After The Storm

One of my little round-up club friends is an 8 yo girl. She is the sweetest child. A. lives with her grandmother and her father not too far from me. Every evening I see her outside with her brown and white pony. Her grandmother is always puttering around in thier yard, she grows a huge garden every year, one to be extremely proud of. Two or three times the 2 of them have stopped by and offered us some delicious tomatoes and peppers. A.'s grandmother grows some mean peppers, but she also grows some very tasty banana peppers. I love to cook them on the grill.

When A. was a toddler, her mother up and abandoned her. The mother, I know who she is but do not know her, I dont care to either. Any mother who chooses drugs and other men over thier children are women I could care less about. Women who are in my eyes the lowest women on this planet. Okay, enough about the deadbeat mama. Little A. always has a bright smile and 2 dirty blonde pigtail braids trailing down her back. Let me tell you, this gal can ride! She puts a lot of adults I know to shame. A. and her pony are to reckoned with when she is competing in playdays. A. has her pony doing roll backs and stopping like a cutting horse, and you know what jerks ponies can be! Not one ounce of air between her hiney and her saddle, she is stuck like glue. One day A. is going to blossom into a fine equestrienne, if she should choose this path, she will go far. A. has natural talent that one is only born with, the caliber of talent that great riders are made of. Of course, she most likely inherited it from her father. He is an excellent cowboy himself. He isint home much because he works on the pipelines and his job takes him away from home for long periods but from what I understand he makes a good living. A. is his pride and joy, she is loved by her tiny family.

Last night Oklahoma had some real nasty weather blow thru, we had high winds, half dollar sized hail, and a ton of rain. After I fed the horses for the evening, I set my favorite non-destructable 'blue' feed bucket near the gate when I latched it and then forgot to put it up. Maybe I was distracted by the impending storm or becoming another year older this week. Anyhow, when I rose early this morning to go feed the whinnying fools waiting impatiently for thier breakfast, I noticed my bucket was no where to be found. I made do and when hubby left for work, I had him make a drive by all the ditches and neighboring pastures to see if my bucket could be located. He called and said no sign of it. Well, obviously he didnt look to hard because A. and her grandmother were driving down our road and noticed it in the bar ditch about 1/3 mi from our driveway. They picked it up and brought it by. They obviously knew it was mine because I only use this brand of buckets and they are all blue. I quickly pulled on my boots and swaddled up my 2 yo in his favorite quilt (he was still in his PJ's) and went outside. I wanted to catch A. before they drove away. I had a purple pony halter and matching purple and white lead rope that I picked up at a garage sale 1 month ago and was meaning to give it to her. Also, it came to my mind, she was either late for school or not going. I hollered at A. as she was climbing into her grandmother's Ford truck. I told A. I had something for her in the garage (I put it in there thinking I wouldnt misplace it and it would remind me to give it to her, right!) She followed me down to the garage, as we were walking I noticed she wasnt her usual bubbly and giggley self. I presented her with her gift and she gave me a small hug and a huge smile, she was delighted. Purple is her favorite color she informed me. When we returned to her grandmother, I asked A. if she was feeling okay, I thought maybe she had an MD appointment or a dental appt. Her grandmother told me they were on thier way into town to see thier lawyer because A.'s no good mama is causing custody trouble. Since A.'s father is gone out of state working a lot, A.'s mother is using this as an excuse to extort money from this dear childs family. Grandparents literally have NO RIGHTS in family court. This is something that needs changed. I do know thier counsel personally and he is a shark, he will dig up every tiny dirty secret on A.'s mother and WILL use it against her. The mother's record is not clean by no means and thier attorney will see to it that Judge G. who presides over family court knows this. A. is giving a recorded statement about the whole situation so she does not have to attend court or be traumatized more by these events. I felt so bad for this child. What is wrong with some so-called parents? This little girl is thriving in her home enviorment. A. or any other child does not deserve this. I wish I could personally kick A.'s mama's ass, Id do it with glee. But, that will not solve anything, so i wont, besides the mother got out of jail and a short stint at rehab..Ill stay away from that!

Since they had an appointment to keep and very little could be discussed in A.'s presence, we couldnt visit but a few minutes. I wished her grandmother the best all around and they made thier way to town. I whole heartedly hope all works out for A. She deserves to live the best life she can and be a happy little girl with her spotted pony by her side.