Finally his water barrel was filled

Today would have marked three days that Walter has been without water.  I last checked on him at 2:00 p.m. and he had nothing.  Came back at 2:43 p.m. and his barrel was full and they had given him hay.  Took them long enough!

You can tell it was recently filled because his head is barely in the surface and not way at the bottom of the barrel like I have documented on prior occasions.

When my little guy is happy...I am happy :)

He finally drank some water!

I went to the corral a little past noon only to confirm my suspicion that the kid had not given him water last night.

It was awfully hot and I was glad he was under his shade structure.  Brought him a gallon of water at first because he is so wishie washie about drinking it.  To my delight he started drinking it up...so I brought him some more...7 gallons to be exact!

Here he looks like he is saying "Don't you have enough pictures of me?  Hurry up and give me my water!" :D

When  I came back from running errands around 4:20 p.m. I went to see him and noticed that his water barrel was different, the water hose was not inside of it and someone had given him hay that remained uneaten...something odd as Walter is always hungry.

Then it came to me that when he is thirsty...he knocks the barrel down so that his idiot owners can tell it is empty.  The father has taught the kid well so they don't get in trouble with the authorities upon seeing a down water barrel.  He simply picked it up and did not give a darn that his animal had nothing to drink when it was 99 degrees today with a heat index in the three digits.

A look from another angle

I brought him more water and he gladly consumed it.  He drank 4.5 gallons.  This evening I went to check up on him and found he has not eaten his hay but strewn it around the corral.  When the mechanic came after the rain he noted that his "prop hay" was not covered and told me that hay goes bad if it is not in a dry place.

It was 8:45 p.m. by now and his water barrel remained empty.  Brought him 5 gallons and he seemed grateful and lapped up every drop :-)

Back to their old ways

Up early (for me) 7:14 a.m. to put out the trash and open the gate.  Walter was looking at me and moving from side to side...so I go visit him.  No sign they fed him this morning.  I was outside till 10:15 p.m. last night raking mesquite pods and watering the yard.  No one came to see how he was doing...much less fed him.  At least I was able to give him a late supper.

When the sun hit his water barrel...it showed he only had an inch of water...darn kid!

I took him some water but he is back to being stubborn and refused to drink it!  Even when I clearly saw he was trying to get a drink before I showed up with clean fresh water...crazy horse :(

Saw the kid and his brother coming from the nephew's house in their bicycles but they did not even look Walter's way.  It was close to noon and it was hot and miserable outside.  Decided to give him his pellets since it was obvious they were not going to feed him.

This evening they fed him at 8:50 p.m. but I could not tell if they had filled his water barrel.  Today it got to 98 degrees with a heat index in the three digits.  Definitively not a day for an animal to be without water.

Out of convenience?

I went to visit Mr. Walter this afternoon and he actually came to the fence line that separates our properties and he let me pet him!

However,  I think he only did so because no one had fed him this afternoon.  So I guess he did it out of convenience?  That just goes to prove how smart horses really are!

The horse flies were really bothering him so the above picture was taken when he was trying to shake them off.

Claire / Grumpy Walter

On the way to town I passed the Duck Pond and saw that Claire was no longer there but did not give it much thought.  My mother lives in the southern edge of Val Verde county and up until a few years ago there was only one way in and one way out of the sub-division.  We had a hundred year flood that made the Duck Pond rise and cut us off from the rest of town for days.  It became apparent that a back way out was necessary.  After years of negotiations with owners of ranches a road to the north part of town became a reality.  They named it Milagro (Spanish for miracle) because it was a miracle it was ever built.

The north part of town is where the mall, Walmart, restaurants and Lake Amistad are located.  Even though mother does not like that road...I do...because there is hardly any traffic.  Decided to take the back way home and without even looking for Claire...I found her!

