"No, I can't take that dog", "No there is no room for a kitten", "no I am sorry I am not going that way next weekend". I don't always frame it in a no ...
I also (kind of obviously if you've followed this blog or my FB stuff at all) said yes a few times ... looking around right now at least 8 times (and it's honestly quite a lot higher than that)
Often animals come here to join our forever family and that's super - but sometimes the animal comes to find safety - and we are a weigh station rather than a stopping point.
I'm trying very hard to find a way to say yes to a horse in need. Not forever yes as Team Valiant is full and we are personally tapped out (a summer of specialist trips for Sally, losing Brody and Frannie, doing 4 equine dentistries (while Team Val had 3 done) - Sam has a booked surgery in two weeks, Thea has had some blips - the vet bills are running higher than mortgage payments have ever been!) But trying to figure out how to get him safe, assess him and see what we can do for him. He's skinny and losing weight, his farm is closing this week and he is at risk of being sent to auction - high risk actually and he lives very close to the Quebec slaughter plants so kill buyers will certainly be hanging out at the auction. Sigh
So my heart says YES and my wallet says wish I could help but NO.
There are two component costs to horses - free horses can be very expensive - always look a free horse over very carefully - mouth and all! Wanna know more? Read on ... if not, skip to the bottom
Let's call the first stage set up costs:
Shipping - this dude is over 400 km away one way so is $800-$900 to get here
Vet costs - vary - but $200 for blood work deworming and vaccines is not unreasonable and may spiral up quickly if sa he needs his teeth done - not uncommon in thin horses
Stuff - grooming, blankets etc - very luckily for this fella we have stuff .. and people are generous about passing along brushes, and things that they no longer need.
so - $1100 - $1500 gets him safe
Ongoing costs actually are scarier long term feed (hay and hard feed) farrier, vetting etc - $250 - $400 per month without any labour type of cost in there ... sigh
Where we are at ... we have stuff he can use, we have pledges of $210 in monthly sponsorship for 6-10 months set up for him and we have $200 towards his set up costs - generous, thoughtful wonderful people.
What's the gap? $60 more a month would make me comfortable and $800 upfront would make it possible. It doesn't sound like much if you think of community but the reality is, right now, today, it's the difference between no and yes.
But to know me is to know I don't like asking for things ... if you can give anything to help this chap with no name (how sad is that!) I'd love to welcome you to Love The One You Are's Gratitude Project - many of you have likely already given - we raised over a thousand dollars for Team Valiant's big fall fundraiser with it already. If you want to make a donation to help this guy paypal agility.addict @ aol.com without spaces ... and tell me to add that email to the project
If you don't know what to give I averaged the donations awhile ago and it came to $60 so the sign up direct link became that amount ... you can find it here the link to course for $60
Thanks for thinking about it, joining the project - sharing the blog or the post over on Love the One You Are .
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