Thursday, July 31, 2008

Yesterday some people came to visit Gus. They run cattle on about 10,000 acres & like to use mules. They were disappointed to find out he was a donkey, but decided to come see him anyway. When they drove up we were cleaning pens. By the time we got to where they were parked, Gus had already introduced himself. He stayed with us, while we went around the pens to see everyone else. We don't know if he has been trained to ride, although he acts like he's been ridden. If I was younger & knew I would bounce instead of break, I'd give it a try.

He is still shedding out. For awhile I thought he was going to hang onto his long woolly hair, but it's finally coming out. Unfortunately his hair is long & very fine, so it mats really bad. I usually try to give him a quick once over, while waiting for John to deliver the morning hay. The last few days, I've been able to get the mats out without using scissors. I think he would stand there & let you brush him until there was no hair left, he REALLY, REALLY loves to be groomed.

Everyone that is being confined to pens seem to be accepting their fate, although old Pepper is getting real pushy. He seems to think if he is obnoxious enough we'll let him do what he wants. We checked yesterday to see if the cattle had found the pile of salt going into Burroland. So far it's not been touched. We haven't seen that many cattle lately, maybe the rancher has moved them somewhere else.

We were a little worried about Sha'ba a couple of days ago. He wasn't eating his hay, & he wasn't eating his beet pulp, timothy pellets, rice bran mixture. Since he usually tries to run me down when I'm trying put the stuff in his feed bucket, this was unusual behavior. Then we noticed his poo. I would say it was about 90% mesquite seeds. I guess the reason he wasn't eating what we were offering, was because he was full of mesquite beans. So now he is having to stay in 24/7. There are now 14 having to stay in the pens. It's going to be a LONG summer, at this rate. After being in his pen for a couple of days, he is now much more interested in what we're feeding.

Tula has a new nickname. She is continuing to be the very last one in the pens, & does everything she can to make sure we don't see her go in. Usually everyone else, including her paramour Chester are in their pens, with their beet pulp goodies & hay & we've gone on to something else, before she shows up. John is now calling her Miss Stealthy. I would give a nickel to know what goes thru her brain. Maybe I should get an animal communicator to work with her.

Still no mice.............!!!!

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