HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE...!!

Yesterday we delivered C.J. the little mini horse to her new home.  Had to drive thru rain, freezing rain, sleet & snow on the way to Tucson.  At least by the time we got to the other side of Tucson, the sun was shining, which at least gave the illusion of warmth. 

C.J. hopped out of the trailer, walked to her pen like it was all a grand adventure,  & walked past her welcoming committee of 2 large horses & a goat.  They were fascinated & wanted to get close & look her over.  She saw hay in a corner & buried her nose in it & kept them at bay with a half hearted kick if they got too close.   It had rained the night before & some that morning, so the pen was a mess.  I hope she doesn't get thrush again, I'm sure Ernie will keep a close eye on her feet, he said they weren't all that bad & should grow out good.  

It was so cold last night, Sha'ba was shivering this morning, even with his blanket on.  It only got in the 40's today, so tonight I put a microfiber blanket under his regular blanket & also polo wrapped all 4 legs.  When John went out tonight to let the others out he checked on Sha'ba & said he is OK.  

I can't believe that Pepper is still going out every night & walking as good as he is.  This time last year he was blanketed every night, legs covered & was so thin & shaky we never knew what we'd find when we went out in the morning.  He's put on some weight, walks with very little limp & still loves the ladies, or at least would like to........!!!  Dirty old man......!!!!   (G)

We were suppose to pick up Flora & Fauna today, but that didn't happen.  We got there & met with the owner's daughter.  The neighbor that takes care of the older woman, came over & started yelling at the daughter, said she couldn't take the donkeys.  She called the sheriff, which added another level to the problem.  The sheriff went in the house with the daughter & the neighbor to talk to the woman.  I don't know who said what, but the outcome was, she doesn't want the donkeys to leave now.  The donkeys are very overweight, feet that are past needing to be trimmed.  And the one has habronema larvae under both eyes, & they are active under one.  

The sheriff suggested the daughter call the livestock inspector, or go thru the court system.  I doubt that the livestock inspector will get very involved as long as they are standing, & have no idea how long the court system would take.  The daughter is very upset, she wants the donkeys taken care of & says her mother would want them taken care of too, if she didn't have dementia.  All in all a sad situation & I would imagine no matter what the daughter does at this stage it will be wrong, especially if the neighbor keeps the ear of the older woman.  The donkeys aren't in immediate danger, but their situation isn't going to improve I'm afraid.  I left a message for Rebecca, the foster home, I'm sure she is disappointed, but I'm hoping it will all work out soon.  

When we got back this afternoon I thought I'd go in & see how Noelle's "pulse" was.  I think what was thought of as her being shut down, was really a lack of enthusiasm for human companionship.  Not only that, but she tried to impress me with first turning her butt to me, & then throwing a kick towards me a couple of times.  I had a 3 second tantrum & worked with her until she decided to show me both eyes & watch me as I walked around the pen.  We'll let her out tomorrow & see if that sweetens her disposition.  (G) 

SAFE HAVEN: KEEPING OLD DONKEYS

 

Photo by Eric Hansen

 I think you will have to cut & paste the link, but you might find it interesting.

http://www.grit.com/livestock/mules-donkeys/old-donkey.aspx

I went to meet Flora & Fauna today.  Their owner is over 90 years old, & has dementia unfortunately.  Today was not a good day for her, she wouldn't come out of her bedroom to talk to her daughter & me.  Her daughter hasn't been able to make her understand that it's time for the girls to be rehomed for everyone's sake.  

We will pick them up Friday & had planned on taking them into their foster home over the week-end.  But Flora, the daughter has got a large pocket of habronema larvae underneath one eye.  I wouldn't start Rebecca out with something like that, so they will be coming out here for probably a couple of weeks, until I can get a handle on the problem, hopefully.  

They are really cute, a little smaller than average standards & were more than willing to come up to the fence to get carrots.  Flora has never had a halter on, & Fauna hasn't had one on for years..............sooooooo..........friendly but unhandled is just about a perfect description.  We will take corral panels to make a small area around the back of the trailer. to "funnel" them in.   They are on 5 acres, so we will certainly need to get them into a smaller area, or run them around until they get tired....!!!! (G)  The first option sounds much better to me.  

