Monday, March 09, 2009


I took John to the airport before sunrise this morning. Threw him out waved bye, & headed home to take care of the gang. I got home about 1/2 hour after we usually start chores, so they weren't too upset. Until they figured out operations weren't going as quickly as usual. I keep explaining to them, there is one of me & quite a few of them, so they need to be patient........!!!!!

I found out how to get Judy the mule to take her pergolide, don't put any soaked beet pulp or pellets in her pan. It seems the soaked food is the problem rather than the pergolide. I can spritz her pellets with a little water, open the capsule & dump the contents on the wet spot. Or I can just throw the capsule in & it disappears. But not if there is soaked food in the pan. This brings up another problem though. How do I get her Arizona Regional Mix, extra iodized salt, Magnesium oxide, copper & zinc into her system? All of that is to balance my bermuda hay, with what it lacks for optimal nutrition. I guess I'll just give her pergolide for a few days & see how it goes. She really should have the supplements, but the pergolide is more important right now.

We had a little bit of rain last night, which I appreciated, although I don't think they did. Except for Rusty the white mule. He loves to roll in mud, & is absolutely filthy right now. I don't know how he does it, but by tomorrow he will be white as snow again. Jack the other mule loves to roll too, but he is almost black & doesn't look quite a dirty as Rusty does.

I'm going to try to frequently add articles I find interesting to the sidebar under NEW STUFF. I just added 2 today. The one on roping donkeys is something that needs to be brought to the forefront. Quite a few of our donkeys have been roping donkeys & for the most part even if they survive mentally, they will never be 100% whole. Equines are classified as livestock rather than companion animals, like dogs & cats. Consequently, the laws covering their care & treatment are different, although there are laws to protect them from being used in a cruel manner. The problem is the laws are ignored & even if the problem is brought to the attention of the public, very little is ever done to the people involved. Very rarely do people found guilty of animal cruelty serve jail time, even when companion animals are involved. Many times they get their animals back if they want to go thru the court system. Even if they don't get the animals back, there usually isn't any court order to prevent them from going out & getting more animals immediately.

This is a good article on the subject, looking at both sides of the issue from a neutral position. When we picked up Chester, his owner was proud of the fact that he was a "trained" roping donkey & would run a pattern. How many times does a donkey have to be roped before he becomes "trained"? I don't think my Cisco was ever a "trained" one, judging from the scars on his legs, & how mentally shut down he was.


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