Satan and his gang alive and well in the Rupununi

Date line: July 23

After returning home from Sand Creek for some much needed rest I was treated to record rainfall again, flood waters to rose higher than last years record flood, and once again many persons found their home either destroyed or badly damaged.

Once the rain stopped however the waters receded rather quickly, allowing the new fence around the ranch-ett to be completed. Finally the horses can now roam free at least until they discover that when the creek goes down enough they can once again escape, but this should be a while off yet.

Monday23 sees me and good ole manly heading into the cyber café to check the mail, and what not. He’s parked in back, tied to a gate and my saddle is left there by the gate.

Now around 2 in the afternoon, I get ready to head home, go to saddle up and No SADDLE, so I of course blame some of the guys in Don’s garage of playing a prank, but I am quickly told that no the saddle is right there by the gate, they had all seen it there. “Well do you see it there now?” So the search begins. Who would bother to take the damn saddle and leave the horse, blanket, and bridle? After about 30 min. of searching the area, I call the police and report that my saddle has been stolen. Questions; what’s the saddle worth, what does it look like, do you have any suspects, and how old are you? “ WHAT” That’s right not how old is the saddle but how old am I, now what the hell does that have to do with my saddle being stolen, unless they figure because of my age that I may have forgotten where I left it. Sorry I find no humor in that at all. I know damn well where I left it and it ain’t there now.

About 20 minutes later one of the boys from the Garage comes and tells me he has found it down by the creek, hidden under some brush, and said there were two barefoot tracks and one was pushing a bicycle.

Cops are called back advised where the saddle was found and the tracks that were found with the saddle.

In the mean time I saddle up and ride home, vowing to get even, Oh well at least they didn’t steal the horse this time.

Since I have a pretty good idea of who the guys are, I put the word out that there is 10,000G$ offered to who ever will bring the two bandits to my place and we’ll tie them to a tree and they can beat the shit out of them, and I’ll take pictures to post.

Tues. am. The vaquero who comes twice a day to take care of the horses comes up and wants to know where Shot Gun is, (Shot Gun the horse) after a search of the paddock there is no sign of him, so we look up by the new gate and sure enough there are his tracks along with 2 barefoot tracks going through the gate.

Colette and the boy start following the tracks, and I walk into town, because I was going to Brazil for the day, in the mean time another vaquero saddles up a horse, Colette’s son saddles up Manly (Mabadab posse) and off they go following tracks, the entire day is spent tracking horses until they loose the trail close to Manari Ranch.

Police are once again called and a stolen horse is reported this time.

Wed. Morning….

Shefishs and posse are hot on the trail of the bandits once again. We ride back out to where they had found signs of them having tied the horses, following fresh tracks; the trail is once again followed out past the rodeo ground, with wide circles being cut in hopes of finding evidence. No luck, then it comes a hard rain to wash out old tracks

Thrus. Morning,

Vaquero (cowboy) who tends the horses comes to the house wanting to know who brought Shot Gun home, Say…What? “Yes, he’s out here, but he’s really tired, and got a bad place on one side, like they had roped a cow and drug it with him. Shot Gun looks more like a rusty relic, talk about rode hard and put away wet.

Once again, gate is checked, sure enough, thanks to the rain, there are fresh tracks coming from the same direction we had tracked them the last two days, so once again the tracking begins. Only this time it is discovered that there are 4 cows tied together,, posse rides back to the ranch, police are called and led to the sight, where a sting operation is set up. A couple of officers are left there to wait on the bandits, and sure enough one returns with a buyer for the cows, bandit gets the crap beat out ‘a him, and gives up two more. Off to the Calaboose, hopefully for some more beating, nothing like a little blood and gore to make a story interesting.

Now it is learned that the guy who was caught first, was trying to sell the cattle, his name is SATAN???? Hence Satan and his gang, one can only hope they will be sent bouncing back to hell where they belong, hell in this case being George Town Jail or pen.

Closing note, Yes folks cattle rustling is very much alive and well in the Rupununi, seems there is some money to be made in this venture since the price of beef in Brazil is somewhat higher than here. Sad thing is they just don’t Hang’m High here like we use to up north, but who knows that idea may catch on yet.

Shefishs July 2007