This is Jenny & Cisco behind the tree staring at at the gate to Burroland wishing for it to open. If I had a wider lens I could have captured about a dozen others cooling their heels waiting & wishing for the same thing.

This morning we had to go over & run them back over here. There is so much browse over there, they see no reason to come over here & eat boring hay. And they certainly don't see a reason to stay over here during the day, just because we're too lazy to want to look for "lost" fly masks on an additional 20 acres.

Jack is perky & grumpy this morning, eager for his breakfast, & left us lots of poo piles to pick up, so I guess he's back to being Jack. Last night we had to give him some banamine which is an injection. Jack & I have had some real battles over me having the audacity to attempt to stick a needle in his body. Some injections have to be checked to make sure you aren't in a vein, but luckily banamine can be given IV or IM. We got him in our little homemade squeeze, & I tried putting the needle in first & then putting the syringe on it, which is what I usually do. To say it wasn't going well is an understatement. The first needle got bent to a 90 degree angle & I hadn't even put the syringe on it. John said why not just stab & inject all in one attempt. Couldn't go any worse I thought. We were doing this in the dark too, which added another dimension to the process. We've gotten good at holding flashlights in our mouths, without thinking about where they might have been. I stabbed, he jumped & squirmed, I moved with him & we got it done.

This morning he needed another shot. BUT I had an idea. We brought him home with the IV still in his neck, in case we needed to take him back to the clinic for more treatment. If he was OK this morning we were to take it out. But before I took it out, I put his banamine in it. Much easier........!!! (G)

For those of you that were children of the 1940's-1950's enjoy. For those of you that weren't you missed a great time.

Well, well, well, this morning everyone except for BlackJack came over from Burroland & were waiting "patiently" for us to come out of the house & fix their breakfast. We'll see if it is a fluke, even Miss Tula was standing around waiting like everyone else.

Last night when John went out to let everyone out of their pens, Jack the mule hadn't eaten his supper, (very unusual behavior for him) & when John opened his pen he made a beeline for Rusty's pen, laid down & tried to roll. John came in to get me. My "WAG" was sand colic. He wasn't in a lot of pain, but seemed uncomfortable. John cleaned his pen, so we would know if he pooed or peed, we filled his water bucket & hoped this morning would result in a poo pile or two. He was still "off" this morning & no poo, so we spent the day at the vet's with him getting tubed with mineral oil & getting IV fluids. The vet's "SWAG" was also sand colic. Even though we put down a stall mat under his feed bucket, he throws his head around & slings food everywhere. Some of it goes off the mat, & he eats it, so I'm sure he gets sand & gravel in his system. We brought him home with the IV still in his neck, in case he isn't better tomorrow & we have to take him back for more fluids. If we don't need it I'll take it out tomorrow night. He's 26 years old, so we will watch him carefully & hopefully stay ahead of any big problems. He's a funny old guy, usually he is pretty hard to work with, uncooperative is an understatement. But we've noticed when he is sick or needs help he cooperates much better. One time he was 3 legged lame & I noticed he had a huge rock caught in one of his hind feet. John wasn't here, & I figured when he got home he would find me with my head kicked across the property. I tied Jack up, ran my hand down his leg, he lifted the foot & let me use a hoof pick to pry the rock out. And I got to keep my head.........!!!! On a normal day I would not try to pick up a rear foot on him. A trimmer tried one time & he exploded, we decided he didn't need his feet trimmed that bad.

EASY CHORES THIS MORNING

Only had half the gang to feed, water & clean up after. John checked Burroland yesterday & the range cattle had done a good job of cleaning up all the mesquite beans. So last night after they ate, & got their fly masks taken off, we opened the gate to Burroland.

This morning John had to be in Tucson early, so I fed by myself. The horsey group was here, that is Max, Jack, Rusty, & Gus. Sha'ba stays in at night, Pepper was standing in his pen in the sun, Cheyenne, Justin & Lynn the minis were roaming around. Buddy Brat was even here, which was a surprise, he's usually where the action is. I fed the chickens, mix equine feed & kept an eye on Burroland. At one time I saw the rest of them, running to the gate. I thought, "Isn't that sweet, they are in a rush to come to breakfast", as they flew past the gate like it wasn't even there, headed east up into the big trees. BRATS!

So I fed the ones I had, & noticed that Pepsi, the other mini had thought better of rebellion & was standing outside the gate to his pen, when I brought the buckets. Not a sign of any of the other 9. Fed hay to the ones I had, & still no sign of the "wild bunch". So I closed the gate between Burroland & the 10 acres where the feed & water is.

