Mac the horse, feared to be abandoned, has a home for now
Mac, as he is now known, is doing pretty well, all things considered.
He appears to be healthy, except for being blind in one eye. And he has made some new friends.
But as time goes on, those who are caring for him are running out ways to try to connect with his family. Nobody has come forward to claim him. And that leads the people who found him wandering in a field to think the worst.
"Maybe somebody just can't afford him," Pingree Grove Police Chief Carol Lussky said. "If it's a situation like that, it's a terrible way to go about doing things."
On the evening of Oct. 5, while responding to a traffic accident in a rural part of their small town in western Kane County, police were approached by a man who told them he'd seen a horse on the loose.
Police soon spotted the horse and tried to block him in with the police SUV, another officer and the man, but the horse stayed one step ahead of everyone else. Every time the trio tried to close in on him, he broke out of the circle and ran off.
Two women entered the chase. Ninety minutes later, the horse let its pursuers get close enough to swing a rope, which police normally use in water rescues, around his neck.
It wasn't their first roundup of a horse on the loose, but it was the first of the year in this horsified part of the county. The chief owns two horses.
The American paint horse had no tattoos. Their scan for evidence of a microchip came up dry. So, with nothing to go on but a gender and a breed and an estimated age of 13, they set about trying to find his owner.
Stacy Fiebelkorn, a Hampshire woman who keeps horses as pets and rents out space on her property to other horse owners, has been watching after Mac along with the nine horses that live with her, seven of which are hers.
She said Mac is doing well.
"He's already buddied up with a couple of horses, so he's hanging around them all the time," Fiebelkorn said.
She also said she's done all she can to reunite Mac with his owner, including posting ads on Craigslist, attaching fliers all over the neighborhood, calling other police departments in the area, sending out mass e-mails and even phoning the Pinto Horse Association of America for help.
She estimates it will cost at least $125 a month to look after the neutered horse, including the hay and grain he eats.
If nobody steps forward to claim Mac, Fiebelkorn, 30, will likely keep him with the rest of her rescued brood, which includes eight goats, seven cats, six dogs and three potbellied pigs.
She also has two children and a fiance.
"I can't save them all and I can't feed them all and what I can do I will do," she said. "And if that means taking in a horse that's found in the middle of the road, then so be it, I'll do it. I just hope that somebody would do the same thing for me."
If the horse belongs to you, or if you know who he belongs to, call the Pingree Grove Police Department at (847) 464-4600. You must provide proof of ownership to take the horse home.