You may remember back in January my writing about our having to temporarily house 11 horses in an abuse/neglect case. As a result, we recently took permanent custody of 3 of the horses and I had intended to mention that they were available in today’s column. What happened Thursday afternoon at our Animal Adoption Center, however, couldn’t have been better had it been professionally scripted. A news team from Knoxville’s Channel 10 news was even on scene to capture the moment 9 year old Nicole Lockhart (wearing a shirt with “I Love Horses” spelled out in rhinestones) accompanied by her six year old sister Tonya, first gazed upon their three horses. The TV folks had, unbeknownst to us, been notified by a friend of the adopting family.The story started forming around the first of the week when our Assistant Manager Wendy Palmer, took a phone call from Steve Livesay. Steve, a 911 Dispatcher for Hamblen County had learned from a friend who is a state highway patrol trooper, that we had three horses that were part of a neglect case that he thought were up for adoption. Knowing that his eldest granddaughter adores horses and has made it clear that she wants to become a Vet, Steve figured a horse would be perfect for the two girls Talking it over with his wife Stacy, they concluded that no, one horse wouldn’t be perfect … but all three would!
Owners of plenty of pasture land that sports a barn and on which live several goats, a few chickens and even a couple of Peacocks, Steve and Stacy checked with their daughter and son in law, Sandra and Michael Lockhart. Both parents thought the idea was wonderful and would be a perfect way in which to instill the importance of proper animal welfare in their daughters.
We had only recently contemplated the difficulty of placing the horses because none are able to be ridden. The successful adopters had to understand this and we knew that such a restriction severely limited an already narrow field of adoption possibilities. That was not, however, a problem with Steve.
Although a grandfather, Steve certainly doesn’t look the part. A big man with huge hands that have known many years of hard work, Steve’s eyes flared with anger when I described to him the initial appearance of the horses when first we took them in. He, his son in law Michael and both girls assured us all that from that point forward, Cheyenne, Lucky and Solidor (names the girls had given the horses prior to even setting eyes on them) had nothing in their future but loving and tender care. Of that I have no doubt. If you had been there, you’d have none either.
Before I forget, I want to send out a big Woof-Meow! to the Third Grade students at Chuckey School who saved up $70.00 of their own money in order to adopt one of our cages. Thanks kids, that’s fantastic!
I end on a sad note by noting the passing of Charles Johnson. An absolutely brilliant man, a marvelous conversationalist and a man who could construct virtually anything in his basement; Charles was also a strong supporter of our efforts. We extend to his wife Corrine and their family, our most sincere condolences.