighting to Walk<\/a><\/strong><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"