| Missy aka: MissTangerea Topsail (the inspiration
for Missy's Hope)
Missy was the third and, most likely, final foal out of our mare Miss
Top Sail Pacody (CC). Her family has been in our family for four
generations starting with my Great grandfather, Raymond Weatherford Sr.
and Missy's maternal great grandmother, Frivolette. My great
grandfather gave me Missy's grandmother when I was 3 years old to be my
first horse.
Missy was the only surviving foal of her sire Tangerea O'Lena.
He was a young stallion, and on his first season and he only bred three
mares. Two for his owner, and CC for us. After breeding, he
went back into training as a reining horse. He was unable to focus
on his job, and his owners decided that they would rather have a good
reining horse than a stallion, so he was gelded. Not long after,
the two other mares miscarried their foals. CC was the one that
the vet didn't think would carry the foal as she had only had two foals
prior to that breeding and there was a small amount of fluid in her
uterus. The other two were seasoned broodmares with no history of
problems. Missy was born on 20 April 2005.
Missy became the inspiration for this organization in August of
2006. Missy fell ill with a high fever early the morning of the
19th and we called the vet. She arrived, examined Missy gave her
some shots to help with the fever and instructions for her care.
She stayed with us until Missy's fever went down and she was eating and
drinking. We watched her continuously throughout the day and
things seemed to be better. At 6 pm I was giving my son a bath and
happened to glance out the window. I knew at that moment that
Missy was colicing. She was laying on the ground biting her
stomach. I yelled for my husband and handed him our little boy
with instructions to call the vet and get her back immediately. I
went out to her and Missy looked at me with pain filled eyes. I
put on a halter and immediately got her on her feet. We began
walking. Thirty minutes later, the vet arrived. She gave her
a dose of Banamine and tried to examine her rectally to no avail.
Missy continued to try to lay down every time we stopped. The vet
wasn't too concerned as Missy was a yearling and still had plenty of
pep. She had another emergency to go to and she left with more
instructions and orders to keep walking until Missy was in the
clear.
We walked together up and down the driveway until late into the
night. Missy seemed better but still had not shown signs that the
colic was stopping. Every time we would pause in our walk, she
would try to lay down and bite her stomach. We called the other
area vets for more suggestions. We were told to continue what we
were doing, that Missy was young and strong and most likely would pull
through. I took turns with my husband through the night walking
Missy until all three of us were exhausted. We talked to the vet
and she said to go ahead and let her rest for a short time. We
took two hours of break before starting the walking again. The vet
came out later in the morning around 6 am. She again tried to do a
rectal of Missy, this time she was successful. The news was
bad. Missy's stomach, colon, and intestine had flipped entirely to
the opposite side of her body. The chance of it flipping on it's
own was almost non existent. The worst was that surgery (There was
a surgeon who did colic surgeries, but he was over an hour away) would
be unable to repair the damage. She encouraged us to give Missy
some time to say goodbye to her mother and to give our children a chance
to say goodbye. She also hoped as we did that a miracle would
occur and that the colic would subside and Missy's organs would flip
back to their original position. We agreed that when Missy let us
know it was time, that we would euthanize her peacefully and bury her on
the farm.
Two hours later, we called the vet back out. Missy had finally
given up after a 24 hour battle for her life. While waiting for
the vet to arrive, we let Missy spend time with her mother saying
goodbye, it was a moment I will never forget. They stood so
quietly with noses touching until it was time for her to go. I
lead her back to the spot we had chosen for her, a small area with a
horseshoe shaped ring of trees and allowed her to lay down on the
grass. Our children came out to pet her one last time and tell her
that they loved her. The vet arrived after they were in bed to
help Missy cross the Rainbow Bridge. She crossed peacefully with
her head in my lap. It was 20 August 2006, my son's second
birthday.
She was buried on the farm beneath those trees and we planted a small
memorial garden in her honor there.
The day before we had to move, I gave Missy's mom, CC, a chance to go
where she wanted one last time. She went directly to Missy's grave
and stood for a few, then tuned back to me. We stood facing the
garden for a while and then she went back to the pasture with her new
companions Fleet and Misty.
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