“I know.”
“Can we stay with her?”
I press a kiss to the top of my daughter’s head. “We’re not going anywhere.”
Dr. Keller waits quietly near the stall door, giving us time I know we don’t really have. Hope is medicated, but not comfortable. Not enough. Her body is losing a battle it never should have had to fight.
And I know what comes next.
I’ve known since the vet looked at me with those sad eyes and said surgery would be cruel at this point. Maybe if she’d been stronger. Maybe if she hadn’t already spent years starving. Maybe if the people who had owned her before hadn’t treated her body like it didn’t matter.
So many maybes, and not a single one can save her.
Livy leans forward, pressing her forehead gently against Hope’s neck.
“You’re a good girl,” she sobs. “You’re the best girl.”
I stroke Hope’s damp coat, swallowing back the grief clawing up my throat.
This is the part of rescue no one wants to talk about.
The part where love doesn’t win by keeping them alive.
Sometimes love means staying until the end.
Sometimes love means making sure the last hands that touch them are gentle.
Sometimes love means letting them go before the pain becomes the only thing they know.
“She won’t be alone,” I tell Livy, even though my voice barely works. “We’ll love her all the way through it.”
Livy cries harder, but she nods against me.
Together, we sit beside the horse my daughter named Hope, holding on to her as Dr. Keller kneels beside us.
Livy buries her face in Hope’s neck, her small fingers tangled gently in the mare’s mane.
I look at Dr. Keller and nod.
One shot.
That’s all it’s going to take to help this precious mare.
One shot to make the pain stop.
One shot to give her the peace the world denied her for far too long.
“I love you, Hope,” Livy sniffles, her voice breaking. “I’m sorry we couldn’t save you.”
Dr. Keller pauses, his hand stilling for a moment.
“You did save her,” he says softly.
Livy lifts her tear-streaked face just enough to look at him.
“Her last days were lived in peace,” he continues. “She had grass under her feet, food in her belly, and gentle hands caring for her. She was surrounded by love. And her last moments are with someone who was kind to her.”
A sob slips from Livy’s throat.