It is now afternoon, I have checked on the gate often, & so far nothing. I'd think they would be getting thirsty by now, but obviously not enough to give up their freedom. Among the missing are, BlackJack, Cisco, Jenny, Buster, Lucy, Rocky, Chili, Chester, & of course Tula. I didn't see who was leading the herd when they were running, but I have a good idea. Ha!

It's probably a good thing, John wasn't here, or I probably couldn't have gotten away with being "Mean Momma". If I had insisted on closing the gate, he probably would have been going over there with buckets of water, so they wouldn't suffer. Poor babies!

For now I guess Tula has decided there is nothing to gain by staying out of her pen until the last minute. The last couple of days, she & Chester have been in their pens when it's time. I'm sure the subject will come up again, but for now I'm happy & she is willing to wait.

As of this morning I'm trying to wean Chester off his antibiotics again. I've tried 2 or 3 times & his limping has always gotten worse. If I have to give him antibiotics the rest of his life that's OK, but I don't want to give them if he doesn't need them.

I'm not sure but I think we caught Momma mouse last night. This morning there was a larger, very pregnant mouse in the trap. I'm glad we caught her before she "dropped her load" in the feed room. John put her in the chicken pen, there's feed & water & plenty of places to build a nest, as long as she stays out of sight of the chickens. They can really treat mice harshly, if they catch them. I hope there aren't anymore mice, but unless she had an immaculate conception I would imagine there is at least one more in the feed room. The feed room is concrete block, & John fixed the door where we thought they could get in. So we are hoping IF & that's a big if we can catch all the ones in there now, the problem will be solved. I think we caught 7 little ones total.

The last few nights I noticed a wolf spider in our bathroom by the night light trying to catch something to eat. Right now as cool as it is at night there isn't much moving around. Yesterday John caught a small cricket. I put the spider & the cricket together in a jar last night & the cricket disappeared. Unfortunately there aren't that many crickets around.

My friend Sybil that runs the Oasis Sanctuary Exotic Bird Sanctuary, also has lots of other types of animals including reptiles. I e-mailed her & she brought a couple of crickets this morning when she brought the weekly carrot supply for the donkeys. I found a wolf spider when I was doing laundry, not sure if it is my spider or not. I put it in the cricket cage, & immediately had one less cricket......!!!! By spring I may have a lot of wolf spiders "on the dole" at this rate. John is going to Tucson tomorrow, one of his stops will be a pet store for more crickets.......!!!! OBTW, I named the spider Sybil. Syb has a turkey she named Tish after me, so it seemed only fitting that I return the privilege.

John had to be in Tucson this morning by 7:45, so I got to be in charge of feeding..........!!!! Yippee! Everyone was pretty good about showing up & going where they are suppose to, except for.................Tula & Chester.......!!! Big surprise. I pressed on with feeding chickens & mixing up equine breakfasts. As I headed down the row of 6 pens with feed buckets, towards the middle, where those two are suppose to be, here they came, almost running in their pens. As soon as Tula got in hers, she turned around & brayed at me. I guess we're playing some kind of game, I'm just not smart enough to figure out the rules...........!!!! (G) John won't be home in time to help feed tonight, so we'll see how that goes. They get very impatient when there is only one of us feeding.

Gus is feeling pretty good today, & hardly limping at all. He got up on the feed room porch this morning& also squabbled with a couple of the others about wisps of leftover hay, so I guess he's on the mend. I'll miss our "poor poor Gus" sessions, he was actually loving & loveable, but wouldn't even stand still for me to put his fly mask on this morning. Oh well, I'm just glad his knee is OK.

Courtney didn't make it out yesterday to trim. She will try to come Sunday. I hope so, I have a rather long list of feet needing to be looked at and/or trimmed. Most of them usually take care of their feet running around on the gravel & sand except for the ones that have been foundered. Right now Buddy Brat has a big hunk of hoof missing & Max the horse has vertical cracks on both front feet. When Courtney comes out, she always works on Chester as much as she can. He can't stand on 3 legs because of the damage to his elbow, so it's rather "hit & miss". Right now the heel on that foot is REALLY high. If she can't get it trimmed, we'll probably have to haul him into the vet next time she comes, so he can be put on the ground. Although he can't put weight on that leg, so the other 3 feet can be worked with, I've tried to work with him, to at least lift that foot, so it could be trimmed. He does pretty good, but he won't hold it up long enough to trim it properly, at least not yet. I've thought about training him to lay down so he could be trimmed, but I'm not sure how to do it. Sure would make it easier on everyone involved if we could figure it out.

