Blue, But Shade Is Three Years Gone

Photo copyright Wings, 2021; all rights reserved.

Most of the sky is once again blue, but Shade is three years gone. 

That was her full name, Shade In the Blue, but we mostly just called her Shade. Also Monster, Brat, Butthead, and occasionally, You Bitch, all affectionately if exasperatedly. Shade was a monster, and she loved every minute of it. She'd as soon kick you in the ass as look at you, and to her it was all fun and games, but of the distinctly dominant sort. She was Cree's daughter, and Cree was the only one capable of keeping her in her place.

We loved her anyway.

That up there was her in better days, in March of 2015 to be exact, when the sun was starting to warm the earth again and their winter coats were getting itchy and they spent as much time as possible rolling in the dirt. It would only be another three years that we'd have her with us, although we had no way of knowing it at the time; the local equine cancer cluster hadn't begun claiming lives from our herd yet, but she would become the third in a very quick row.

But on that July day three years ago, we knew. She could barely stand; it took everything she had to follow us out to the field where her resting place would be. The cancer had shot through her system with astonishing rapidity, and only the love between her and Miskwaki, I'm convinced, had kept her going that long. And Miskwaki, having then lost his entire herd, literally wept for her; if you've never heard a horse cry, I hope you never have to do so. It'll tear your heart in two.

A friend helped, because no one whose job it was could be bothered. It was 4:45 PM on that day when we sent her on her journey to join her mother and her beloved Ice in the sky. And this evening, albeit a little late, Wings and I went out to her resting place to give her some cedar and some smoke, some water and tobacco.

I promised him I would always do that for our animals. Sometimes, he does it with me.

But she was in such distress that I prefer to remember her as she was in the photo above: alive and lively, engaged and thoroughly insolent, always getting into trouble or raising hell somehow. I miss her wild indomitable spirit. We love you, Shade. Your fierce and beautiful spirit still lives in our hearts.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2021; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.