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potentially triggery: death of animals
Nov. 15th, 2011 10:10 amthings go up and down.
Sunday afternoon was spectacular fun, with a pile of friends and 3 liters of liquid nitrogen. We pulverized gummy things, and exploded a racket ball, and tennis balls make nice crunchy noises when you hit them if they are frozen and to end it we made the tastiest ice cream EVAR.
Monday was really hard. I'm so glad I went to see Image before he was euthanized. I got to pat him, and feed him a carrot, and hug him and hug J and talk about things we'd learned from him. He was completely himself, even while he was old and tired and in pain and a little distracted. The staff were incredibly kind, to us, to Image, regarding the whole procedure. It was much more peaceful than they expected. J and B and I sat there with him for a while after too, leaning on him, and crying some and talking some. J insists she's seen ghosts of the horses that die at the barn, and she was very worried about leaving his body there that he wouldn't show himself at the farm. We finally took a piece of his tail, figuring he'd need the other pieces of himself in his afterlife and unable to afford a cremation so as to sprinkle his ashes closer to home. He'll come looking for his tail, right? and find his way back...
Being there was much, much better than being called out of the blue and being utterly unable to pay respects or say good bye. The vets were really really clear that there was nothing they could but make him comfortable, and even that was failing. There was no doubt whatsoever that we were not doing a completely correct thing.
They will do a necropsy to better understand what was going on, and I think students will also be learning things from his remains. I think it is beyond wonderful that he gets to be a schoolmaster even after death. I hope he makes those vet students work as hard for their learning as he used to make me work for mine.
It seemed like the best antidote to death was life, so I came home from Tufts and![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
islenskr and I went to love up the Canadian mares. That was a good thing, and I'm going up again today, whether it rains or not.
honestly though, I am still thinking about working with elephants.
Sunday afternoon was spectacular fun, with a pile of friends and 3 liters of liquid nitrogen. We pulverized gummy things, and exploded a racket ball, and tennis balls make nice crunchy noises when you hit them if they are frozen and to end it we made the tastiest ice cream EVAR.
Monday was really hard. I'm so glad I went to see Image before he was euthanized. I got to pat him, and feed him a carrot, and hug him and hug J and talk about things we'd learned from him. He was completely himself, even while he was old and tired and in pain and a little distracted. The staff were incredibly kind, to us, to Image, regarding the whole procedure. It was much more peaceful than they expected. J and B and I sat there with him for a while after too, leaning on him, and crying some and talking some. J insists she's seen ghosts of the horses that die at the barn, and she was very worried about leaving his body there that he wouldn't show himself at the farm. We finally took a piece of his tail, figuring he'd need the other pieces of himself in his afterlife and unable to afford a cremation so as to sprinkle his ashes closer to home. He'll come looking for his tail, right? and find his way back...
Being there was much, much better than being called out of the blue and being utterly unable to pay respects or say good bye. The vets were really really clear that there was nothing they could but make him comfortable, and even that was failing. There was no doubt whatsoever that we were not doing a completely correct thing.
They will do a necropsy to better understand what was going on, and I think students will also be learning things from his remains. I think it is beyond wonderful that he gets to be a schoolmaster even after death. I hope he makes those vet students work as hard for their learning as he used to make me work for mine.
It seemed like the best antidote to death was life, so I came home from Tufts and
islenskr and I went to love up the Canadian mares. That was a good thing, and I'm going up again today, whether it rains or not.honestly though, I am still thinking about working with elephants.