I was not in dad's old car but in mother's mini-van but she recognized me just the same :)   This is not where she lives or perhaps it is now.  I think she must belong to the son of the owner of the house where I thought she lived.  I saw a kid with his dog walking to said house as he observed me talking to his horse. :D

On the other front Mr. Walter is mad at me and has been since his return.  I walk to the fence and try to get him to come up to me so I can pet him...but he is having none of that...he is ignoring me :(

The wind has been blowing pretty hard and that long metal thing is not secure and keeps on rattling.  It scares him so he has not been in his shade structure.

My mother thinks Walter is bipolar.  I think he blames me for his recent trip to the nephew's house.  Who knows?  Hope he gets over it soon.

My little guy is back!

After sixteen days, my little Walter is back...:-)

Went to close the gate when I saw his horse tail gagging a little after 8:00 p.m.  He must of come home between 6:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.

Immediately went to see him but when I called out to him he ignored me!  Went back to the house to get my camera to be able to document his return.  Tried to get him to come to the fence but he was too busy eating the weeds that have grown during his absence.

Walter has been gone for two weeks

Today makes two weeks to the day Ramón (made up name) took Walter to his nephew's house.  Mother and I were outside around 9:30 a.m. when we noticed activity by his corral.   I saw the kid putting one of the many blue water barrels they have laying around their yard in the back of their truck.

Figured if they are taking him a water barrel and had not bothered doing so the first two weeks...then he is probably going to be gone for a while longer or they discovered the nephew was not watering him and were going to rectify the situation.  All kinds of things went through my head...but I will think positive thoughts as I only want Walter to be better off with the nephew than he is with his owners.

Pacquiao, the family dog was running loose and came into our property through the down fence where he proceeded to poop right by where I had made a hole to plant a new shrub.  He has his house, he has lots of places in between here and there and he chooses to do it in front of our house....grrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

I opened up the gate early this morning as I did not know if the mechanic was going to show up or not.  Saw when Ramón and son got in the pickup and came down our street.  Pacquiao came running after the truck, the owner stopped and yelled for him to go back and took off again.  The dog continued to chase them and he parked in front of our house and got off as the dog ran into our yard.  He saw mother and I and even though I said hello...he did not even acknowledge us but he sure came into our property, picked up some rocks and started throwing them at the poor dog, who then ran home.

The kid got off the truck to watch and both mother and I said Hi...so he had no other choice but return our hello.  Mom said she was going inside and I followed her.  Ramón is a very strange fellow who clearly has no respect for private property and by example is teaching that to his son.  We were in front of his darn face and he should have asked for permission to walk into our yard.  If it wasn't because of Walter...he would have gotten an ear full!

Claire is Back

Claire the mare is back at the Duck Pond where she had been when I last saw her.  I believe the last time I passed by there was Friday and she was not there so her owners or someone brought her back between then and today.

I stopped to check up on her and she came right up to me...I think hoping I had some pellets...but regrettably I did not.

Noticed she had a different and heavier rope...one that was not as long as her previous one or that allowed her to reach the trees for some shade.  However she looked clean and her skin had a better tone.

I was going to go check up on the now two ice chest she had...but I really did not want to confirm how filthy they probably were.

Walter has been sent to the nephew's house

We were leaving for this hospital this morning when I saw his owner walking Walter towards our house.  I stopped at the gate and asked him if he was bringing him to graze.  He said no...he was taking him to his nephew's house but would  bring him by later.

In the past when I have reported him to the authorities, the first thing he has done is vanish him to this relative's property.  To my knowledge no one has reported him.  I am  hoping he takes this time to clean out all the poop in the corral and thus cut down on the smell and the darn horse flies.  Not for our or the neighbors benefit...since we pretty much stay indoors during the summer...but for Walter's sake!

When we returned I kept an eye out for him but he never brought him back.  This afternoon I fired up dad's old car and went looking for him but as in the past I have never been able to locate him.  I saw the kid walking late this afternoon but he did not come back with him.

I was watering the trees this evening and decided to check out the corral once more.  There was no Walter but what caught my eye was that they had filled his water barrel so much so that the water had spilt out of it.  Why fill it up if he is not even there?  Could it be that he saw my "stealth set-up"?  Since I have no idea when he will be back...I decided to take it down.