Freeway

      After renting our house, we had a lot of packing to do. The next week was non-stop running and travel. Stephen had to work in Waxahachie in the middle of the move which added to our extensive travel time. Each trip to our west Texas home was a ten hour drive- one way. We had to make a trip out to enclose the shop so that we could use it for storage while we continued building our home.
      On the way back to Bastrop, after a long couple days of working on the property, we were approached by a semi-truck driver who had found an injured Audad. He was trying to find a wildlife refuge but was running into dead ends. He knew he could not care for the young animal and asked if we would take it in. The poor thing had one eye that was just gushing blood, one of its' tiny horns was broken off, and it had a small scratch above the other eye. We doctored it and stopped to get some baby goat milk and a bottle to care for it during the rest of our drive.
      Once back in Bastrop, the Audad (which the truck driver had named Freeway) was feeling a bit better. It was a stubborn little thing but she was adorable. Over the next few days she learned to follow us around. She also learned to get into all kinds of mayhem. She would jump up on the kitchen sink and turn on the water, she chased my little dogs in circles around the bed, and she would eat her bottle, only on her terms. She also insisted that the bed was hers!

        At first she was hard to get used to having around. School had started and she would scream for attention while I was trying to study. She started to get an attitude about eating and just found it to be a game. She would be eating her bottle just fine and then would realize that she was doing what we wanted her to so she would stop and start fighting it. Poor Stephen was covered in bruises.
      The last trip to our property, before moving out there, we took Freeway for a walk. She loved it out there because it was so close to her home....which was in the mountains close to Van Horn. She did very well on a leash and we could let her off and she would come when we called her name. This day was different and when Stephen let her loose she ran ahead. We called to her and she stopped, waiting patiently for us to catch up. Just as we got near she took off again. We called her name and again she stopped. This time she looked back at us and then forward again. I told Stephen he better get her or she won't stop the next time she runs. The wild nature in her had returned but she was still eating from a bottle and completely blind in one eye. She only had bottom teeth- the top had not come in and her injuries were still not completely healed. Stephen called her again to make sure she was waiting there but she suddenly took off through the desert. We took off after her but could not find her in the thick brush.
      We spent all night looking for her and calling to her. I knew that once night fell she belonged to the desert. With coyotes and mountain lions all over the valley, she would have no chance. Stephen thought she would return when she got hungry but we never saw her again.
      A few days ago, I saw another Audad about her size and I realized that the little girl with the big personality would always hold a piece of my heart!