Help Save Sweetheart
Sweetheart will steal your heart. Like so many who are brought to the Society’s barns, she had all but lost hope.
We received little information about her. How had she gotten in this shocking condition? She was so thin, with ribs, spine, tail head, and hipbones protruding through her rain-rotted, dull winter coat. Her skinny rump was covered in patches of infected skin, bare from the loss of hair, and hot to the touch. I ran my fingers under her stomach all the way back to a swollen udder that was crusty to the touch. A peek into her mouth revealed no upper front teeth (how in the world will she ever graze again?) and dirty looking gums that had a slow capillary refill rate. A look under her neglected, scraggly tail revealed indescribably nasty crud. I couldn’t feel any heat in her legs and although her hoofs displayed the telltale rings that spell a previous founder, her feet weren’t too long or too badly chipped. Her body was depleted of all fat and there was little muscle left under her rough fur.
Each eyelid had fresh wounds as well as scabbed over scrapes to attest to recent difficulties staying on her feet. From underneath these painful lids, Sweetheart’s kind eyes looked out onto a world that had let her down. She wasn’t angry, just so very sad. I struggled to hold back my tears. After giving her forehead a soft, getting-to-know-you kind of a rub, I whispered into her ear and promised her that the rest of her life would be very different.
That was our first meeting. It was just the beginning of what promises to be a long, loving friendship. Like so many abused or neglected animals, Sweetheart had been kept barely alive, at the mercy of people who did not provide even basic food, water, shelter or necessary medical attention. By good fortune, her circumstances brought her to the Society, where she will receive everything needed to restore her to a comfortable, safe life. Each horse that comes into the Society’s barn speaks to us in his or her individual way. Sweetheart speaks a language of love and trust that animal people can hear. All you have to do is listen.
As Sweetheart begins this chapter of her life here at the MSSPA, we will share her experiences with you on the MSSPA blog. Please have patience as we begin this journey. It takes a long time to bring a horse back from the brink of death, and will take a while for us to learn how to maintain a good blog. Please join us and find out firsthand what it takes to bring our Sweetheart back to life.
You can help support Sweetheart and all the animals living at the Society by donating to the MSSPA. Just click the button that says, “Help Save Sweetheart and Her Friends!” You may send a check or money order to P.O. Box 10, South Windham, Maine
04082-0010 or better yet, bring your gift in person and meet Sweetheart any afternoon between 1:00p.m. – 3:00p.m. at the Society’s River Road farm.
