Anybody that had a pet dog for ten years or more knows what a blow it is to lose him, Well, imagine how 88-year-old Ramón from Cáñar in the Alpujarra felt when he lost his Mule after 22 years.
In the Alpujarra, a mule is your trusty Land Rover; your dents-but-doesn’t-break transport and even a bit of company – when was your Landy last glad to see you? And when you live by yourself, like Ramón, a bit of company doesn’t go amiss.
So, Cordero, as the mule is called, is more than a 4×4 that actually stomps its hooves in greeting; for Rámon he’s somebody to talk to and somebody that will miss him when he’s gone. Mind you, calling a bloody great mule “kid” could be considered unhinged, poetic licence, but, hey – it was Ramón’s call.
But the ‘gone’ element in this equine-man partnership was Cordero, because somebody stole the blighter. On the 11th of May, during the night, Cordero disappeared – not even a goodbye note, which was suspicious enough, so Ramón, distraught, turned the village upside looking for Cordero. He widened the search and stomped up hill and down hill, but not a trace of Cordero he found.
Heartbroken, he phoned his only offspring (Ramon’s, obviously as mule can’t have any… duh!) his son who teaches in Sevilla. He blurted out that Cordero had disappeared. Now, understand this, folks, Ramón lived upstairs and Cordero lived downstairs in the cuadra; we’re talking about a tight relationship. Anyway, his son calmed him down, reassuring him that sooner or later, Cordero would turn up, and not in a hamburger, as you’re thinking!
Ramón reported the missing mule to the Guardia Civil in Órgiva on the 16th – a nephew drove him there because his normal transport was ‘missing,’ evidently. Within 24 hours this fine body of men had tracked Cordero down – Goddamned, do the Guardia Civil kick ass (but not mules)!
Yes, on the 17th they intercepted a 50-year-old man mounted on Ramón’s mule – is nothing sacred – near the bottling-plant area of Lanjarón. The man is ‘known’ to the Guardia Civil, which doesn’t precisely mean that he is on their Christmas-card list. In fact, the chap in question is a sandwich short of a picnic (not firing on all cylinders in the head department).
They asked him where he had obtained the mule and no convincing answer was given, but rather than hanging him up by his ankles and beating the soles of his feet – a tried-and-trusted 1940’s technique – they got the vet to check the animal’s chip, which isn’t hardly as much fun, admittedly.
The man was arrested and Ramón was summoned and together the two (Ramón & Cordero), reunited in mutual admiration – but nothing fishy – road back to Cáñar in blissful company.
*Sigh!*… I bet you feel like a nice cuppa now, don’t you – you big softy!
(News: Cañar, Alpujarra, Granada, Andalucia)