Walter is back

This afternoon I went to bring in the trash bin, it must have been around 2:00 p.m.  I looked over to the corral and could see Walter in the far eastern corner.  It was cold and it was drizzling so came back inside.

Today with it being cold, I did not bother to open the kitchen blinds until later in the afternoon. To my surprise when I did, I saw that Walter was back at Mom's house.  He mainly stayed in the area by his corral where he continued to look after Dulcinea.

If I am to believe the weatherman...tonight it is supposed to sleet and get down below freezing.  I am so glad he will spend the night here.

Ralph did not show up today.  Hope he is warm and dry.

Back in his nasty corral

I do not know what is wrong with his owners.  Here I thought they finally were being conscientious and looking after his well being.  Sunday afternoon they came and got him and I figured they would bring him back after they fed him dinner since rain was in the forecast.

No...they did not and though it did not pour, it drizzled and there he was in that damp corral with that nasty bacterial mud up to his ankles.

The cold front came in last night and today it has drizzled and rained all evening.  If they do not want to bring him back here fine but why do they not get him out of that nasty corral?

Dulcinea though not in the corral did not fair any better in the cold and damp evening.

Ralph has been coming and eating at least one meal daily except for today.  Cats do not like rain...hope he is in a warm place tonight.

New feeding station

I could see Walter from the kitchen window moving his head back and forth and neighing towards his owners house.  It was 10:15 a.m. and no one had come to take him home to be fed.  A while later I saw that he was bent over in the same spot and appeared to be eating something.  Of course I had to go investigate.

Did his owners read my last post and finally had an epiphany?  I will be darn if they did not move his feeding location to an area where he could actually eat his food without hurting himself.  .

They even brought him a cooler (albeit dirty) to put his horse pellets in and gave him a generous portion of hay

A happy Walter posing for his blog readers :)

Ralph showed up for lunch and accompanied me.  He too decided to pose for the blog, lol :D

Checked out the corral situation...it is still too damp and rain is expected this evening.  You can see Dulcinea in the background.

I am so glad he is spending another night here.  As always thank you for your visit to Walter's World.

Nap in the shade

For the past couple of days his owners have been coming in the morning, taking Walter to his corral where they feed him his hay and then bringing him back to graze.

Today he spent a lot more time on this side of the property than he has in prior days.  It was a beautiful sunny day in the 70's so he drank a lot of water as well.  I made sure I put his water tub close to the kitchen window so I could see when he came for a drink.

He even took a nap along the trees by the fence where there was shade.  In case you are wondering if that is "the cheap mesh tent" I set up after my first trip back from Terlingua in late October...what can I say?  Have I mentioned I am a procrastinator?

Ralph finally made an appearance today. Jumped on top of dad's old car and started meowing to get my attention.  Fed and watered him and once again he took off to wherever it is he goes.

This afternoon I saw Walter's owner feeding him his pellets from the same place that the lazy teenager did...dang stupidity must run in that family!  At least that meant he once again gets to spend the night on dry ground.

He misses Dulcinea

Walter has been here since Monday which is just fine by us.  Tuesday, I looked out the window at 7:00 a.m. and he was here so I knew he had spent the night.  Around 9:30 a.m. I could not find him anywhere so walked to his corral and found him in the eastern end of it that sits on higher ground and thus not as muddy.

 I was glad to see that he was eating his hay but not too happy that he was once again in that filthy corral.  Turned out I did not have to worry about that, as an hour later he was back in our yard.

Why don't they clean this?  Was glad they gave him the opportunity to come over until it dries out.

You would think he would be happy here like he seems to be when they bring him to mom's house. However, he wasn't....he missed Dulcinea and hung out by his corral but on our side of the property.

Yesterday she was tied to the back of the shed and he stayed there practically all day except to come get a drink of water once in a while.  Same thing at night...he spent it by the fence overlooking his corral as he watched over her...how romantic :)

That worthless teenager...grrrrr!

I thought it was odd that every time I looked towards the corral, I did not see Walter. Yesterday I had washed some socks and hung them to dry on the clothesline.  When I remembered it was already dark and I didn't feel like looking for the flashlight.  Anyhow the weatherman has been wrong all week and I did not think it would rain.

This afternoon I went to fetch them and to my surprise it had rained!  When did it take place?  I did not see or hear anything.  All my socks were soaking wet.  That is when I heard Walter neighing loudly. Wondered what was up?

Was walking back to the front of the house when I saw that he was in our property.  He was neighing because the worthless teenager was giving him food but he was too lazy to walk it over and was dumping it over the fence in an area full of old wood scraps, nails and thorny plants.

I felt bad because I had no idea how long he had been at mom's house and I had not put out water for him.  I also felt bad since I have not gone to buy him his horse pellets because the trunk of my car is full with bags of clothes for a future trip to the laundromat that never seems to take place.

He has pretty much eaten all the native grass and weeds that he can at mom's.  A horse as big as Walter requires a good amount of food.  His owner bought a new bale of hay last weekend but he covered it up perhaps to protect it from the rains that never fell until today.

I walked up to the corral and with the rain it was a soggy mess.  Glad at least they brought him over and not make him stand in that filth.

Even the area with that so called "shade" over it was wet.  There are at least three able bodied men in that house bet they could clean this corral in less than an hour.  As much as that teen is on the Internet, he could google how to manage horse manure like John does at The Field Lab.

I get such a kick out of this darn rooster.  He was supervising the feed...he should of attacked the darn teenager as he was doing it wrong!

