Two days ago it was Jay’s birthday and now he is 21 years old. Jay is a Thoroughbred and that means that somewhere there is a big book that has his name written in it with his mom and his dad and his birthday too. The Big Baby is in this book, and so are all of the Thoroughbreds in the whole world, I think. Chip also has his name in a book, and he has Birthday too which is June 30, 1994.
I don’t have Birthday.
Of course I do have Birthday, because Birthday is a thing that tells what day you were born, and clearly I was born on some day because I am here now. But no one who is around me now remembers the day that I was born, and there is no book for horses like me who are just plain old horses of no special type. Before I was at SAFE, I was at a place called Feedlot. Feedlot sounds like it might be a good place, like maybe a place where there is food to eat, but really it is a horrible place where horses are sent to get fatter before they go to another place to be killed and turned into food. SAFE came and got me out of Feedlot and I will never ever go to a horrible place like that again. But SAFE does not know what happened to me before Feedlot, and I cannot tell them because it is something that I cannot talk about. So no one at SAFE knows my true birthday and no one at SAFE knows what I did in the before time, before I went to Feedlot.
So I don’t have Birthday.
But everyone should have Birthday because that is a day for people to say Happy Birthday and to give Presents too. Jay always gets a Coca-Cola to drink on his birthday because that is a thing that he loves. Other horses get carrots or apples or cakes made from tasty, tasty grain.
I want Birthday.
I told this to Mom and she said that the best thing to do would be for me to pick my own Birthday and that we would celebrate it any way that I want. Since I have missed my last 7 Birthdays, she said, this Birthday could be very, very special. So I have thought and thought and I have decided what I want.
My Birthday will be May 3, 1997. I will be 16 years old on Birthday. For my Birthday present, I want all of my friends to give 16 dollars to SAFE. That will make me the happiest horse in the whole world.
So please right now get out your Calendar and write Honeycutt’s Birthday in the little box marked May 3. Then gather your 16 dollars for my present and send it to SAFE by using this link thing that is right under these words. Thank you so much for celebrating Birthday with me!