Tomorrow we will take C.J. the little mini horse to her new home.  She's only been here about 6 weeks, but has already wiggled her way into our hearts & Rusty the mule too.  I looked out the bedroom window this morning & they were snacking on mesquite leaves.  He'd wait until she moved, then he'd move, so he's really going to miss her.  At least Jack will get Rusty back as his running buddy, he's been left out, since C.J. arrived.  

Noelle is still in her pen & has finally settled down & isn't trying to entice everything that moves. I noticed yesterday the front of her mouth looks funny.  I checked her mouth, which really wasn't appreciated, & found that she only has 2 little bitty teeth right in front on top.  The teeth themselves look deformed, so I wonder if her teeth have always been like that, very strange.  When she is more cooperative I'll try to take pictures.  I checked & she has her back teeth.  She won't take treats out of our hands, but is now eating animal crackers if we put them in her pan.  I started her on pergolide this morning, she has a lot of the symptoms of Cushings, so we'll see if this makes a difference.  We would usually let her out tomorrow to roam the property with the rest, but since we'll be delivering C.J. she is going to have to wait probably until Saturday to be "wild & free".  Once John lets the rest out at night, he opens all the connecting gates, so she has access to all the pens on the east side. 

NOELLE IS HERE

This is Noelle right after we put her in her pen.  You will notice a white head on the right side.  Rusty the mule went right over to check her out, which is unusual, he usually ignores the donkeys.  Her most loyal admirer so far is Quilla, he latched onto her, & spent all night standing by her pen & yelling occasionally.  John says he is probably telling us, "Hey stupid people, you forgot to open the new lady's gate".  This morning when John went out to "start the dance", there was a line of guys at her corral including "Lounge Lizard Pepper" & diminutive Justin. And she was letting them know she was there & ready to party.  Boy, we went from "shut down, very sad" to "hussy" in one trailer ride.......!!!  LOL

Thankfully she is not shut down like the rescue thought she was.  She is very aware of what is going on around her, she just chooses not to participate, up to & including not eating treats.  She does look Cushings & is at least 100 pounds overweight, & I am being kind with that estimate.  Because they did bloodwork on her, we know she is healthy as far as blood numbers go, they also checked her thyroid & it was within normal range. 

She is not an advocate of bermuda hay.............hmmmm......makes me think she's another alfalfa type of gal.  She will eat it, but not in large amounts, she just picks at it.  That's fine, maybe she will lose a few pounds.  The problem with these fatties & not eating is they can go into hyperlipidemia which can really cause problems.  So we'll watch her & make sure she eats the nasty old bermuda.  We'll let her out of the pen after a couple of days to adjust, then she can add to her diet if she wants. 

We almost became a travelling sex show on the way home.  Because they thought she was shut down, we took Cisco with us to be a buddy on the trip.  He is about the most nonthreatening donkey we have.  Got down there, loaded her & headed home.  So far, so good.  Had to stop at Wal-mart & when I got out & checked on them, she was trying to entice Cisco, by clacking her mouth & slobbering all over the place.  Cisco has no memories of "before gelding", thank goodness, I can just see us flying down the road with 2 donkeys in the trailer..........well.......do your own visual......!!!  When we were loading Cisco, & he wasn't interested in loading, Chester was trying to get in the trailer, & we joked about taking him instead, he's pretty mellow.  Now I'm glad we didn't, he has memories & knows what to do with them, from beginning to end.

A couple of nights ago, when we were feeding Sha'ba was really acting strange.  We usually, feed everyone their soaked feed, then go get the hay & bring it around.  When we got down to Sha'ba's pen with the hay he was standing by the gate which is really weird, he's usually got his nose buried in his mush chomping away.  We opened the gate & he flew into Rusty's pen, & chased the cart back into his pen.  We dumped his hay & I started trying to put his blanket on him, & he was having an absolute fit, wouldn't stand still, kept circling me & really being a little pill.  I checked his bucket & there wasn't any mush in it & all of a sudden a lightbulb went off in my little pea brain.........I had forgotten to bring the feed buckets down for Chester, Tula, Rusty & Sha'ba.  He hadn't gotten his mush & was trying to tell me in every way he knew poor little guy.  He almost turned wrong side out when I left to get the buckets, but sure was a happy little camper when I came back with HIS bucket. 

