Growing up around animals myself, I found it adorable that my 2-year-old daughter has been drawn to animals too.
When she first met our neighbor’s horse, a big but gentle animal, the two bonded immediately. At first, I was hesitant about letting her spend that much time with the animal, but I realized they truly enjoyed each other’s company, so I made sure I took her to the horse almost every day.
My girl would press her cheek against the soft mane of the horse, wrap her tiny arms around its neck, and pat its warm back with delight.
Sometimes they played together in the hayloft, other times she would simply curl up in the straw beside it, drifting off to sleep as though next to a trusted friend.
Over time, their bond deepened, and then, out of the blue, there was a knock at our door that changed our lives forever.
I went to open the door and noticed my neighbor, visibly worried.
“We need to talk,” he said as he stepped inside.
“What’s wrong?” I asked. “Did my daughter do anything to your horse? Did she hurt him?”
“Oh, no, nothing like that,” the neighbor said. “But it does have to do with my horse and your daughter.”
I was totally puzzled at that point.
“You see, you need to take your daughter to the doctor’s as soon as possible.”
His words didn’t make any sense, but then he explained that the horse was trained to sense changes in human health and it behaved strangely around our daughter during the last couple of days.
Instead of its usual calm demeanor, the animal often sniffed at our girl with unease, as though trying to understand something. At times, it even positioned itself protectively between our daughter and others.
The neighbour said he noticed that the carefree play they once shared had noticeably changed.
I thanked my neighbor for his concerns, but I believed he was just imagining things. Maybe he didn’t want my daughter around his horse any longer. But a couple of days later, something inside me told me that he could be right, that something could be possibly wrong with my girl, so we took her to the doctor’s.
Sadly, our fears turned out to be real. She was diagnosed with cancer, but since it was caught early, she was able to undergo treatments.
It took months of battling the disease, but eventually, our little girl ended up a winner.
Had it not been for the neighbor and his horse, things could have turned out differently for our daughter.
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Bored Daddy
Love and Peace