Details on Hank

[mkurtz@us.ibm.com]

As promised, here is the story on Hank:

Dave took Hank and his other horse, up to Sullivan County PA
(about two hours from home) to spend the Christmas holiday riding
with friends.  They had a wonderful couple days riding in the mountains.
Hank and Chief (Dave's other horse) were confined to a 40X60 shed with
a portable paddock.  On Sunday morning, Dave found Hank missing, but
Chief was still in the closed paddock.  There were hoof prints leading
down the driveway, but nothing more than that.  The community he was
visiting is a very small tight knit group, who all immediately pitched in
to
help find any information on Hank.   There was one family who everyone
knew had always talked about getting a horse.  I don't know the details
on the family other than many of the locals immediately suspected the
family might
have taken the horse.  Of course, no one could go search the property
since it was just a hunch, but someone finally got up the nerve to contact
them on Tuesday and explained the police were involved and that it was
a very SERIOUS crime and if they had ANY information to let someone
know.  The family did have a large shed/enclosure that would
have been plenty big to keep Hank out of sight.   Amazingly enough,
about two hours after the conversation with the family, Hank turned
up in someone's front yard, not far from the family's home.  It appears
they turned Hank loose when they heard about the consequences.
The family who found him in their yard were an elderly couple who
had their grandkids in visiting for Christmas.  The kids kept asking
Grandma if they could go play with the horse.  Of course Grandma
thought the kids were pulling her leg when they talked about the
horse in the front yard ("I'm not falling for that one!")... But when
Grandpa
finally gave in and looked, it was Hank.  He immediately notified
Dave's friends (who he had been visiting) and they retrieved Hank.
Hank looked great and had no signs of being 'out in the wild'  for
almost three days.  He was clean and wasn't even thirsty.

No one can prove anything or press charges, since no one saw
these people take Hank.  Fortunately, Hank wasn't hurt when they
turned him loose.   In fact, I can picture Hank hanging around
outside the window whispering 'Hey kid, got any carrots??'

Hank is now back home in South Central PA, and happy as
ever.  Thank God...


      Thanks,
                Michelle