Tomorrow we will go visit with Flora & Fauna & see just how "unhandled" they are & also how to get them in the trailer.  We've been told we probably can't get the trailer up to the pen, so we'll have to look the situation over.  Rebecca the foster home is getting ready for them, we'll probably move them this week-end.

Thursday we'll haul C.J. the little horse to her new home.  It will be a good home, Ernie is a farrier, so she will get trimmed as often as she needs it.  She'll have 2 horses a goat & about 6 dogs of assorted sizes & shapes as companions, & Ernie is absolutely smitten with her.  The only cravat I have is there is oleander on the property.  I said something about it, & Ernie said it's never been a problem with any of the animals.  Unfortunately it only takes once & it only takes a leaf or two.  I've printed out some horror stories to take to him.  He's a horse person & has been all his life, so I'm sure he's heard stores before.  Almost everything I've read points to accidental, starvation, or boredom, being the usual reasons for horses eating oleander, supposedly it isn't tasty.  I'd sure be a lot happier if they were gone. 

You know that old saying, "I'm so busy, I don't know if I've found a rope or lost my horse?".............well I'm about there......!!! (G)  I know people with more on their plate than I have, but they seem to "Git 'er done" without whining.  

I will be glad when the holidays are over.  The Christmas' of my childhood no longer exist & I was disgusted this year to see the stores starting their banter & decorating before Halloween. Our youngest grandson is 22, so there is no little ones to work the magic on.  I remember some of the methods my family used to make sure Santa was "alive & well" in my mind & appreciate all the effort, although I'm sure they enjoyed it as much as I did.  In the case of my grandfather probably even more.

Sunday we will be going on 2 different home studies.  One is for the foster home for Flora & Fauna.  The woman needs some work done on her corral area & shelter, & a friend has offered to do the work, but needs to know what needs to be done.  So we will take pictures & measurements to give him a little idea of what he will need to do.

We will also go check out a new home for C.J. the mini horse.  A farrier we know in Tucson, got a little mini from a client that had been attacked by her dogs.  The vet gave it a 50/50 chance, but it didn't make it.  So he has been looking for another one ever since.  Usually I wouldn't let her go out this soon, her nasty little feet have only been trimmed twice, but so far she is doing really good.  Since we know him, he's a farrier & we have seen him work with animals, it should be a good home for her.  I don't know how much room he has for her to move around.  I think that is probably why she is improving so quickly, roaming around on 30 acres of "hill & dell" is exercising those legs & feet.  So I hope he has enough room that I will be comfortable with her being there.

Monday we will be going down to Green Valley to Equine Voices to pick up a jenny they got in.  She has been traumatized & Karen thought she might be more comfortable with donkeys.  We haven't seen her, Karen says she is really cute, although I guess she is really swayback.

So if I don't get back to update for a few days that's why.  I wish one & all a very Merry Christmas & a New Year that is the best one you've ever had. 

ANOTHER ROUND-UP

Today was round-up day for the black mare & the sorrel kicker.  This morning before we left we let everyone out as usual.  I looked in Jack's pen, which had quite a bit of hay left in it & this is what I saw:

 Rusty the mule, Frijolita, Lynn & her "friend" Pepsi.  As you can see only one of them is eating.  Rusty got there first & was hogging the leftovers.

 

This is Chubby Pepper, getting a drink from the one water tank that has a heater in it.  He probably doesn't look too "chubby" to most people, but compared to last year he looks pretty good.  I haven't had to put a blanket on him yet this year, which means he gets to go out every night with the "herd".  He doesn't care about the herd per se, but he does like his ladies, Jenny in particular.  He's even walking pretty good on his cracked hip, & blown out knee.  I have kept a wrap on his knee 24/7.  I don't know if it is making the difference, but he isn't limping much at all, so I'm afraid to take it off............!!!  (G)

We met the people from the rescue & headed out to do battle.  The man wasn't there although he knew we were coming, & had signed paperwork for these 2 Saturday.  The horses weren't in the corral again, in fact they weren't even in sight.  So James & Deana took off cross country in their pick-up to find them.  Didn't take long, as soon as the horses saw the pick-up they started following it.  In the meantime, John & I were entertaining the dogs, the alpaca & the jack that had gotten ''aggressive".  He didn't misbehave the whole time we were there. 

