Essay1 Cola
Aunna Herstad
E1
2-14-07
Cola
This is the day I gained a deeper insight on life and death.
Cola was my first pony. I started riding her when I was six years old. I rode her everyday. We would explore the woods, and I would never have to worry about getting lost because Cola always knew her way back I was around Cola so much of my younger life that she became apart of me. I knew what all her actions meant as if she was talking to me like another person.
It was a sunny summer Sunday, with a nice breeze. I went to the pasture to go get Cola for a ride, when I noticed she was acting really strange. She didn’t have the normal sparkle in her eye. Cola looked depressed just standing in the corner by the fence. I just sat there with her for awhile to figure out what was wrong with her, I just could not pin point it. I knew that she looked like she was in a lot of pain, and that something was very wrong.
I went inside to tell my mother and great grandmother what was wrong. I had this horrible feeling in my stomach about the situation, so my mother and I went outside to look at Cola. My mother said, “Oh she will be fine.” I just could not believe her.
My mom made me come inside and eat some lunch. After lunch I went back outside to be with my pony. I found her lying on her side kicking her legs back and forth trying to get up. She just could not get up. I went into the barn, and grabbed her halter and lead, so I could put it on her, and try to pull her up. I just wasn’t strong enough to do it.
I ran up to the house and told my mom to come help me get Cola up. So she came out and saw Cola laying there and just told me that everything was fine my pony was just sunbathing. I yelled “NO!” that something was really wrong. She still would not believe me. She went back into the house while I lay next to my pony. I tried to comfort Cola by petting her.
An hour later my mom came back out, and finally believed me that something was wrong. My mom tried calling the vet, but there was no answer. So my mom, and dad, and I grabbed a tarp and brought it out to the pasture, and put my pony on to it. Then we dragged the Cola on the tarp into the barn, so that we wouldn’t have to worry about the other horses bothering her in the pasture. Once we got her into the barn all we could do was comfort her and wait for the vet to call back.
About a half hour passed, and my mom knew it was too late for any kind of survival chance. I was brought back into the house and told to wait with my great grandmother. Ten minutes later I saw my uncle drive up the drive way. I started to get worried. My great grandma grabbed me and would not let go, she knew what was going to happen and so did I. Five minutes later I heard a gunshot I screamed “NO!” I didn’t want to believe that my pony was just shot. I had to go see. I wiggled my way out of my great grandma’s grasp, and ran as fast as I could to the barn. I looked in the stall for my pony and did not see her. I turned around and noticed that my dad’s truck was on the other side of the barn. I walked over to the truck with a sick feeling in my stomach. When I got to the truck, I hopped up onto the bumper, and saw Cola in the truck bed with a bullet hole in the side of her head with blood dripping down the side of her face. I crawled over the tail gate, and into the truck bed, and sat there crying not understanding why this had to be done.
My mom soon found me and I asked “why did she have to die?” So my mother decided to explain to me that Cola had Colic. I asked “what is that?” My mother said “colic is where the horses’ intestines get all tangled up and they start to swell, and sometimes it is too late to do anything about, so you have to put the horse down.” My mother also told me that if anything is ever suffering from something that can’t be helped you need to let it go, and not to be selfish.