A Horse Of Course

Two minutes before the earthquake rippled our bed, Raffi began barking in his kennel. What's wrong with that dog we wondered. Two minutes later we knew. This occurred shortly after five in the morning. Two minutes before six, Finnegan achieved maximum decibel level barking from the kitchen where he was prowling about for reasons of his own. "Now what?" I growled as I drug myself out of bed. I hadn't really slept since the quake and my hopes of returning to dreamland were rapidly being crushed. Oda Figaramous Pegaloomer.

I pulled on my sweats, climbed into my Crocs and headed for the kitchen. I was hollering to Finny to hold it down, get a grip, and to "SHUT UP" as I did so. I was bee-lining to the coffee pot in the semi-conscious fashion that is my usual state of being first thing in the morning. There I could hit the "ON" button and start the heavenly drip of the sweet smelling, bitter tasting wonderfulness that is my blend of Cafe Ruiz' French and Italian roasts. Finny was still going berserk and I was in the middle of my own loud SHHHHHH when I noticed the horse standing outside our kitchen window. "What the? Ha!" and "That explains it." all rushed to my mind. "Good boy Finnegan, it's okay, calm down it's no big deal" came next. I alerted Woowoo Charly to the situation and told her to come have a look. "Yup, that's a horse all right" she said and headed back to bed. That wasn't going to happen though, the little dogs were now fully awake and filling the air with piercing yaps to be let out of their kennels. I couldn't get out the front door because Old Girl was sleeping and leaning against it and I didn't want to wake her. Old Girl is a neighbor's dog who hangs out at our house on a regular basis. At some point - I was still not fully functional so a precise time-line is not quite available. I mean I hadn't actually had my coffee yet - I managed to grab our camera and shoot a quick picture of the horse through our bedroom window. Moments like these need to be documented. I then unlocked and went out the back door, walked around the house and approached the horse. It had a long lead attached to its rope bridle, so I just walked up, took the lead in hand and said good morning. I was pretty sure the critter belonged to a neighbor of ours down the road. My guess was that it had been spooked by the earthquake and run off.

I hollered to Charly to throw my jacket over the back fence - there was an early morning chill - and then I set off with the horse in tow. We had a nice conversation along the way and I told him he could visit any time, but that he ought to call first so the dogs wouldn't be so upset when he arrived. When I got to the neighbor's house, there was no one up and about. I opened their front gate and let the horse into the yard. A portion of fence surrounding their property was down, probably from recent high winds and rain, but the horse now seemed content to stay put. He was happily munching his owner's lawn.

"Talwaygo" I said, waving. and then I headed home. The coffee was ready and waiting.


Addendum: The horse picture shot through the window was too dark to show. Also, horse may be a white mule. It's hard to tell.