This is John sharing breath with the alpaca & petting the jack, while we waited.  Once the horses got to the corral, it didn't take very long to get them in the trailer.  The black mare was more than happy to go in & eat hay.  The sorrel was a little less intrigued with the idea, but finally went in.  I guess there were too many people & trailers Saturday, because today they weren't bad at all.  

After they were loaded Deana & I went up by the house to visit with the bottle babies.  

They both are suppose to have new homes, but the people haven't picked them up yet.  James told the man if the people don't show up, to let him know & we'll take them.  Since they have been raised by people with bottles, they really don't know they are donkeys.  A few weeks out here would really be good training for them.   Bottle babies can really be a challenge, if they don't learn they are donkeys & not people.  We've had a few come thru here that were bottle babies or weaned too young & not kept around donkeys.  They end up confused & difficult to work with because they really don't know how to behave like a donkey.  We had one we thought was going to get knocked down, because she didn't know an ear moving in a certain way meant, "GET OUT OF MY WAY"..........!!!  She's come a long way, she now has Chili to boss around, which she does very well, & Sherry is their loving slave, so she was lucky.  A lot of these bottle babies get very frustrated & just don't know how to deal with other animals or people & never learn.  

We saw these 2 people with pack horses riding beside the road when we headed for Marana with the mares.  I almost missed them, as you can see.  I was reading  (that's what I usually do if I'm not driving) & John said, "look at that"...!!  I grabbed the camera, & clicked as we flew by, so I guess I'm lucky to get anything.  Certainly didn't have time to take another picture.  They looked like they were travelling, maybe there will be something in the paper in the next few days. 

Got home & had an e-mail message offering to foster Flora & Fauna from a woman I don't know, but she referred me to 2 rescues that know her.  I also had a phone call from a dear friend that has 2 of our donkeys.  She has a friend that is very interested in fostering the girls.  WOW!  I was afraid no one would offer to foster them & we'd have to go over our self imposed limit. 

GOING BACK FOR MORE.....!!!

Talked to James at Hoofprints on the Heart &  it looks like we're going back tomorrow for the black mare & the kicker.  It will be easier to load them in a stock trailer, than in a horse trailer & we have the stock trailer.

Found out that the jack kicked the owner pretty bad, which is why he was talking about letting the rescue take him.  We are hoping that he hasn't changed his mind & will let us load him up too.  Of course once we have him, what do we do with him?  They have the 4 jennies in the pen they had planned on putting him in before.  He probably could still go in with them, since they are no doubt already pregnant.  They have a vet ready & willing to geld him, so we just have to get possession.  

Christmas is getting here much too quickly.  I have managed to get most of my shopping done, but not a package wrapped yet.  I had planned on doing that tomorrow, but guess not.  I maybe wrapping gifts in the van on the way to our son's house in Tucson, Christmas Eve, at this rate.  (G)

YESTERDAY'S ROUND-UP

Well it was an interesting day.  We met up with others that were going to help, we had 5 trailers in all & headed for the place.  Got there & were greeted by:

Hmmmm..........we thought everyone was going to be in corrals.  So we drove in & there were horses & donkeys running around on a large acreage, maybe 40-80 acres.  They were not the least bit interested in all these people.  But they were 

interested in treats.  I was real proud of the donkeys, they went in the corral pretty easy,  a quick shake of the pig paddle (sounds like a rattlesnake) & they popped in the trailer.  

The man would not release the jack or a very pregnant jenny.  They both were friendly & probably would have hopped in the trailer if given the chance.  

Thanks, Deana

Some were trailered before the donkeys, but of course the more difficult ones were not going to go without a fight.  

