And His Name That Sat On Him Was Death
The above video is a good representation of a guardsman's duty, but even more, the Major explaining (at 2:30 in--where the video should start) is exactly what is captured in the first PH episode. These kinds of interactions are not uncommon between the family and the OIC, and sometimes it is absolutely brutal. And yet, at the same time, it is absolutely beautiful. It is a superposition of the best and worst, a battle between tradgedy and heroism, gratitude and sorrow. It is life at its fullest, and death in its completeness.
The Laydown
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- Where Missi found Honor the morning of the May 12th. The red circle depicts the approximate area of ground Honor's blood covered. Let that sink in. Honor's blood covered enough ground to be visible from space.
- Where Ned stood when we returned from Oakridge. Exactly between 1 and 2 is the T-post and portion of fence pulled down on it.
- Where the trailer was parked the morning we loaded him. The truck was parked in the driveway and I drove it through the backyard, through the middle paddock and around the trailer. The northwest corner of the barn is where Missi walked Honor around and I saw his injury for the first time.
- Where we parked the trailer and unloaded Honor when we brought him home, facing west.
- The exact location his "Last Photo" was taken, and where the final scene of Pale Horse III takes place.
- The paddock entry gate off the road that we pulled in through when returning from Oakridge.
- The backyard gate where both our truck and the ambulance drove through
- The middle paddock gate. When Missi pulled into the paddock at 6, Sugar (at 9) went haywire and I sprinted to 8 as fast as I could and threw the gate open for Missi to park it at 4.
- Sugar -- the psycho red-head, running back and forth along the middle paddock fence line at 8
- (not depicted) the back paddock gate right in front of the barn. This is where I yelled at Missi to tranq him and ran off into the house. Just to the right of it and on the barn side is where Honor stood the morning I brought the truck into the back. As I pulled through the gate, that's when I saw him.
Circumstances
The first picture below is actually the second time we brought him back, but probably the single best photo I have of the injury. It's actually in far better shape than it was a few days prior. You can see how far up the gash went where the top suture is. The wound was probably 10 inches or so length-wise and had a second line T-ing out from just above the wound (slightly visible just above the wound going left. Drawn out, the injury looked like a lop-sided "Y" with the hole being at the juncture. Essentially, the T-post impaled against the left side of his sternum and scraped up the left side of his rib cage just inside his left front armpit, tearing the pectorals off and severing the brachial artery.
Below is probably only about 10 minutes after we brought him in. The tech installing his IV drip was also the tech that responded to the farm the second time. The pictures following show Honor resting his head on my shoulder, as well as the HG undershirt mentioned in the story. Last one also shows the drainage tube being installed.
The Last Photo
This is the photo I rose out of the shavings to take. By this point, it wasn't obvious Honor was even breathing. It's a little hard to tell from the angle, but his eyes are actually not closed. His eyelids were just limp. You can see the sweat on his neck. It seems from the narrative that Honor was more or less stationary, but he wasn't. it wasn't until he started to lose his faculties that he circled around into the shavings. Before, he was in the corner of the stall (big double stall) closest to the barn door, calling out to Sugar. You can see how There's not a whole lot of blood on the ground (as I mentioned by the time he flopped over, the wound had stopped bleeding). But if you look at the very far left edge, toward the top, you can see the tiniest edge of the pool of blood
You can click on the above title for a link to their page. I can't say enough good things about this place or Dr. Lamb, himself. Coincidentally, I live just up the road from them as I type this. It's been a weird road. The two photos of Honor below are chronological. You can tell by the lack of tube in his chest in the second photo. More to come on that in the following chapter.
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