M I G H T Y M E N N O
6 / 9 / 2 0 0 4 – 6 / 2 7 / 2 3
And then there were two.
Menno… my mighty warhorse clothed with thunder, my roaring lion… has FALLEN! We can’t believe he’s gone… we’re DEVASTATED! He leaves such a huge void… we feel so fractured, lost and incomplete without him. It shreds my heart to see the Boyz searching and calling for him. Suddenly our whole world has changed and will never be the same.
He’s been suffering with a bad stifle injury for over 3 years. Some changes in the neighborhood really took a toll on his sensitive spirit and made it more difficult to recover. It’s been a roller coaster with ups and downs, but he has fought hard. Even though he was crippled, a 3-legged wonder, he motored up and down hills all over the property. I always let him choose, and he told me what he wanted. He was improving recently after a brutal winter, but I believe something happened this weekend that caused him to bolt and run. He somehow stressed the joint beyond what he could manage and in one day, everything changed. He was so strong and healthy, no health issues his whole life. It’s so devastating to see his life cut short by this injury. We just couldn’t overcome it and suddenly he could no longer go on.
He had a giant personality with a great sense of humor. He was the author of all the games, yet he had the most sensitive, fragile spirit. I will never forget the first time I saw him pick up a cone and offer it to his buddy to “hook on.” They would grab onto the cone together and drive themselves up and down hills and all over the property. Anything was game to be used as toy. If it wasn’t a ball or cone, it became a stick. If there wasn’t anything to grab, they would just hold their muzzles together, and walk and trot all over the property, connected at the muzzles… often with a tongue hanging out the corner of his mouth. Whoever broke contact lost the game and would be reprimanded. He was the biggest of the Boyz, yet low man on the totem pole. He’s famous for his jaw-gapping, roaring lion faces when he was wrestling, but it was all for show.
The cords of death entangle me. The anguish of the grave is upon me.
I’m overcome by sorrow… my soul and my body with grief.
I did everything within my power to give him the best life possible. It wasn’t about me… it was about him. I got to be friends with this amazing, giant black stallion and share life with him. Forever I will miss wrapping my arms around that giant neck, chest to chest, heart to heart, hugging as tightly as I can. We will never be the same without his big presence. We are broken and crushed from the tremendous weight of this loss.
I gave him freedom his whole life… and now in his death. But we find no comfort in setting him free.
