A Sad Farewell to Freckles....

Before I start rambling...if you are looking for the Sew Many Cards Blog Hop...go to the next post down.  I made this card in honor of a sweet, mischievous, kid loving horse named Freckles.  A very long story that I won't go into about how Freckles came into our lives but....he was a horse with so much personality that he reminded you of Mr. Ed (if anyone else is old enough to know the horse I'm referring to).  Freckles was with us for about 3 years moving with us from VA to SD.  I specifically remember one night that I was mucking out his stall while he roamed the aisleway of the barn and he was not happy that he had been in his stall so much at that time because of some treatment to his hooves.  So...he decided to take his nose and shut the cafe style stall door with me inside.   Well,  I thought it was kinda funny and opened the door back up and told him not to do that and went on cleaning.  The next thing I know he is taking his rump end and using it to push the door closed again....I'm sure he was telling me why don't you stay in there if you think it is so grand.  I also remember one day when we had just put out a brand new large round bale of hay....now...Freckles loved to eat so not much could distract him from a big hay bale but....we were working in the pasture and the boys got cold so they were going to go inside and Freckles left that bale of hay to follow them to the gate and then continued to wait at the gate until he saw them safely inside before he went back and joined the other horses at the bale.  I know many times if I were alone and called him to the fence he might or might not come depending on how hungry he was but no matter what if the boys were with me he would come trotting over.  He loved kids.  Sorry to ramble....the reason I'm sharing this with you is that when we moved to HI we opted to donate Freckles to a therapeutic riding academy in SD called Suncatchers.  He loved his job there and the kids loved him!  I am so sad to tell you that I got a message last week from Suncatchers that he had a horrible accident and had to be put to sleep.  So....I guess that is the reason I chose black and white for this card as it is a very sad card for me to make but I want to send it to the kids at Suncatchers as I know they fell in love with this big old guy, too.  Enough sad talk....I chose the CCEE Stampers challenge as it is a sketch and I wanted a jumping point off as I often do....Freckles was a big old gray with lots of freckles...hence the name so I just gave a little color with some of my gray copics and the coloring was done.  The stamp itself is from Serendipity stamps I believe.  Thanks for looking and letting me share a little of my life with you.