And fight was exactly what one of these horses was ready for.  She is a kicker, & it's not fear kicking it's, "you come one inch closer & see what happens" kicking.  

Someone said let's get her out of the "herd", so we let her out of the corral & the other 3 went right in with a little coaching.  

 Of course there is always one in every crowd that refuses to go along with the program, that is her below, watching from a distance.  She is a pretty black mare, with a lot of speed & attitude.

When we left with 9 horses & 4 jennies, guess who was watching us?

That's the black mare & the kicker, I think they were glad to see us go.  But there are plans to go back & get them, so they haven't won............yet.....!!

This is the girls in their new pen, north of Tucson.  Mark Myers from Peaceful Valley is going to pick them up in January.  The people at Hoofprints on the Heart Rescue, almost doubled their "guests", in one day, so I'm sure they will be glad when he comes & gets the girls.  They have been running with the jack, so I would imagine they are all pregnant.  A couple of the mares are about ready to drop little mule babies.  One of them is a pinto, it will be exciting to see what her baby looks like.  

I guess the owner is having 2nd thoughts about keeping the jack, he has become mean & aggressive overnight.  I was afraid this might happen, his girls have disappeared & he wants them back & will do whatever he can think of to make it happen.  There is a back-up plan if the owner decides to release the jack.  I hope he makes up his mind before someone gets hurt. 

FOSTER HOME NEEDED

  Flora & Fauna

These girls are owned by a woman that is over 90 years old.  Her daughter got in touch with me recently about finding a home for the girls.  I've been looking & thought I found a home, but the people aren't ready yet, they need fencing & shelter.  

This morning I got a message from the daughter that her mother is having a problem remembering to feed & water them, so the daughter is having to check on them daily.  She was asking about what kind of ad to put in the paper for Free Donkeys.  I hate to think of them being advertised on the open market.

I know this is a long shot, but if there is anyone living in the Tucson, Cochise County area that would like to take care of these girls until we can find a home for them, let me know.  We would furnish the hay, take care of any costs & you would get to play with a couple of pretty girls. 

MESQUITE LEAVES, YUMMY.....!!

Well not my cup of tea, but they do seem to be a big hit with the equine herd.  The leaves have been falling for a couple of weeks.  The last couple of days we've had wind, which of course makes them fall quicker & in bunches & piles.  They leave their hay, come out of the pens, & their heads automatically go down & they start vacuuming.  Then when it's time to put them in the pens to eat it's like, "Oh! do I have to?"  This morning I thought CJ the little mini horse was going to have a fit before we finally decided to let her out.  She stood by the gate & in her little squeaky voice let us know that she was done with hay.  

Of course there is a group, John calls them the "Merry Maids", because they clean up.   Although they spend as much time eating leaves as any of the others, they also make sure they are available when the pens open.  They know who leaves hay & who doesn't, Sha'ba's pen is a particular favorite.  One day I looked down there & there were 7 critters in his pen.  His pen is 20' x 24' which makes for quite a crowd.  What got me is they weren't squealing & feinting & acting like brats.  I guess they knew I was watching them.  Usually if someone gets in someone's space they start acting horrible.  I always tell them I don't care what they do when I'm not out there, but when I am, I'm head jenny & in charge.  Finally they are figuring it out I guess, because there were some really strange groupings & everyone had their heads down enjoying the hay.  

Found out today the man where we are going in the morning to pick up the mares & jennies hasn't signed any papers releasing them.  He had agreed to let the jack go, but has since changed his mind.  He also now wants to keep one of the jennies.  I hope this all doesn't fall apart before we get the animals in the trailers & off the property.  It's possible we will all show up & be told no......... I sure hope not.  There are 8 mares, 3 jennies, & 1 mammoth jack.  

It looks like we will be getting a jenny next week.  She has been abused & it sounds like she is emotionally shut down.  John has already built a new pen for her, because we had no empty pens.  She is suppose to be very heavy, & very sway back, probably has been used as a roping donkey.  Her name is Noelle, which leads me to believe she came into the rescue that has her now, without a name, & they named her for the season, but I could be wrong.