Since it was already late in the day and the lazy teenager was feeding him, it is a good bet he is going to spend the night here.  Earlier this evening I went to look if he was still here but our backyard is very dark and I could not see him.  Walter like Ralph never respond when I call out to them.

With regards to Ralph he went missing for two days, came back yesterday for dinner and I have not seen him since.  Here is a picture of him in his now favorite place to sharpen his claws as well as supervise me as I do outside chores :)

They busted his face :(

Ralph jumps on the old washing machine outside the kitchen window as soon as he hears activity. I do not always have my glasses on in the morning but I noticed there was something on his face.

He goes crazy every time he sees food and all he wants to do is start eating, therefore I could not get a good look at him.

They got his little head and ear as well...though it does not show up very well in this picture.

When I finally saw his face...I was furious! I knew what cat had done this to my baby. He is a big old ugly gray cat that likes to bully all the cats in the neighborhood.  He knows I dislike him as I am constantly running him off.

His little face has since healed. Now that Walter has been coming over more frequently...he doesn't seem as afraid of him as he once was but he still keeps his distance :)

A horse, a mare and a rooster

On one occasion that Walter happened to be grazing at our house, some movement in the corral caught my eye. Could not make out what it was, so went to investigate.  To my surprise it was a pretty mare whom I have named Dulcinea.

She is a good eater too, she "mowed" their weeds well.  Isn't she a pretty little thing?

She was not inside the corral but from our house it appeared like she was.  Why would his owner who can not even take care of Walter bring another horse to the equation?  I would later learn from observation not because anyone told me...that the mare belongs to a couple that are currently living with him.

Though they do not share the corral at least Walter now has female company and someone to pass the time with.

That crazy rooster is their chaperon :)

At least she is not in that filthy corral.  Her owner cleans up after her as well as has water and shade made available from that trailer.

The rooster is a hoot, he follows Walter around as he grazes.

 The happy couple...

Thank you for visiting Walter's blog.

Two month post

I can not believe that I am going on two months without a post.  As you know I ditched my internet service provider back in October, then I was busy preparing for my trip to the desert.

During October and November, his owner brought Walter to graze on several occasions for which I was grateful since the yard was out of control.

Unfortunately he usually visited after a rain event and he left big holes all over the yard. Though I would rather have holes, than see him pent up in his wet and soggy corral with mud up to his ankles.

Here he has room to lay down in the dirt and roll around much like a cat and dog do to soothe their body from all the mosquito, horse flies as well as flea bites.  However, it left him even dirtier. I tried to brush him but he did not much care for it and quickly took off.

I usually catch rain water in buckets and then use it to water my mother's plants.  Even though I set up a big tub of regular tap water for him...he preferred to drink the rain water.

Will do another post soon to catch you up on what has been going on in Walter's World.  Thank you for dropping by.

Early supper

Monday afternoon I could tell that Walter was restless.  Went to visit him...to calm him down...pulled him some fresh grass.  He quickly ate it and wanted more. Decided to go back to the house and pick some from our yard.

It was about 7:30 p.m. and I usually do not feed him this early but what the heck.

After the grass, I fed him his mature horse pellets which he loves.  He had just finished his supper when his owner drove up.  I ducked behind the cinder block fence until he went into the house which seemed like a long time!

I then made a mad dash to mom's house.  Kept an eye on him from the kitchen window. Was glad I had fed him as his owners never did tonight.

As far a Ralph is concerned...he has not come around since the last post :-(

Walter and Ralph together

Wednesday morning I went to take out the trash and then to see Walter.  Tuesday night was the grand finale of my foreign soap opera so I did not go check on him that evening.

I noticed that the dirt in his corral was wet...then it dawned on me...it must of rained during the night. He was eating as someone had fed him but why oh why do they forget to water him?  It made me feel guilty not knowing how long he had been without this precious liquid :(

I called out to him but he ignored me...he does not like to be disturbed when he is eating.  So I decided I would come back later and offer him some liquid gold.

Lord and behold Ralph was waiting for me, meowing and meowing wanting to be fed. Guess my neighbor did not feed him this morning.  I don't think I have seen him in over a week.  He was starving!  He ate a lot and he too was thirsty!

After a while I filled up a gallon jug and headed back to the corral.  Ralph decided to follow.

Leilani wanted a picture of Walter and Ralph together.  This is the best I could do...at least they are in the same shot :)

I offered Walter my gallon jug after he finished eating but he refused it.  Alright Walter, I have not slept all night and I might not be back till this afternoon...I warned...no response, lol!

Ralph looked like he too was ready for bed and we both left. Actually I did not go to bed until 11:20 a.m. and slept till 4:00 p.m.  I went to check on him and someone had uprighted the blue barrel but it was empty...it wasn't anywhere near the water hose but it was good enough for the cops (what cops?) not to see a down barrel.  Today the temperature reached 93 degrees.

This was taken from the far corner. That is a shadow on
the barrel not the water level.  Note where the white
 water hose is to the left of the picture, that is where the barrel should be

I took him six gallons and was about to take him two more when I saw that worthless teenager going in the corral around 6:30 p.m. and moving the barrel to where it should be and filling it up.  In this case over-filling it in an already soggy and damp corral.

Then he surprised me by feeding him twice in one day.  Maybe he felt guilty of not having filled his water barrel on such a hot day?

Ralph was very tired this afternoon after eating supper and decided to take another nap...this time on top of dad's old car.

Gave him some more water and was surprised he once again drank quite a bit.

I was cleaning up around the yard and he supervised me,  For a young cat...he sure is lazy!