Sunday, September 02, 2018

RAIN IS GREAT, JUST NOT AT FEEDING TIME..........!!

But percentage wise, feeding time seems to be a good time for a rain storm.  If you wanted to drown frogs, this morning would have done it.  John hasn't checked the rain gauge yet, well he did when it was a quarter of an inch and after that it really rained.....!!!   One of the neighbors put on Facebook they got 1 1/2 inches and as hard as it was coming down I wouldn't be surprised if we didn't match or beat them. John and Doug are going to have some pen work to do.  Poor Rosie was trying to find a dry spot to stand and there wasn't one in her shelter, the whole thing was flooded.

The guys already had planned today on digging out Frijolita's pee pond in her shelter, right by her feed bunk.  A lot of the donkeys have a "special" place to pee.  Nothing wrong with that except, why put it where you eat?  If you don't dig out the pee soaked ground it gets really smelly and the gravel gets so compacted I don't think it could be dug out with a shovel, John uses the backhoe.  So that was their plan, I guess they will just add hauling more gravel for some of the other pens too.  Some of the boys, also pee in her pee pond, they don't pee in their pen.  I'm sure it's some social thing, but haven't quite figured it out. 

Last week Penny basically stopped eating, she'd stick her mouth in her food and just walk away.  Her jaw has been broke and we've had 6 of her teeth pulled, which means the rest of her teeth are probably shifting around.  She is so hard to work with, we decided to take her up to Gilbert to the clinic we take donkeys when it's something that would be difficult to do in the  field. 

But we had a slight problem. We had been trying to go out and visit with Casper the little white mini mule that went into a home last October.  It had been hard to find a time that worked for him and for us.  He has developed some health problems and is in the "doctor circus" for the foreseeable future.  After quite a few abortive attempts to get our schedules coordinated we finally had a time that worked for both of us and I didn't want to let it go.  So John loaded Penny in the stock trailer and headed for her appointment in Gilbert and I headed out  to visit with Casper. 



 He looked good, unfortunately Bryan hasn't had time to work with him.  He had wanted to train him to pull a little cart which I think would be good for Casper.  He is really smart, has a beautiful little trot and needs a job to occupy his busy little mind.  He needs someone to be his person, I think he has been passed around so much that he's decided he doesn't need people. That would probably change if he had a person of his very own, that could spend a lot of time with him. 


Bryan's got quite a few horses and with his health issues I asked him if we could take Casper back and he agreed.  I thought I might have a place for him, but it fell thru, so if anyone knows someone that could be this little guy's best friend forever, let me know.  We'll go get him after John gets back from Indiana next week-end. 

John's trip to Gilbert was uneventful.....well as uneventful as it can be with other people driving on the road......!! LOL  They don't seem to realize when you are hauling animals you can't stop on a dime. 

We figured John would have to leave her there and we'd pick her up in a day or two.  Because of the distance, probably about 230 miles, if they have to do anything that takes time, we usually just leave our victim, so they don't have to rush with their doctoring.
 
We were pretty sure it was her mouth, so they started there, after she got a happy shot.  John warned them that you can't touch her mouth, she's not really thrilled about having her head touched either and she will rear and use her front legs like a deer.  John said a young man was leading her in and she tried her, signature weapon, rear and flail those feet.  John the the guy didn't miss a beat, jerked her down with the lead and kept walking.  She didn't try it again......!! 
 
She only has one tooth in the back on one side, and on the other side she has a tooth that doesn't have an opposing tooth below it to wear it down.  It had gotten so long it was digging into her gums, no wonder she didn't want to eat.  They checked her all over, did some blood work and because of some things they found, sent blood off to be tested for Valley Fever.    And John got to bring her home, so that saved us a trip back up there.  
 
She's more interested in eating now, so I guess that's what the problem was.  Since she has so many teeth missing we'll probably have an annual checkup for her.
 
 
 
Linda sent a picture of Lucy after they finished a people race with dogs this week-end.  Linda said they had never put Lucy in a race, she's older and her legs aren't the best, so they always took  Lennon and Lola.   This was a really short race, so Lucy got her chance.  She looks proud, like she knows she's accomplished something...........!! 

I guess they are trying to get ready to head for Arizona the end of this month.  They have 2 more burro races and the season will be done.  We've been watching their temperature and night time temps are down in the low 40's, so it probably won't be long before it freezes and they get snow.  Hopefully not before they head south. 


No comments: