My name is Pardric Gotuma and shortly after I moved to Belfast I had a friend who was living with me and he was out in the town one night and came home saying I brought us home a cat. There was a little two-day-old kitten

that he had picked up in the middle of the city where nobody lived. And so I ended up having this

cat for six years and then a teacher that I knew said Africa's sake a cat needs a

companion so I ended up having two cats in the house and there was something

about how my life was intertwined with these two very funny, very amusing, full of character animals,

finding people to look after them when I was away and caring about them and seeing how sometimes

I projected my feelings onto theirs and how I could track my life through the years when I looked after these animals.

Swale by Michael Klein.

It's Derby Day and it's been 30 years since 1984 when I stood in the grandstand at Churchill Downs after betting 20 bucks on

swale. The horse I groomed and watched as he pulled away from the great Philly Athia to win the 110th running of the race.

30 years, and a lot of souls have risen to the upper register of life, and my own life has been made more reachable by what

their love did to me. I read some books and wrote some books and watched performances that moved my thinking.

I've seen the man who gave me horses go home to his mother

and I've seen other horses break down or go home to the grasses of their beginning to make more of their blazing kind.

And after it all, I met the love of my life, and when the government turned something over I foolishly married him.

Foolishly only because all marriage is foolish and errand into the maze.

It's Darby Day and I'm remembering my life in a stable

and the ordinary living that spilled around it.

I've eaten good food and places that had views of the everlasting and I'm certain I've seen

the face of God on more than one occasion and I've held animals so close to my own body that something in theirs must have passed through mine.

But nothing has given me more life than watching that big black beautiful shining soul run through the

animal line and past all comprehension into the music of his speed and win that race on the first Saturday

...