Baby Bambi came to us this time 2 years ago, one would be forgiven for thinking her chances were minimal. Only two months old and no sign of her mother, we can only surmise as to what happened her, a big pot belly, unsteady on her little hooves, crawling with lice, absolutely covered in rain rash. We set to work but the expectations were low.
Volunteers at HHO became her mammy, they took turns staying with her night after night, the endless rounds of milk, functioning on only a few hours of sleep a night and starting it again the next day, knowing 150 other horses were relying on us.
Bambi for some reason muddled through, that is literally the only way to describe it, she neither made progress or went backwards, so we persevered and persevered and persevered some more, although her appearance didn’t make any drastic improvements she was a happy little soul, always meeting us with a cheerful neigh, we often wondered how she even had the energy to be so sweet. At this point she loved her foal feed, she loved to have her sneaky foal milk, she just loved to eat! Yet still no drastic difference.
Summer came and Bambi began to grow. she was independent enough to go out with all the other foals at this point, suddenly, she started to blossom albeit only a small bit but we could see a change, and with change came a chance, a chance to really hope, that summer passed and it was time for the foals to come back inside, one night Bambi had no neigh for us, she didn’t want her beloved food, she lay on the straw not moving and for the life of us we couldn’t figure out what was wrong, thus began the Bambi vigil again, we were sure this was the end of the line for Bambi and we were devastated, a vet even confirmed the same when suddenly she got up went over to her hay and started eating.
Well from that night on, she never looked back, within 6 months she was strong enough to be put up for adoption, Bambi was so lucky to be adopted by a wonderful lady from Luxembourg with her two best friends, Bambi’s friends, the two who were with her all along, who stayed with her on the days she did not feel so well, who kept us company when we sat with her on all those long nights.
Wasn’t every second of worry worth it, when you see her today? Happy, healthy and absolutely beautiful! It’s what it is all about!
Where one thing falls another grows. maybe not what was there before, but something new and wonderful all the same. – Bambi
