Rico and General at the Rainbow Bridge...

From Jim: Today Rico and General got their wings. They were good horses. Rico was a Thoroughbred, tall and graceful. He had a wonderful personality, a great sense of humor, a true charmer. He had been placed at Home At Last by a loving owner that wanted him to have a safe and secure retirement. His performance days had ended and he needed to just be a horse. He was in the upper herd. His best friend was Pedro, another T-bred. They were quite a pair. Rico was fairly young, early teens. About two months ago, he began to lose weight and started looking poor. We had the vet check him out. His teeth were OK and his blood showed only one abnormality-one generally associated with starvation. Rico was eating regularly, but we stalled him and poured the feed to him. His appetite was good, he ate well, and he continued to fail. He had a lump on his forehead, not a traumatic injury. It was a tumor. Rico had a very aggressive sarcomic cancer(Dr. Darling says it very rare). There was no treatment or hope of a cure. The mass doubled in size in a week. Rico lost more weight in that week than full starvation would have caused. We gave him the last kindness we could. It's really hard to see these great beasts suffer and fade. Better to provide them a peaceful and pain free end. General was a rodeo horse. He was too old to work and was in a pasture with his friend, Harley. A dear friend of Home At Last had the two boys moved here for their retirement. Harley is younger and he'll have some more time with us. General had reached that stage in the equine life cycle where he could no longer absorb nutrition. He was eating well and starving to death. We've seen this so many times with our very senior critters. It was time for General to rest and no longer grow weaker each day. We are so grateful that he had the time with us. He was a good boy. I often say that these animals are the very best they know how to be each and every day. If they could be better, they'd do it. I believe that. We face hard decisions about our friends so often here. We have a sad place in our hearts when the time comes to see them off. It's such a privilege to get to know them and have them be a part of our lives. Fair winds Rico and General! See you in a better place.