In our family, my sister got all the animal-loving genes. We always had pets while growing up, and though I didn't mind them, I certainly don't remember going much out of my way to hang out with them. I was always (and still am) pretty indifferent to having pets around.
But not Jen. She is the Dr. Doolittle of the family, and always seemed to be the one to want pets around. She comes by it naturally, I suppose; our maternal grandmother is the very same way. They live out in the country and have had dozens and dozens of pets over the years, often times adopting our pets when for one reason or another they got to be too much for my mom, who looked after the bulk of the pet-caring duties while working full time and raising three kids without much active participation on my dad's part. To this day, my 89-year-old grandmother still walks down to the barn at the farm across the street from her house, to feed the barn cats. She's forever worried about them and their safety. So my sister definitely takes after her in the animal-loving department.
Ever since she was a tiny little girl, Jen wanted a horse. She was captivated by them from a very young age, and dreamed of having her own horse one day. Once, when we I was maybe nine years old and she was seven, I remember spinning a tale one day and I had her totally convinced that our parents had decided to buy her a horse of her own. Her excitement was palpable, and I remember once I finally broke the truth to her (which was that I never had any such conversation with my parents and there wasn't even the most remote possibility that it was true), her disappointment was positively heartbreaking. While I was spinning the tale I was having a great deal of fun with it, but I'll never forget the feeling of feeling like the most meanest, most cruel human being on the planet once I told her the truth. She cried and cried, and the depths of her heartbreak was devastating. I had no idea why on earth I'd thought it would be funny, and felt terrible about it. Still do to this day. Sorry Jen.
But several years ago - maybe five years? - Jen's dream actually came true. And what IS funny is how life sometimes gives you opportunities you might have dreamed of without ever holding in your heart that it might ACTUALLY be reality one day. Jen had met a friend-of-a-friend at a house party one night, who was talking about how she and her husband had two horses but due to health issues, her husband couldn't ride anymore. She was wishing she had someone to go riding with. My sister piped up that she would LOVE to go riding with her, and they did so for about six months until the friend decided that it really was time to sell the horse, as there was no return to riding in her husband's future. The boarding fees where they had the horse were reasonable, and she sold the horse to my sister for not very much money at all, as I recall. As far as horses go, that is; the figure of a couple of thousand dollars comes to mind.
I remember Jen discussing the idea with me when the possibility of buying Percy was brought to the table; she was renting my basement from me at the time, and wasn't sure if she was going to be able to cover the expenses of horse ownership on her own. I remember going through the figures with her and doing everything I could to help her think of ways she could make it work, and reasons why she should make room in her budget for this purchase. It's not often you get the chance to make a lifelong dream come true for a very reasonable, do-able investment. And she hasn't regretted the purchase for a single day since. Quite the opposite, in fact; Percy is a horse that brings joy, happiness, reward and contentment to just about every single one of Jen's days. She is completely in her glory when she's at the barn, in her big muddy boots mucking out his stall and doing all the things she does to take care of him. He lights up her life.
And I think that's priceless.
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