Gus is walking much better today. It turned out to be his knee not the fetlock. He's being a big baby about it, I make over him & talk about "Poor Poor Gus got a sore leg", & he lifts that leg, so I can rub it. Since he's been hurt, he's even managed to get John to bring him his carrot down in the wash where he stays at night. When John goes out to let everyone out of their pens at bedtime, Gus starts "woofing" from the wash, & John hand delivers his carrot. Sure doesn't take long to get the humans properly trained I guess..........(G)

Tula, & Chester have figured out a new way to try my patience. Tula has always waited to go into her pen to be fed. She is always the last one in. Chester usually goes in with the others. But since he runs with her most of the time, he's now decided to stay out with her. Recently she was waiting until I carried out the buckets before showing up. But the last few days, both of them have not showed up until the buckets were emptied & the hay was being delivered. So I made a decision that if I emptied their buckets & had gone into Rusty's pen which is next in line, they would have to wait to go into their pens until I brought the "Roach Coach", i.e. the golf cart with hay wagon in tow. The last 2 feedings went that way, they had to cool their heels outside their pens, until I decided to open the gate & let them in. Boy you talk about an unhappy donkey............Tula yelled & screamed, I'm sure obscenities in donkey language because she had to wait until, I a mere human, opened HER gate. Chester just stood there looking confused. Tonight, I had already dumped both of their buckets & was headed to Rusty's pen, probably within 3 or 4 steps of actually touching the gate, when they both showed up...........!!! Grrrrr! I'm sure she doesn't know the new rules.......but it sure seems like she's read my mind. We'll see what tomorrow morning is like.........!!!!!

BAD BOYS, BAD BOYS, WHAT YOU GONNA DO.....????

Yesterday Gus & Chili got into a "it's my hay" battle. Actually it wasn't much of a battle, since both of them would rather do something else than fight. But in the melee' Gus ended up 3 legged lame. It seems to be a fetlock, no swelling or cuts, so although he doesn't want it messed with or won't put much weight on it, I'm assuming it isn't really bad. But to keep everyone safe & sound, John set up a small pen for Chili to eat in for awhile. So far he thinks it's fun, hopefully we won't leave him in long enough to get bored. When he gets bored his fertile little brain goes into overdrive, & it's amazing what he can think up.

Courtney is coming out Wednesday to do some trimming, so I'll pick her brain about Gus, while she is here. I think she will be very pleased with how good Jenny's feet look. Although I don't know what the inside of her feet look like, they look almost normal outside & she walks really good.

For most of the summer Pepper has shown very little interest in eating. He would leave most of his hay & sometimes wouldn't even touch his soaked beet pulp & timothy pellets. About a week ago, he decided not only is the hay pretty good, but he is eating the soaked stuff like it's REALLY good. Every feeding I'm adding more stuff to his bucket & he's licking the bucket clean. He's even losing the frail look that had me worried about how he would do this winter. He's not fat, but at least he seems to be headed in the right direction. I have no idea why the change, but I hope it continues.

This morning John brought sacks of feed to the feed room & left the empty sacks in the golf cart to go back up to the garage. When I let the minis out, they came out like little vacuum cleaners, as usual. I came around by the feed room, & there was Lynn with the pull string & accompanying paper, hanging out of her mouth & rapidly disappearing. I grabbed her & she tried to run off. Thank heavens she's a mini & decided to give up fairly quickly. Well give up is not exactly what she did.........but I managed to pull it out of her mouth, & not get stepped on or knocked down.

I'll be glad when fly season is finally over. Our supply of fly masks is dwindling. They get used as toys which cuts down on their longivity, not to mention the ones that get lost, some of them permanently. We don't know how that happens, but there are two missing that we haven't been able to find.

Couldn't say it better myself, why would anyone do it this way?

NOW THEY'VE GONE & "DUN" IT..........!!!

