I believe my purpose is animals, and that has not changed since I was little. It is hard for me to explain, but I feel I have a connection with animals. I am not sure exactly what my purpose with animals is, but I feel I have duty to serve animals. It has been a dream of mine to help animals. I wanted to become a veterinarian, but things did not work out as planned. I still feel I am supposed to help animals, but I do not know for sure in what way I am supposed to accomplish that. I do not mean to sound like those psychic people or animal whisperers or anything like that, but I find myself most happy around animals, and when I help an animal, I feel even better. On occasion stray dogs would roam around my neighborhood. I felt terrible if I left them to fend for themselves because I always thought of the dog possibly never making it home due to all of the dangers; i.e. traffic, people stealing dogs for wrongful purposes, etc. I was usually able to catch the dogs because they would walk up to me looking for food, as sign they had an owner. I would then go door to door around the neighborhood looking for its owner or any information that could lead me to its owner. If I could not find the owner, I knew some one who would take care of the dog until the owner could be reached. There was a time a stray cat would come around our house. Granted being that it was a cat, I figured it had an owner, and was just let outside, like most cats, to roam the neighborhood then return home safe and sound, but the stray cat started hanging around our house, and she was pregnant. The first time I had seen her, I had tossed her a piece of my moon pie so I could pet her. A few months later I saw her I pet her. I did not have any food to give her, but she came right up to me. About a year later, I saw her again, and I took her door to door to try to find the owner. I got some information on where she lived, but I could not find the address, and had no way of contacting them by phone. When she started hanging around our house we decided to keep her. I found out later that year that a fellow student waiting on the bus stop with me owned the cat. He could not keep her because his mother was allergic to cat dander. I had him come over and visit the cat whom we called Princess, he called Precious, thus we called her Precious Princess, until he and his family moved. They were happy to know that their cat had found a good home. Princess passed away eleven years later, but she lived a good cat life. I feel my biggest accomplishment was working with Maverick, a horse I started training after I graduated high school and could not show in 4H horse and pony anymore. I used to show Vennie in the 4H horse and pony shows. His full name was Ventana Ojo (the "j" is has a "h" sound). Vennie taught me a lot about horses, and his owners taught me how to work with horses. Maverick was a mustang that was given to Vennie's owners because Maverick's owner could not give Maverick the attention he needed. I started working with Maverick about a year or two after I graduated. I could not work with him sooner because I was still showing Vennie in 4H horse shows. Maverick was a Bureau Land Management mustang, meaning he was caught in one of the BLM's round ups and put up for adoption. After being caught, Maverick was sent to a prison where inmates work with the wild horses before the horses are put up for adoption. I trained Maverick as though he had no training. I was not sure what all he knew and what he had yet to learn, so I worked with him one step at a time, teaching him the basics. I needed to build my confidence to ride him because I was very unsure of him. So we did ground work for about a year before I started putting a saddle on him. The following year, I started putting a saddle on him so he could get used to the noise and weight of something behind him and on his back. Three months later, I was sitting in the saddle and a week later, my sister would pony him around the barn lot as I sat in the saddle. Maverick never bucked once, and never tried to hurt me. I was given ownership to Maverick a year later. I was still building my confidence in riding Maverick without some one ponying him around, and before the end of the next year, I was riding Maverick at a walk and a trot with confidence. Maverick would follow me a lot, and when he was uncertain of something, he would hide behind me. I was his human shield and his confidence builder as he was my confidence builder. I was hoping to one day take him on a trail ride, but he had been having health problems on and off the two almost three years I owned him. His COPD had gotten worse and his white blood cell count was not at a normal level, which left the suspect of cancer. Maverick was a really great horse, and it was very hard to let him go. I could not bear to watch him suffer, and when he had shown signs that he was ready to go, I had to let him go. My best friend was laid to rest September last year. To this day I still cry when I think of him, but I know out there some where there is another Maverick waiting for me. My plan in the future is get another mustang and train it like I trained Maverick.
This is Maverick.
We had shown in an open horse show,
and received third place out of the nine
contestants in that class. I love this picture of
him because he looks as proud as me.
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