The Water Bowl, the Painter and the Shelter

Anything left by the side of the road has a way of finding a new owner. We've learnt that the hard way.

A shelter was built for a stray living along the road leading down to the fields: wooden pallets, a tarp over the top weighed down with bricks, towels and a blanket inside, with food and water outside. She moved in and made it hers.

Then one day, when we went down to put food out, she was outside and a homeless man was living in the shelter. Sean went back with shoes, clothes and food for him, and for a while we fed him as well as her.

Then he disappeared, and so did the shelter, a bit at a time. First the blue tarp went, then pieces of the wood. If it isn't fixed down, it goes.

Our favourite story, though, is the water bowl. Ella had one out for the dogs, chained up so nobody could take it. A man walking past decided it was just the thing for mixing his paint, took it anyway and carried it off across the road. Ella went after him, furious.

That is why every one of our water bowls is now set in cement. They're much harder to walk off with.