Who am I talking about..............Chili & Gus of course..........!!!! This morning Sybil came by to drop off a bag of carrots. She picks up produce every week for her exotic bird sanctuary & picks up carrots for my gang too. She came in for a cup of tea & we were catching up on gossip. John went out, came back in & yelled that he needed help. Sybil has a pick-up with an open bed, where she carries all the produce for over 600 birds. Gus & Chili were the only 2 out, everyone else were in pens eating breakfast. As it is they got into the carrots, ate 2, apples ate 6 & dribbled apple mush down the side of her pick-up. Bananas, don't like bananas, although they did squish 2 bunches of them, for fun I guess. Bags of frozen peas, were fun to open & spill on the ground. Tomatoes weren't even worth squishing, guess they are yucky to donkeys. Thank goodness everyone else were in the pens or it would have been a really big mess. As it was it was irritating with some damage. As an animal person, Syb just shrugged her shoulders as she was laughing.

We have caught 3 teeny tiny little mice the last 3 nights in the feed room. These little guys must just be out of the nest, they are about an inch long. I'd like to think the Cadbury chocolate I used was irresistible, but it had been in the live trap a couple of days before they showed up. Obviously Mother isn't a chocolate lover. She's the one I need to catch, before she goes out & find another boyfriend................!!! Or maybe she already has one & he's also living in the feed room. EEEEEkk!

IT'S OCTOBER, NOT MONSOON

Yesterday was a cloudy, blustery, rainy, day with some hail thrown in for good measure. Not what we expect this time of year. The wash even ran again.

We were going to Tucson last night, so everyone had to stay in their pens yesterday. Actually it worked out well, usually when it rains they are out running around & have never learned to head for the shelters. During one of the rain squalls I decided to go out & let Pepsi in with the other 3 minis. He eats by himself, so we can control the amount of hay he eats. But his shelter is just a roof. We tried putting sides on it & someone started eating the boards. It wasn't Pepsi but someone else that went in when the gate was open, who shall remain nameless, we never caught them. Although we did catch Buddy Brat, gnawing on the 2 x 4's in the roof.

Of course it was raining & blowing when I ran out, slopping thru the water sheeting across the property. Got to his pen, opened it up, & he ran into the shelter with the other minis. I knew he was a smart little fellow....!!! Just at that moment the hail started. There wasn't room in the shelter for me, so I RAN for the porch of the feed room. At least on the porch I didn't have to "stand" in water while waiting for it to be over. It just lasted a few minutes, but it was a wild few minutes. When I finally managed to get back to the house, John said he looked out to try to figure out where I was, & it was raining so hard he couldn't even see the feed room, let alone bedraggled me standing under the porch roof.

Tula of course didn't go in her shelter, most of the others did. When the hail started Rocky had been in a shelter with Lucy, but he actually left the shelter to stand with his butt to the hail. I guess the noisy hail on the shelter roof, bothered him more than hail stones, pounding on him. Lucy stayed in the shelter, like I said a few days ago, she's not dense, she's a survivor.

OH! MY!

For those that have often wondered how far they could go, to invite their animal friends into the family.

GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWS DAY............!!!

THE GOOD NEWS: This morning while Max was waiting for breakfast to be served he got a little impatient & started prancing & air dancing. This from a horse that less than a month ago, I was thinking about his final resting place because he didn't know what his back legs were doing. I guess the 2 supplements the vet had me try are working. I'm sure he has extensive arthritis where his neck was broke, & as he gets older it will be more problematic. But as long as we can keep him comfortable, we're happy.

THE BAD NEWS: Also this morning Gus came in close to 3 legged lame, pointing a front foot & not moving unless he had to. I checked him from shoulder to bottom of foot, & only got minor reaction at the knee. But he really doesn't want to put any weight on it. He did manage to clamber up on the feed room porch to beg for anything I might like to give him. But when it came time to get off the porch, it was very painful to watch him move. I gave him a bute & turned him loose. Courtney that does my trimming, says unless there is a really good reason to keep them penned up when they have a problem, they are usually better off being able to move around. Haven't seen him since, he's moved away from the house, so I assume he's doing OK.

THE GOOD NEWS: Pepper ate all his soaked beet pulp & pellets, & also ate all of his hay. I can only assume there is very little left to eat on the property. He really prefers "wild" food. John's going to check BurroLand this week to see if the mesquite beans are rotted enough, so they won't eat them. If so, they can start going over there.

