November 22, 2020

Beautiful Gracey kept still as a statue. Her leg was crushed.

Blood vessels had ruptured, bones broken and displaced, muscle torn away. Her trauma was acute, and she held herself steady, as if not wanting to spend another drop of energy. Everything she had was being used to stay conscious. Her neighbor sat solemnly by, ensuring that she wouldn’t try to run and hide from her pain. She trusted him, and waited. Our medical team brought her to our hospital, stabilized her dehydration with a drip, and in the morning we realized that we would not be able to save her leg.

We hoped she would have the will to cope with her loss. She revealed very little; staying quiet, calm and alert. Had we guessed what kind of nature she had, we might have guessed “peaceful.” But that wouldn’t have been quite right. We didn’t realize until a few days later that we had an astounding lightning bolt on our hands, filled with the spirit of bubbly joy.

Emergency rescue begins with love.