For several years I lived on the side of the mountain in the town of Organ. I rented a tiny cottage covered in vines, surrounded by trees and herb gardens. I also rented a cottage next door for Zen meditations, Reiki treatments and making soap and medicines. My retired eventer, Snookie (Breath of Snow) lived just below the house in a three sided shelter and pen that I had built. Snookie was in his 20's, had the beginnings of Uveitis (moonblindness) and was Cushinoid. I was managing his health and happiness, but he was fragile.
An ice storm hit one day in January. It came without warning (to the severity of it) and we lost power. My little wall unit gas heater worked without electricity... the dogs and I were safe, but Snookie was in a life or death situation. My landlady (the coolest person on the planet) said "take Snookie in the house!" Yet, that wasn't really possible - I did have a storage room in my little back yard. It was of block, but the ceiling was insulated and the door was thick and of metal. I pulled all my stuff out (I thought) and piled it on the downwind side then filled the building with hay and straw. The wind made the pores on my face bleed. The sleet stuck to my body in freaky ice sheets that made me unable to bend my arms and legs easily. I could barely breathe. By the grace of God and Goddess I led Snookie up the hill to the backyard. He was covered in layers (a mesh sheet, blanket and turn out rug on top) and still was shaking from the cold. I "stuffed" him into the room, crunchy ice sheets all stuck to his sides, neck and face. My gas stove worked (it was really old - they work best - simple) so I kept making him buckets of hot herb tea and sloppy hot (warm!) bran mashes and wet pellets. The dogs and I hunkered down in the cottage with warm rice and oatmeal for them, soups and lots of hot tea for me. We were like that for three days!! The roads and highway were closed. As the storm stopped and the sun peaked out onto our glistening ice world, I started pulling manure out of the storage/Snookie room and decided to let him walk around the back yard carefully (the ground was solid ice).
The sun thawed us out quickly. Life returned to normal. Snookie survived quite well and was glad to get back to his pen! After all was cleaned out from the shed he lived in over 5 days, I found a little television under the poop that I had completely forgotten I had. It was unharmed (just poopey), but more important, Snookie hadn't been hurt by it... amazing. I'll never know how he kept from stepping on it.
