Rain

Finally...

After weeks and weeks of drought...

Rain!!

Saturday afternoon the little puffy white clouds began to gather and mass and darken into a beautiful blanket of grays across the horizon. In the wee hours of Sunday morning, the sky opened and water began to pour down. Sweet, gentle, steady rain. It's Tuesday afternoon now, and still coming... it ebbs and flows, from light mist to heavy downpour, with only rare moments of gusting wind so even the most fragile trees are uncurling their browning leaves and drinking in the life-giving nectar.

Caroline was supposed to come change Walter's bandage on Sunday. It was raining too hard and the yard where we treat him - being the clearest spot - was awash in red clay mud. I asked how much longer we need to keep the wounds bandaged?

She told me, until the big cut closes up from the inside. Caroline said besides keeping it clean while it's open,  the main thing was to keep the wound from drying out during healing. And she said not to change the bandage unless it was obviously soaked clear through and/or letting in dirt.

By Monday morning I could see it was obviously soaked clear through, and letting in dirt. Walter stood still gratefully while I cut it off. Imagine my surprise - the deep wound was closed! From the inside out. I stood staring in astonishment for a moment, then gingerly picked his foot up and cleaned all round it with a damp cloth, and touched it lightly. Nope, not imagining things - it really was sealing itself. No signs of infection. So I left it unwrapped.

One thing I did notice, though -Walter was shivering in the damp early morning drizzle. His pasture's only shelter is a tree in the far corner where the 3 pastures meet, and he and the three horses like to congregate. I was concerned, but figured he'd warm up as the day went on.

Nope. Came back from work around 6pm and there he was under the tree, shivering all over while the other three took the weather in stride. Now I was more then "concerned." I was a bit frantic, my imagination running away with me since neither Linda nor I had a thermometer to check his temp, and I had visions of finding little Walt in dire straits come morning. Linda has perfectly good pastures, with trees and windbreaks in the other two, but for many reasons the herds can't be put in together or changed around. The pen where I had Walter before was now a boggy mud pit. We had washed tack on Friday afternoon and Linda's horse blankets were hanging on the fence, sopping wet.

Linda and I were sitting in the camper, me staring out the window at a soaked Walter with my gut twisting as I watched him shiver while the sun set, and the ever practical Linda, hands on hips, looking around for some solution. In a frustrated voice she said, "Well, if he's tarp-trained maybe you could take that blue tarp out by the barn and tie it over him..."

I looked down at the "couch" I was sitting on. It consisted of a twin mattress on the seat part of a fold-out spring frame, which I had covered with the industrial-strength space blanket I use as a ground cloth for my tent. The space blanket is orange vinyl on one side, some kind of shiny silver stuff on the other, and the silver side is made to reflect body heat to save your life if you wrap it around yourself when stranded in a snowstorm or other such hypothermic adventure.

It is slightly rectangular... about as long lengthwise as a little foxtrotter mule from neck to tail.

Space blanket plus bailing twine:

And believe it or not, Walter loves his new blanket! His entire body language changed to that of a warm, happy mule. This morning, he was cheerfully hanging out at the fence waiting for grain, still sporting his sporty duds. No sign whatsoever of having tried to get it off. I took it off though, knowing rain or no rain, it'll get up in the 80s today.

Needless to say, the cut is staying moist as it heals in this weather, which is good. Those of you who follow the ride, please keep thinking good thoughts for Walter - I truly believe it helps. Thank you all for your caring and support.