03/10/08, 10:15pm…catching up

March 10th, 10:15pm: As I mentioned earlier, I know many of you are still getting your news from me right here and you’re eagerly watching to see if I post about the hearing today. I will-  though there’s not much to tell. The farm owners were scheduled for a 3pm appearance at the Douglas County Courthouse – their attorney entered their plea of ‘not guilty’ and it was off to the next case. Around 10 or so showed up in support of Windchill, we all wore purple ribbons or Windchill buttons.  I don’t know if I’ll post much about the case here or on the forums. I’m just not sure. I’m tied too closely to it. I think it would probably be too easy to stir emotions and public sentiment with my own chaotic emotions on this and I don’t want to abuse the trust you have placed in me by reading my words here and coming back each day. I don’t know. I’m conflicted because then I think I have come this far and told Windchill’s story and isn’t this a part of it? Yet I don’t think this is the most important part. The most important part started February 9th and it grew and grew and grew. Only his body left us February 29th, his spirit is still here. I find it difficult to return to the ways of old. My body is still programmed for the routine we had for those 20 days so a return to eating and sleeping hasn’t occurred yet, not fully. More importantly is the desire to keep things rolling on his non-profit. Every day there’s a new volunteer, a new resource. We’re developing the website for him. We have several folks we’ve asked to consider being on the board. We have an attorney working on the formation of the organization, along with another matter. And we’ve started sketching ideas for the database behind the national resource network. We have a start to being able to help others in their rescues – we have you. You are the most powerful ‘force’ I think I’ve ever experienced. I was once on the end of runway not paying attention when the crew chief marshaled an F-4D fighter out of its position. It turned and there I looked into the turbines as the pilot wound it up to taxi – it inflated my lungs, picked me straight up and I flew – standing perfectly vertical – for quite a ways before landing – again on my feet. That feeling was nothing compared to what  I have seen firsthand with the power of your love and caring – and it is AWESOME. And we have a ton of coffee and cookies to prove it…

I may change my thoughts on this but I think for at least right now I will keep you updated by perhaps posting links to the places on the forum where people are tracking the case and let them be my reports to you. I saw someone had posted the next date is April 7th for a pre-trial hearing and update.

Let’s see – oh yeah, one other thing I forgot to tell you I think – I’ve asked the computer company to finish the work on the webcams we had started for Windchill. The signal booster thing and router are already in there from their previous work, they just need to install the cams they had ordered for Windchill and for his security – so you guys can watch a baby horse be born. You’ll then be able to watch the (Lord willing) healthy foal grow, nurse, feed, play. I think you’re going to really enjoy this and hopefully it will help all of our hearts a little bit to see new life where another was lost to us. And I have no doubt Windchill will be there in spirit with the new baby. I feel him now from time to time. And sometimes when I look in his stall I still see him pushing himself around in circles and I laugh. And I cry. I think becoming so recognized nationally, even internationally, is amazing and an honor and a surprise. But selfishly I would trade the ‘honor’ to see him standing in the stall now next to his half-sisters, and playing with the boys in the North (Skyla) pasture every morning – just another anonymous horse at a little known backwoods farm on a hill overlooking Lake Superior where he played with an unknown blue eyed dog and was fed by an unknown blue eyed cowboy or a trainer who is perhaps a little more well known…and yet somehow the anonymity never bothered him or his brothers or sisters in those pastures because they were loved and they knew it.