Maybe a few of you remember me. Hi again! I haven’t posted in a while. I used to have the resources to help a few lucky horses and shared their stores with you- Champion Lodge, the imported stakes winning TB we found foundering in route to slaughter a few weeks after leaving Santa Anita- Willy a $50 weanling- Oliver Twist, and $2.50 cent auction purchase colt- Fritz the old chestnut mare who the owners had to give up after 20 years- Desert Spark the scattered brained chestnut LarksparCo so kindly continues to love-and the list goes on.
Well, all of that earned me a lot of good karma, and this weekend, I’m offering some of it to you. As a bonus, I’m begging you to let a great old dog run around your farm. Doggles not included:
I found Whitney at the first vet clinic I ever worked at, about 9 or 10 years ago. She was covered head to tail in ticks, was scarred with burn marks, her tail was injured, infected, about to fall off, and she was petrified of people. She picked me to come home with. For about 2 years, she wouldn’t let a man touch her. Now, she’s the friendliest, kindest dog you will ever meet. That’s the amazing thing about animals, how resilient they can be.
On my ranch in Colorado, Whitney was the only dog I could trusted free-rein. She would come to the window and remind us to let her in when the sun would start to set, like clockwork every night, or she’d let herself in through a dog door if she had that option. She lived the perfect life on our ranch for 5 years, and she deserved it after everything she had been through. This was her usual position: http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i161/margpete/Picture8-7.png
Then our lives changed. A year ago, while I was studying for one of my last vet school exams on island, I received a phone call. The caller asked if I could come get my dog. I told him I’d be on the next flight. I quickly submitted paperwork to export her (which is neither quick nor easy).
As the story goes, my (now) ex-husband decided to move off of the amazing ranch we owned, without telling me, to rent a house with his new girlfriend (who was pretty pregnant at that point), and Whitney ran away and refused to go back. Good dog.
So, I flew Whitney to live on island with me for 3 months in the Caribbean. (her first plane ride: http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i161/margpete/Picture3-11.png strolling on the beach: http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i161/margpete/Picture6-10.png) I took a semester off to sort things out, and Whitney loved living in downtown Austin, TX with me last summer. In August we moved east, to a place where we knew no one within an 8 hour drive, to finish up my last year of vet school. Whitney just isn’t coping well anymore.
Neither am I.
I’m so grateful for all that good karma I somehow accrued, as that’s been what I’ve been living off of for the past few months. I live with a friend, because I can’t afford my own place, after my (caribbean) school lost their student loans. I had thought (wrongly) I’d always be married and I could always access the $100,000 in cash we put down on our ranch, to help finance my last year of school if I ran into financial trouble. I am able to hold onto my 2 horses only because of the kindness and compassion of friends who are keeping them for me. I’ve made some amazing friends and am growing stronger and wiser by leaps and bounds. I don’t come home to tension, anger, and disrespect anymore, and I can be truly happy again. Long story short, I gave up (some could call it lost) just about everything. The ranch, our savings, my other dogs, but more importantly, my stability. I let all of it go so that I could continue and finish vet school. School is amazing, and I am so incredibly lucky to have the opportunity to be here, surrounded by and learning from some of the most amazing veterinarians in the country. I feel like I’m hanging on by a thread, outside of school, coping with all of this. I keep reminding myself I am so close to finishing my DVM degree (board exam is in 2 months, clinics completed in 6 months).
Whitney is downright miserable at my friend’s house and isn’t welcome to stay there alone, so, she sits in a kennel 12 hours a day while I am at school. It’s a safe place for her to stay, but not the sort of life an old hard-luck dog should live. I promise her, we’re almost done. She’s recently become downright miserable in the kennels, although my other dog has been able to adapt very well. It’s causing me an incredible amount of stress. If I only could afford an apartment, a dog sitter, or to fly her to Colorado and someone there that could watch Whitney for a little while…
I just need to lighten the load in my backpack on this uphill journey I’m traveling on right now, because it’s affecting my ability perform at my best at school. I’ll get stronger again, and things will get better soon, but I just need a little bit of help for a little bit of time.
I’m hoping someone with acreage may be in need of a little bit of karma, and wouldn’t mind letting Whitney stay with you for a while. You may not even know she’s there. She’s self sufficient, wise, smart. All she’d like to do is have the ability to stretch her legs during the day, and a warm place to curl up at night inside to sleep. I’ve gathered up just enough money to cover the gas, and am going visit my best friend in Urbana, Illinois for a few weeks, in hopes of finding my path again, as I feel just so lost right now. I just need a little break to regroup and recenter myself, and to be back around someone who cares about me. My best friend does not want Whitney in her apartment, because she’s over the pet limit. I leave tonight, and will be in Illinois by Monday…
I’ll figure out something (I always do), but, I’m finally learning how to ask for help. Maybe someone would like to borrow Whitney for 2 or 3 weeks while I regroup at my friend’s, or maybe even for a few months while I finish school. So, is anyone on the route I’m driving through in NC/TN/KY/IA/IL interested in meeting my special little girl this weekend? What’s the worse you can say, no? She’s in no danger, as I will never let anything bad happen to her. Maybe this is inappropriate to ask, but, I don’t know what else to do. I have exhausted many other options.
Our last morning on island: http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i161/margpete/Picture1-15.png
Roadtrip out east: http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i161/margpete/Picture2-13.png
A much younger, less grey, Whitney: http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i161/margpete/Picture10-4.png
She can come with all her food and flea/tick medications. She’s about 12 years old now. She gets along with everyone and everything, is incredibly healthy, and I’m not sure if I have ever heard her bark. She loves car rides, romantic walks along the beach, and cat poop. When she comes in at night, she will curl up on a pillow or the corner of the bed, and won’t move for about 12 hours.
I’m packing up and hitting the road shortly, but if you’re interested in seeing Whit (or lending me a hug), please email me If not, can you lend a jingle or two that I will find me way through all of this? I’m taking US-40 tonight, because it looks like snow on the northern route, and with 213,000 miles and a slipping transmission, we’re avoiding as much snow as we can. I’ll be in Lexington, KY with old friends Saturday and Sunday, then to Illinois Sunday night, most likely.
