One Dog, One Horse…a fiery combination,

Rufuz did not fare very well with this particular horse,

Seemed docile enough, even liked me did he,

Horses and I don’t seem to get along, at first,

This guy came right up and wanted to be friendly…

Rufuz and the other horses ran up and down the fence line,

On either side of the fence but the horses had fun & so did Rufuz,

But once Rufuz ran on the inside of the fence,

Oh did that big brown one just chase him and stomp his hooves,

Rufuz must have fallen or the horse pushed him into a ditch,

For before I knew it the horse was stomping at Rufuz,

Rufuz did let out a scream and yelp; I don’t want to hear again,

I covered my ears, not being able to gain entry to the field,

Barbed wire the fence was made of, easy to look at, hard to get over…

Rufuz jumped up and ran to and under the fence,

With the horse right at his heels,

A small soft skin or if you will meaty wound on his right rear leg,

Seemed the only scar he had from that encounter,

Consider him and us lucky, that horse could have crushed him, or gave him a peg,

But it must have hit his leg just a bit, once he lays down, it’s hard to get up,

I put Neosporin on the already healing wound,

But know not what to do with the leg, although dog people went over him,

They moved the leg around, and Rufuz walked on it, limped at first,

Then it seemed better; he jumped into the car, and out,

He has been his normal self, just a bit fearful acting…

I know what you’re going to say, go to the vet, have him checked,

I would love to except I am that broke, I have like 65 cents right now,

My paycheck is earmarked for the rent, doubt I made enough for that,

But we still have to live, have a place to park our home,

I don’t know what to do; sometimes it feels he is all I have,

Can’t let him be in any pain, although he makes no motion like he is,

I am sure this happened to lots of dogs, but…

I am sorry Rufuz; I have tried to let you eat doggy aspirins,

You wont take them and I cannot shove them down your throat,

No matter how good they will be for you, it seems to me to be inhumane,

So onward we will go, hopefully after a few days, your “bruise” will cruise,

Then the only thing left will be your bruised ego,

And my knowing that I could do nothing to help you in your time of need,

My boy lived through the attack, learned, no horses, that’s where that’s at,

His dad learned something too, if that horse had hurt Rufuz too much,

He would have been heading for the glue factory tomorrow,

With all four hooves in the air, his life for Rufuz, seems fair…

                        © ed ~ 7/10/04