Is a Horse Thief about?

Just a quickie before I leave for Liverpool. There was quite a saga surrounding the admittance of the kitten ,The following day the lady who found him rang me to say the owner had turned up! When I expressed doubt that such a tiny animal could have found himself lost she launched into a detailed story of how the owners lived some streets away from her and their grandchild had taken the kitten out to show his friends and lost him! Then she said she was going to come and collect him to take back but when I asked for the owners details to discuss the welfare of Henry, she mumbled something about ringing me back with it. When she failed to do so I tried in vain to contact her, some hours later her son rang me and the truth came out. The kitten was never abandoned, after his wife left him the kitten was left alone all day in the house which he felt rightfully to be unkind so his mother offered to take Henry to Freshfields.When his wife discovered he had parted with the kitten, she was upset and wanted him back so that was why the elaborate story was invented.As it happened the home would have been unsuitable , she lived in a flat where no pets were allowed , fortunately she was made to see sense and Henry remains in our care.
I do wish people would refrain from lying, it simply complicates matters but there is often so much guilt in handing over pets to shelters that sometimes they
must feel it necessary to lie. In this case I would not have thought any less of the family for their action because it was clearly the right thing for them to do. I admit to feeling differently about those who want to give up horses because they are unable to ride them any longer. That does infuriate me and they are right to feel guilty.I make no apology for my feelings about that.It is far too common for older horses to be disposed of to make way for a younger livelier ride and for the animal shelters to end up taking on what should be the owners responsibility.

A distraught lady from a neighbouring village called last night to tell me that her two shetland ponies had been stolen from their paddock. This concerns me greatly, part from the fate of the two stolen animals, if there is a horse thief about we have to worry about our own equines.Although many are obviously old and would be of no interest to anybody, others do not have visible health issues and could be mistakenly thought of as suitable riding ponies.We do have some freeze branded which is the best possible deterrent to thieves but we need to do this with more, especially those in the lower fields which are out of sight of the house. More Cost! Freeze branding is painless to the animal but shows a clear mark which makes it easily identifiable if attempts are made to pass them through horse sales .

Anyhow I must leave now and get myself sorted for the nightmare ahead. Does anybody enjoy meetings?