Cricket

When I took this picture yesterday I had no idea how this was going to play out. I noticed all these turkey vultures over in my neighbors yard so I went out to investigate with my camera in hand. I wanted to get a photo of the vultures to use on the blog and also wanted to see what the vultures were doing, if there happened to be a dead animal. It appeared they were just drinking from the puddle of water that our week of rain left behind. See the horse standing there? That's my neighbor's horse Cricket. She's the sweetest horse and loves to have attention. While I was over there, she walked up to me and I talked to her for a bit and petted her. I didn't notice anything wrong. A few hours later, I noticed my neighbor, her mom and her brother all out in the pasture, then I heard a gunshot. I ran out to see what was wrong and sadly learned that they had to put Cricket down. Apparently she was pregnant and gave birth overnight. Nobody knew because she was such a small horse. My neighbor just started a new job and didn't find her till she returned home from a full day's work. She noticed something laying out in the pasture, and it was the foal. It must have died shortly after birth. Cricket was unable to deliver the placenta and by the time my neighbor noticed, it was too late. When I saw her, only a couple hours before, I had no idea that she was so gravely ill. If only I had known :(


(a closer view of the birds)