Kristine E. Brickey

I've needed to write this piece for weeks. It's evaded me, my pen, slipping away like smoke in the wind until this morning. I heard the words, replayed the segment three times to make sure I heard it correctly, felt the rightness of it. Reached for my writing tools. Finally. Grey's Anatomy . Season 4: Episode 9- "This day, this day, you feel helpless...this day makes you grateful you have a chance to do anything at all. Take it in."  Robbie died May 16, 2010. Suddenly. Unexpectedly. Near the end of Grey's Anatomy , the season with the mass hospital shooter stalking McDreamy and doctors and surgeons.  After Robbie's funeral and all that roiled around in association with that terrible, awful, horrible time, a friend warned me off watching the remaining episodes of that season of  Grey's , possibly my favorite show. She had watched the episodes she knew I dvr'd. She did not want me to witness death after death, gunshots, bullets, and blood. There was ...

Last November I decided to stop traditional Pressure/Release training (R-) and move to full Positive Reinforcement (R+) with Cappy. This set Cappy's progress back a few weeks as I gave him the choice to say No, and he took his time making sure I meant it. Since then, I've done most of his work at Liberty: sans halter, no lead rope, just us on this new journey of learning and becoming a true team.  Despite how far Cappy has come, one thing I have noticed is that even though he now chooses the halter, when I work him with it on, whether a lead rope is on or off, Cappy's anxiety initially rises. Why does this happen? Though I can't know for sure (Oh, wouldn't it be wonderful if he could whisper his secrets into my ear!), I believe it comes from his past experiences.  He lived wild until he was around ten years old. BLM aged him at 7 when rounded, but I believe he is a bit older. Within a month he was branded, gelded, and soon after sold with Cinder and a few other wild...