An Officer and a Gentleman

I wanted to write something about Brigadier this morning and say goodbye. In life, the big guy was magnificent, a gentle giant, a towering and dignified presence on the street and a fine police officer who possessed a noble spirit and a huge heart. He was well loved by his colleagues and by those who came to know him while he was out working his beat. Brigs was fatally wounded in the line of duty several days ago by a sadistic hit and run driver who deliberately drove into the horse at top speed, and it was necessary to euthanize the gentle giant at the scene of the attack. I cried when I heard the news.

There was a fair bit of opposition here to the public memorial service which was held yesterday for Brigadier by his fellow officers (a memorial service for a horse???), and the opposition was first cranked up and then stoked by the media, who should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves - I'm just disgusted by the whole flaming lot of them. Brigadier deserved his memorial service, and he deserved much more than that.

May the big guy run free in the wide, green and eternally sunny meadows beyond the fields we know, kicking up his heels and whinnying, covering the ground in great floating strides and leaps and bounds as he did in life whenever he had a chance to run. He was poetry and power in motion.