snow day diary (url blocking)

Just wrote my first "rule," in code, and stuff, to block a URL that has been haunting me for weeks.
A company's enterprising web guy hotlinked one of the GIFs posted here, probably for a "loading" graphic.
The business is a semi-automated site where people can get low level jobs by applying online. Kind of a Craigslist for day laborers.
I changed the GIF address but my "stats" continued to be overwhelmed with links from the "online forms" people fill out when applying for cab driver and bookkeeper jobs.
A couple of weeks ago I emailed the company and asked what gives.
Someone at the executive/sales level replied and said the company's web technician had been informed and my URL was no longer in its code.
Then a couple of days ago the hits started again, thousands of them. (Some bloggers might say, "Cool, traffic!")
Probably a backup someone never erased.
So today I did some research into how to block an unwanted visitor. If anyone notices anything weird or inaccessible on the site please shoot me an email.

Update: So far my work has seen no tangible results. Will give it another 24 hour "stat cycle" before admitting failure.
Update 2: The traffic has slowed but appears to have nothing to do with my "fix." Need to quit thinking about this.