So before heading to bed, I decide to go check on the dogs. Maggie is preggers and is due soon. So outside I go and can only find Max. Weird. So I tromp off through the knee high snow drifts that we got on the weekend on the way to the barn and the hay bales (both places that she likes) only to not find her anywhere...no sounds nothing.
I look out at the horses to see a head and two front legs coming around the side of one round bale. My heart stops. So much for being tired. I run out - well sort of - to the bale and find Ding cast...belly right to the metal frame of the round bale...both back legs inside the bale feeder and the bale.
She just laid there. Looked at me. Let me pet her all over...lay across her belly (stupid me but what else can you do)...and try to wedge her back feet out of the bale. Got the top one...can't get the bottom. So off I "run" to the barn to get a rope...now which one to choose, the lariet or a soft lead...go with the soft one stupid. (Sorry talking to myself the entire time so I don't fall apart).
Head back out to the pasture with the rope...get both back legs out and into maybe a better position for her to get traction. Give her a shove...NOPE...not working...legs back into the bale. Try again. NOPE. Try again - this time trying to pull her over. STILL NOTHING WORKING. Pat her neck...RUN back to the house. Call idiot neighbor that we had problems with last winter with the kids - thinking "maybe because it is a horse". So I nicely say (panting madly because I am scared, anxious etc.) "Hey, it is Carrie from down the road...I could really use some help as I have a horse stuck against a round bale feeder and I am not strong enough to move her...could you come down PLEASE???". Sooo...what is her response??? Lady says "you know...i don't think so...the last time I tried to help you I got yelled at" and then she hung up on me. DO YOU BELIEVE THAT???
So in tears, I phone Doyle at work. He says he will come, but it is a 45 minute drive. I have no idea how long she has been there so I head back out. As I am walking past the hay shed I see a small piece of plywood. Take that with me...maybe some traction between her legs and the feeder??? So I go back out...she is still there. Rondee standing over her. I get her legs all out again...put the board inbetween her and the feeder...saying all the while "it's okay Ding...please don't kick me". Try again...no dice...and now the board is partially underneath her. Get it out...put it back in place...prop it up against the feeder with shit and hay. Put the ropes around her legs and haul her as hard as I can...starting to slip...and BAM...she is over. THANK GOD. She stands up right away...looks at her back legs and the lead rope falling to the ground...takes a tentative step..and then walks over to the other feeder and chases Dolly and Skeena away from it.
I sat on the board and cried for 5 minutes...then called Doyle and he went back to work (was still 25 minutes away)...called Paige to ask her what to watch Ding for. After talking for a few minutes she asked me a "normal question" and my answer was "NO I did not think to take pictures".
I am happy this ended well. I don't think I could have managed to get through another loss.
So then it was back to trying to find Maggie.
Then I heard this horrible snarl and bark. So back out to the barn.
Found Max looking in one of the sheds out there (we keep our bottles in it). In the back corner is Maggie...growling her face off at us.
I could hear pups...saw two of them...but not brave enough to climb over everything to get a closer look.
They are on an old bed topper mattress foamy thing so not on the cold wood floor...and well protected from the snow and wind too.
We will give her a day or so before we try to get in there to mess with them or move them.
She has BIG TEETH and I sure don't want to feel them.
These ones are way bigger than her last litter...maybe she will only have the two???
What a relief that this day had a much better ending.
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