February 25 2021
It was a lifetime between the day I signed the adoption papers for his sisters and the day I signed the adoption paperwork for him.... and I just about got fired from a job that I really needed for taking the day to go get him.
And I would do it all over again, because for him there was nothing I could not do, this young colt that carried the spirit of his grandfather, Romeo.
The year that Romeo disappeared into the hills of Crooks Mountain was the year that I stopped sleeping. That sounds so very dramatic, I know.... but it is true, Romeo was many things to me, and in whatever way that it can be between a human and a horse, he was my soul mate and the love of my life.
So when he disappeared I felt lost in a way that is indescribable and my visits to the desert became rare and far between..... in 2018 news of an impending roundup and removal came, and remembering my love of the desert, and my promise to Romeo to fight for all wild ones and to protect his family, I found again my passion for this place and the horses that still claimed it as their own.
Cante Tinza & his mother Angel
April of 2020 a colt was born to Misun, the son of Romeo, a colt that looked so much like his grandfather Romeo my heart skipped beats.... and then, I slept the sleep of the peaceful - I had forgotten what it was like to sleep through the night!
Watching him was like seeing what young Romeo might have been.... the playfulness, the curiosity, the awkwardness of new life!!
And even in his early months it was clear he was different, even as a colt only a few months old, he would often stand apart from the rest of his family, usually where he could observe all that was happening around them in their wild desert.
As I watched him watching me, and we had these moments that I could not explain, I wondered, what is it, beyond looking like his grand-sire, what is it about him, how can he be so very much like Romeo!?!
Cante Tinza, auntie Tata Wakan, & papa Misun in Wyoming
One day while speaking with a friend about many things, she tells me that the Cherokee believe that when one dies, parts of their spirit are scattered across many places.... touching on maybe sage bush, a relative, a friend, and so on. As I listened to her I immediately thought of my soul mate Romeo and his young grandson, and it resonated with me that was why he resembled his grandpapa not just in looks, but in his very spirit.
I began calling him Cante (pronounced chun-tay) which means heart in Lakota, because truly he held my heart, and I saw him as the heart of it all.
Restful in sage under a summer sky in Wyoming
I will always treasure the time I had with Cante in the wild, and I am so thankful he was allowed the time in the wild he had, it was not nearly enough, and I know if asked he would have chosen to stay wild, but at least he was able to experience some of the wild freedom that one can only truly know living in the wild desert with wild winds whispering across your skin.
Cante Tinza & family in Wyoming
Enjoying an afternoon drink in the Red Desert of Wyoming.
But now he has been captured and taken from his wild places, and he was not available for adoption on the same day as his sisters Isabelle and Rose.
At the adoption event where I was able to adopt Isabelle and Rose, one of the BLM employees who was fond of him and knew him by my description, was kind enough to tell me that he was not available that day as he had only just been gelded, but that he would be available in a few days.... and that I should set up an appointment with Kathy Fine in the office to come back for him.
As we were speaking we walked past the corrals at the BLM facility, and is if to let me know he was waiting, Cante stepped forward out of the crowd of other young mustangs and looked right at me for several seconds, before stepping back into the herd and out of sight.
At the time I was working at a job with a supervisor that did not like any unplanned (as in months ahead of time) requests for days off, and I fully expected to be denied my request, and did not know how I was going to get back within a week!!
But it was necessary..... and yikes was it quite the discussion with that supervisor!!
I knew that discussion was going to be ugly, and I knew there was a very real chance of being written up, or even fired - some would've just called off that day, it might've been easier, but probably not - she had a way of making everything a dramatic do or die situation, and often forced us to work even when genuinely ill.
I was given one day and one day only.... so the night before I climbed into my RAM truck after work and drove from Basin WY to Rock Springs WY - across South Pass with wind blowing snow across the hi-way, as the sun set, and the landscape was lit by moonlight.
Misun, Cante, & his brother.
Steve Cerroni was once again our hero, he had driven down to Rock Springs earlier in the day, and the next morning kept me company while I did the paperwork for Cante, again helping me to be - kind of sort of as best as I could be - calm and together while we did all the things to get this horse that held my heart out of the BLM facility.
I remember, following them down the highway as we headed back to the Cerroni's home in Lovell, so many emotions, - anger, sorrow, anxious relief - so much relief! Crying for miles as I grieved that this colt would not grow up in the wild and have his own foals.... I followed them all the way back to Lovell that day, because I needed to be with him as long as possible, and I also wanted to be there when he and his sisters met each other again.
Following them through the Wind River Canyon
As we pulled into Steve's driveway I parked and got out quickly, as Steve did what he needed to do to back up and unload Cante safely into a corral, I could hear Cante whinny and his little sister Rose immediately answer - she knew her brother was home!
We had done it.... we had by some insane miracle managed to adopt three of the young siblings from the family of Misun, they had a good place to rest in for now, before taking the long journey west to California and the sanctuary of Return to Freedom.
I am so incredibly thankful for the almost two months I had with Cante and his sisters at the Cerroni's, it was not nearly enough, but it was a gift still.
The night before they began their trip to California I stayed at the guest bunkhouse (by the way if you are ever planning a trip to Lovell I cannot recommend enough the hospitality of the Cerroni's and the comfort of their bunkhouse), they were leaving very early in the morning, and I wanted every last second possible with these wild young ones.
That morning I sat in the pre-dawn light with them in their corral, speaking to each one, of the things to come, of the love I had for them, how much I would miss them, and how very sorry I was that I could not keep them wild. Cante most of all.... he and I shared the grief of his lost freedom and all the changes that were not his choice, but were the best I could do in the moment for him and his sisters.
As they drove away that morning I followed for only a mile or two, wishing I could have followed them all the way to California..... knowing it would be a very very long time before I might be able to go and see them.
Cante Tinza in his wild Red Desert
All three of these mustangs are currently living at Return to Freedom in Lompoc CA, they are loved beyond measure by all that work at the sanctuary, and I hope they are able to share with some their story of wildness and their wild desert....
I have had many conversations with the colt that many call young or 'little' Romeo, when he was younger he asked that he be called by his grandfather's name, which is not surprising with the spirit of Romeo being a part of him.
But it is not his only name.... to me he will always be Cante - he is the heart of it all.
And as time has gone on, and he is once again confident, as his spirit grows stronger, as he remembers the wildness in him that is his birth-right, he is also Cante Tinza (chun-tay t-een-zah), meaning Brave Heart in Sioux, because he is brave and strong in heart and spirit, he has had to adapt to many new and unexpected things in this captured life, but he is also resilient, he is brave and courageous and loving, he is the grandson of one of the great stallions of the wild Red Desert of Wyoming, and he is truly the heart of it all.
Cante Tinza once wild in Wyoming and now at Return to Freedom in California