Cautiously Optimistic

As I mentioned on my other blog, yesterday we went for our monthly shopping trip to Ciudad Acuna, Coahuila, Mexico.  I went to bed late the night before and woke up early (for me) in order to do all the things required such as getting passports ready, loading ice chests, etc. etc.

I brought the car around to the front and I could hear Walter's owner hammering away in the shed he is constructing.  Walter was looking in the direction of the shed but he heard me and looked my way but then turned away.  I was happy he did that so his owner would not suspect we are buddies.

I was running very late and I calculate we left about an hour later at 12:05 p.m.  We live almost at the corner and when I turned to look toward his corral I did not see him...then I noticed he was laying on the ground much like a dog lays down to sleep except that horses sleep standing up!

By this time I had turned to the main street that leads out of the sub-division and is heavily transited.  I drove slow but I saw no movement and by now had cars in back of me so did not go back.  In a way I did not panic because about four days ago I saw him laying in the ground trying to get something off of his hind hoof.  This is not the first time I have noticed something was bothering that particular leg and I have told that kid so in more than one occasion.

We got back at 6:15 p.m. but Walter was nowhere in sight.  Where was he?  Did his owner take him to the vet?  I waited until almost sun down and drove my black car which unlike mother's cars is not easily recognizable and drove slowly by his house to see if maybe he was tied to the back of the house or to the shed...but I saw nothing!

By force of habit looked out the kitchen window this morning hoping to see him as I do every morning. At noon I saw his owner backing up a horse trailer very close to our fence line but Walter was not on board.  He also moved his junk trailers as if to block the view from the street to the corral.

Mother wanted to go see how close the horse trailer was to the fence. When we were on our way, we saw that the owner and his kids were outside and she decided she no longer wanted to go saying she did not want problems with the neighbors. I asked her "what kind of problems mother?...you are inside your property and within your rights to see how close that trailer is" but she declined.

They were outside all day it seems. It was late this afternoon until I was able to go check out the corral to see if there was any hint of what may have happened to Walter but all I saw was kind of a sunken place in the ground where I last saw him laying.  I am cautiously optimistic he might be at the vet but all this trailer movement around his corral does not bode well for his return.

Thank you for your visit to Walter's World.