Wow Bert was in & out before noon today. He said whatever we're doing to keep doing it, because only 2 needed work.  

He looked at Tucker's parrot mouth.  I told him the molars had been x-rayed & were perfectly aligned.  He said if they weren't he could actually do some work on Tucker & help to overcome some of the overbite.  He said he will get along just fine & could even eat grass in a pasture if he was ever lucky enough to have pasture.  He said they learn to use their tongue to get the grass.  He also said they are inclined to overeat more than one with a normal mouth.  

I love to hear him talk, he's always sharing information that I find really interesting & hopefully useful. Of course a lot of it is so far over my head, I'm not sure he's speaking English?  And I know he's simplifying a lot of it.  

Justin & Ruthie were the only 2 that needed anything done & they weren't really bad, just needed some sharp areas filed down.  

 Ruthie & Bert getting to know each other

We had Rusty's teeth done back in late 2011 when we had Drifter's teeth done.  Rusty had been moving his jaw in a weird way like he had it hung up or something.  Since Drifter was going for dental work we threw Rusty into the trailer too.  I've never used anyone but Bert & hopefully I'll never have to again.  The guy automatically drugged them, & used power tools.  That's a quick way to run out of teeth, if not used properly, which a lot of them don't.  Ever since Rusty was done he has been chewing a lot & it takes him longer to finish his hay.  Bert said it's because of the way his teeth were done & there isn't anything he can do now.  But maybe by fall, when Bert comes back thru, a few months of using the teeth the way they are will give him something to work with.  

Unfortunately we got some bad news.  When he looked in Pepper's mouth, he found a tumor that smells.  It's up in the right side of his palate about the size of a quarter, not very thick.  I've been on the internet this afternoon, but haven't found anything encouraging.  We were talking about taking him to have a biopsy & Bert asked why?  After thinking about it........Pepper is somewhere on the other side of 30 or 35.  He's had a broken hip & a blown knee.  Right now his quality of life is good, he eats his mush, ears are up, eyes are bright & he's always ready to get out of the pen & go chase the girls.  If we started messing with it, would his quality of life be as good?  So we will probably wait & watch & when the time comes that he isn't interested in trying to knock us over to get out of his pen, we'll let him go. 

This is the part we hate, having to make these decisions.  But when we decided to take in the unadoptable for the most part, it goes with the territory.  But we don't have to like it.

Bijou is still a little gimpy even in the boots, but I think he likes them.  This morning when I got ready to take them off to check for rocks etc, he started trying to get away from me.  So I assume they feel pretty good.  I held his foot up when I took the boots off, put a little baby powder in them & stuck his foot back in it before setting it on the ground.  Once he figured I wasn't going to take them away he stood real good for the other one.  He's staying on his feet most of the time & is a little "talkie" guy whenever he sees us. 

Redid Boaz's knee this morning, it looked real good.  Vet called yesterday with the results of the biopsy, it was all proud flesh, no cancer or anything like that.  So if we can keep the proud flesh from reforming, it should heal good, although I'm pretty sure it's going to take awhile.  It doesn't slow him down any, this morning about 5am we were awakened by donkeys serenading us real close to the house. It sounded like a party of boys yelling at each other, so I assume one of the girls was batting her eyelashes at them.  We recognized Boaz & Cisco, not sure who the others were.   Actually Cheyenne came in with a chewed up ear, so it probably was her.  She is only 32 inches tall, so I don't think she's going to get much out of the boys except for a sore ear.

This afternoon we went down to see Rambo.  Amy said he is really a good guy & when we got there, he came over & wanted to be petted immediately, kept trying to run the horses away, so he could get all the petting.

He's such a good guy they've been calling him Bo instead of Rambo, she said he's too sweet to be a Rambo.  Too bad she didn't see him in action when he was up here with the girls...!!!! (G)

Checked on Drifter yesterday in his new home.  Crystal said he is absolutely perfect they are more than satisfied with him & how he has fit in at the stables.  She said there is one woman that use to come out to see her friend take lessons.  Now the woman comes out on her own to visit with Drifter.  He also has a little 5 year old girl wrapped around his hoof, she's too young to read the "Do Not Feed" sign, so Crystal has had to intervene in treats headed his way.  Crystal's 2 year old son, leads him around all the time & grooms on him. I love it when they get a great home like this one seems to be. 

Also checked in on Maddie & Zorro.  Bill said they are fitting in nicely, getting a routine & getting him & Kelli trained to their ways........!!!  Sounds like typical donkeys to me.  He did say he cut back on the small amount of hay he was giving them because Maddie looks like she is gaining weight in her neck crest.  There is so much to eat on their property, I'm not surprised, I hope this isn't going to become a problem, they don't want to put them in a pen, & I certainly don't want them to either.