Pink and white spots with a bright white mane of hair. Could it be? It sure looked like a grown up Hero to me. I immediately opened the cage door and he almost threw himself into my arms, shivering with fear and anxiety. I don't think I had ever been hugged so hard. He clutched my neck as I walked through to the admin office to get some information. Yes, I was told, it WAS Hero - his family had returned him for being mean and nasty to his sister Mimi. Mean and nasty? Hero? I doubted it but whatever the real reason they obviously didn't want him any more and I straightaway decided that this was never going to happen again. Hero was coming home with me forever.  It was the beginning of the major love affair of my life.

Hero altered the entire course of my existence and within a very short time another crested entered my world.  I knew that if one had a Hero one should also have a Villain (g). Villain was as small and delicate as Hero was sturdy. Within the next year Humphrey joined us, making three nekkid boys. I was in a meeting at work with my boss and others one day when the phone rang. It was Betty Munoz, the shelter manager at the Humane Society. She had startling news; Hero's sister Mimi had been brought back to the shelter, two years after she was first adopted. Couldn't housebreak her, the surrender form said. I told Betty I was on my way, informed my startled boss I had an emergency and took off like a rocket. My tiny little palomino girl, all grown up with long eyelashes and fabulous crest, was sitting in the lap of a  volunteer when I arrived. The tears were pouring down my face and she must have wondered why she was in a strange place getting a bath to boot. I just couldn't believe my luck - to reunite these two was beyond my wildest dreams. Mimi sailed into the house, gave all the boys a good sniffing, and never looked back. All four became inseparable.

Hero was always the picture of health and a sturdy fellow so his first slipped disc came as rather a shock. Not having any idea how it had happened my vet and I treated it with baby aspirin and crate rest and within a few weeks he was fully recovered. He was never a 'chasing' fool so I really never worried that it might re-occur. I was wrong. Last October he limped into the kitchen and I instantly knew he had re-injured his back. I made him up a bed in the spare bedroom and  gave him baby aspirin. Being late on a Saturday my vet was closed and the emergency clinic would certainly  prescribe just what I had done. Within a few hours Hero was paralysed from the waist back. By Sunday noon he was doubly incontinent and the hours until Monday morning went very very slowly.  He was in no pain as far as I could tell, eating and drinking and just frustrated that he couldnt get up.  The news was very bad - after an early morning consult my vet sent us straight to the finest orthopedic specialist in the area - and x-rays confirmed a ruptured spinal aneurysm. Even if they operated his chances of recovery were negligible and would require months of complete immobility  By 2.30pm I was back at my  vet's office.  Rick was operating and so they kindly gave me a room to myself where Hero and I could spend our last hour together.  How I wished those 60 minutes would lengthen. I held him in my arms, talking silly baby talk to him as he slipped away to Rainbow Bridge.  In my heart I know we will be together again one day - he is with many, many friends - both those he knew in life and those who were strangers to him. I have quite a large family waiting at the Bridge so I shall not be at all sad to leave this earth on my way to join them.

He was only 5, my Hero, and he should have had longer. But he is remembered and his name lives on in a way that pleases me greatly. His name is shared by many people who save lives.

I think that would please him.

--Victoria King