We Can See a Rainbow…

“Look at the rainbow”.

Whilst we are not quite sure which one of us excitedly uttered those words first, we all most certainly looked. For arching the sky before us with her magnificent soft hues, the rainbow had magically appeared.

Although unspoken was the thought, this phenomenon of nature, we collectively believed, sat as omen for the rescue we had just embarked upon. A rescue which we, in our heart of hearts, trusted the phenomenon of our kindness could surmount.

Strapping the recumbent young heifer to a large board to which was attached our hands and our hope, the hapless animal was coaxed into the horse float. All the while the rainbow held vigilant court in the crisp and otherwise bleak morning’s sky.

Her sudden and opportune appearance offered us a gentle reminder that miracles do come out of nowhere.

And enlisting the help of a miracle was exactly what we would need if we were to have any chance of pulling this rescue off.

With the aptly named Rainbow then onboard, we looked up again to her namesake. We tracked her eastern aspect. Our eyes landed somewhere in the heart of Edgar’s Mission. Did this miracle of nature know that is exactly where we were heading?

Perhaps she did?

Reaching that destination, we set to work. Promising dear Rainbow that not a pot of gold would she find but a far grander prize. That of a life truly worth living, a life of her own authorship and a life where she will never be forgotten again.

Unspooling the past of Rainbow, we could glean it had not been kind to her. The brown patches of bare earth where she was found were etched deep by her increasingly feeble attempts to rise; a painful ulcer on her left eye could not hide the fact it had connected with an object when she had tried to do so; the pressure sores on her side, the sight of which caused one to wince, told she had been down for many a day; and so too did the amount of faeces that had built up around her rear end. All spoke so loudly and painfully of recent unkindnesses.

Her bones, which rose like apex points throughout her emaciated form, even threatening to break through at her hips, confirmed that the unkindnesses had been longstanding as well. A longstanding heartbreak had claimed the lives of others, now deflated piles of fur and skeletal remains that pockmarked the otherwise barren paddock.

Drawing us back to the present though was the sight of a gazillion well-fed lice, all moving this way and that, amongst her once-shiny black fur. Their rampaging and blood-sucking charged movements gave the appearance her now-dull and dirty coat was moving like waves in a turbulent storm.

But that was then.

Now, almost two weeks on, those lice move no more, while Rainbow’s legs most certainly do, even bearing her own weight at times, if only momentarily. Assisted as she is by a veritable village of kindnesses from our team: from those who power the hoist to help her rise throughout the day; who massage and laser those limbs, persuading them of their greater duty; who wash her manure-encrusted tail to ensure she is always beautiful (although regardless of poop she is so); who remove the remains of those now-dead lice (remember there was a looooot of them); who clean her stall; who read to her happy stories of hope and do so in soothing tones, right through to those who undertake that most arduous of tasks – picking her grass.

The latter of which has caused many a team member to utter, “I never knew cows eat THAT much grass” as they were sent out again into frozen fields to pick more.

Which they lovingly did.

For there are few things we would not do for our sweet Rainbow. Watching her appear more enlivened and personality-filled each day has indeed been a joy.

And, regardless of which way the tea leaves roll, Rainbow has found her pot of gold, and she too has taught us much, as the animals always do. That she hung on to life, when she had so many reasons not to, reminds us all of what a sacred blessing it is to be alive. That we should never waste this, regardless of the weather or circumstance, for each new day is a new and colourful beginning where dreams and hopes can come true.

We can see a Rainbow – can you?