Gentlewood Farms

March 31

I am so mad today! Yesterday, My-Momma-Banjo and I played all day out in the pasture. I got to run and run and buck and play. And we had the best time. I got to nap in the sunshine, and My-Momma-Banjo introduced me to her grownup horse friends. She didn’t let them get very close to me, but I could tell that she was very proud of me!

I wasn’t paying attention to the sky, but Miss Pat showed up around dark time and told My-Momma-Banjo that we had to go inside. She said there was going to be “bumblestorms” and she wanted to keep me safe. My-Momma-Banjo didn’t want to go inside, but Miss Pat was pretty bossy. I do not like her AT all.

Being inside wasn’t so very bad. There was some warm tree-smell stuff on the ground, and when I laid down in it, it fluffed up around my tummy and my legs and kept me warm. In the middle of the night, the bumblestorm came. It was LOUD and it was scarey to me, but My-Momma-Banjo wasn’t scared at all. She slept right through it all!

Not long after the bumblestorm, Miss Pat showed up with her flashlight. Doesn’t she EVER sleep? I heard her tell My-Momma-Banjo that she wanted to make sure we were ok, and she was going to leave us alone now. My-Momma-Banjo snuffled at her, and put her head into Miss Pat’s hand and gave her some love. I could tell that she loved Miss Pat, so I decided maybe I would love her too if she would quit being so bossy. Then Miss Pat left and it was dark.

And I don’t quite know what happened, but the next thing I knew My-Momma-Banjo was unhappy. She laid down and began to roll around. I asked her what was wrong, but she didn’t say anything to me. I began to cry. But nobody heard me. After a while, My-Momma-Banjo got very still and very quiet. I could hear her breathing, and I asked her if she was ok. She told me she was too tired to stand up, but that I could have a drink from her udder milk if I could figure out how. So I thought about it and thought about it and pretty soon, I figured it out. I was very happy that My-Momma-Banjo was going to feed me, even when she was so tired and unhappy. I wished Miss Pat would come. She would know what to do to make My-Momma-Banjo feel better.

The night seemed to go on forever, but pretty soon the bright round light began to come up over the grass, and Miss Pat came out with the yellow bucket of My-Momma-Banjo’s dinner. She saw My-Momma-Banjo lying in the stall, and I don’t know WHY, but she turned around and ran away! Then Miss Pat came back and put a big blue rug over My-Momma-Banjo and she poked a sharp stick into her neck. She told me it was to help My-Momma-Banjo stay warm and more comfort-full. Then she went away again. It seemed like a very long time to me, but in 30 minutes, she came back with another peoples that she called The Doc.

The Doc leaned down over My-Momma-Banjo and put her long eartubes against her chest. She said something to Miss Pat and then she said, “I’m so sorry.” Miss Pat said, “I thought so, and that’s why I called you.” and they walked over to The Doc’s big truck. Doc came back with a sharp stick and she poked it into My-Momma-Banjo. I screamed, “get up, get up, My-Momma-Banjo. Run! Run away!” But My-Momma-Banjo said, “shhhh. It’s ok. It is going to be fine. Miss Pat will take very good care of you. Be a good girl. I love you.” And then My-Momma-Banjo took a big sigh and quit talking to me.

And then Miss Pat put me in a little pen away from My-Momma-Banjo. I could see her, and I called and called to her, but the sharp stick must have made her deaf or something because as loud as I called to her, she could not hear me! She did not answer, and I got madder and madder. And then Miss Pat came out with a purple bucket that had some stuff that was trying to be My-Momma-Banjo’s milk food, but it didn’t smell the same at all, and it wasn’t inside My-Momma-Banjo’s udder, and I did not WANT it. I wanted My-Momma-Banjo.

Miss Pat told me that she was sad for me but that I needed to suck up and be cooperation. She poked her fingers in the pretend milk stuff and then she POKED THEM IN MY MOUTH! I was so mad, I didn’t care about being cooperation. I tried my best for a long time to get Miss Pat to understand that I did not want to suck on her fingers. I wanted to suck on My-Momma-Banjo’s udder and get the Real-Deal milk, but Miss Pat told me that she could not let me do that anymore because it would not be good for me. I think she is full of the pretend milk that she wants me to drink, because any foal knows that there is no way that My-Momma-Banjo’s Real-Deal milk would be bad for me.

After a long time, Miss Pat left me alone. And then she came back with Mister Tom. And they took me away from My-Momma-Banjo and put me in the big red rolling box and when the box quit rolling I was somewhere I did not know where I was. It was very scarey, but I was so mad that I did not care about being scared.

Miss Pat and another peoples named Aunt Judy took me down a long hall to a white room, kind of like the room where My-Momma-Banjo and I had spent the night together. There was a lady at the strange place that Miss Pat called Miss Debbie. And The Doc was there too. I remembered her, and she still smelled a little like My-Momma-Banjo so I wasn’t very scared anymore. Miss Debbie brought a little blue bowl into the white room and stuck it under my nose and then SHE put her fingers into my mouth! I did not like all these human peoples poking their fingers into my mouth and I was hateful.

I think Miss Debbie is a mule wearing a disguise because she was very stubborn. She kept poking her fingers into the bowl and into my mouth and when I put my head down a little bit, she put the bowl up so my whiskers and lips got wet. I’m still not quite sure how it happened, but I think I may have licked my lips or something, and I was so very hungry that the pretend milk tasted almost like the Real-Deal. And I put my mouth into the bowl, and the next thing I knew, the pretend milk was gone.

I hope My-Momma-Banjo won’t be mad at me for drinking the pretend milk.