THE BAD NEWS: Buddy Brat is now being fed by himself for weight control. He's been here almost 8 years, & is a fat little guy. I've never been able to get the weight off him. His latest blood test showed he is insulin compromised, which can be "fixed" with diet, & a lack of sugar & starch rather than thyroid medicine. We've never completely isolated him at feeding time before. I'm hoping by feeding him a little less hay than he should have for his recommended weight, that he won't be able to find too much out there to supplement his diet. It certainly doesn't take him long to finish the paltry amount of hay we are giving him, & then he cries to get out with BlackJack & Cisco, his usual eating buddies. If this doesn't work, he will have to stay in the pens, relying solely on the hay we give him. That would certainly up the ante on crying & braying, I'm sure. He's always been very vocal if he thinks we are not letting them out of the pens in a timely manner.

FYI..................BEWARE..................!!!

Thanks Terry for sharing this

Could Your Hay be Killing Your Horse? Yes, it could! There could be toxic weeds lurking in it and you don’t even know it! Here’s our horrible story…. On Friday, August 1st 2008, Scott and I purchased 5 bales of Bermuda hay from a hay dealer in Sahuarita. It looked like the perfect hay and we fed it to our horses. Everything seemed fine until the following Tuesday. I went out in the morning to feed and Cody (our very hearty trail horse) was lying down and in obvious pain. He didn’t want to eat or drink and had a very depressed look. Oh God, Colic! I’ve seen colic many times in other horses but for some reason this time was VERY different. I checked his vitals and he was very dehydrated and now he was pawing at the ground. There was one point where he actually held his front leg up in front of him for at least a full minute. He kept his head down and looked as if he would fall over any second. I called the vet and luckily Dr. Beers arrived at the house within a half hour. This looked really bad, even she thought so. She rushed the evaluation then administered a huge dose of morphine directly into his neck. He finally got some relief! We discussed the horrible option of putting him down right then but decided to try and save him with whatever we could do without going to surgery. At this point we had no idea what was really wrong with him as the term “colic” only means “abdominal pain” and could be caused by many different things. He was so dehydrated that I.V. fluids were our only option, tubing alone would not hydrate him enough. So he took on 20 liters of saline solution in I.V. catheters on both sites of his neck (along with major doses of Banamine and Xylazine for the pain). Next came a nasal gastric tubing with mineral oil, water, and electrolytes just in case there was an impaction of some sort. Lastly came the dreaded full-arm rectal exam to also check for an impaction. Poor Cody, he just stood there quietly the whole time and took it. You would think that after all that Cody would have started feeling a little better but he did not improve. We were at a point where there was nothing else to do but keep him comfortable and wait. So Dr. Beers decided to continue giving him I.V. fluids every 2 hours from then on and all during the night plus more Banamine. We continued that, every 2 (very long) hours all night. We dreaded going to the barn for fear of finding him dead. The morning brought no change and no desire to drink. Wednesday was a long day, checking him every 15-20 minutes hoping there would be some improvement. Nothing! I racked my brain trying to figure out what caused this and as I fed the morning ration of Bermuda hay I noticed a clump of a strange looking dried weed in one of the flakes. It looked weird, almost like sage but with berries on it. I pulled it out and then sifted through the rest of the hay and found many small pieces throughout the whole bale. It was hard to see as the color blended right in with the Bermuda. Something told me to keep it and ask Dr. Beers what she thought of it. Thursday Dr. Beers returned for another round of I.V.s fluids and gastric tubing. This time Cody urinated blood, a very VERY bad sign. Red flags went up all over the place and she suggested taking some blood and urine for testing. I asked her about the weed I had found but she did not recognize it. Later that day Dr. Beers called with the testing results. All signs pointed towards some kind of toxin in Cody’s system and not a blockage as we had considered. His kidneys were still working but very “angry” as she put it. His body was really trying to fight something, but what? My gut feeling told me that the cause had something to do with that weed I had found in the hay. After calling everywhere to find someone to help me, I finally got in touch with Dr. Glock at the University of Arizona Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory here in Tucson. He suggested that I send in the weed for identification, which I did that day. He called me back a few days later and this weed turned out to be “Solanum eleagnifolium” (aka Nightshades, silverleaf nightshade, horse nettle) which is toxic to horses! Now we had an answer. Scott called the hay dealer who sold us the hay to let him know what had happened (and to hopefully inform the grower of the problem) and the dealer’s responses were very concerning. There was no surprise or sympathy when Scott told him that his hay has a toxic weed in it and that it could kill a horse. He stated that “my horses don’t eat the weed when I feed them that hay, they leave it in the bottom of their feeders”. Implying that he knew there is a weed in the hay and that because his horses don’t eat it it’s no big deal. Well it is a big deal, especially when you sell a product and that product is not fit for its intended use and could possibly KILL the intended! If this was dog or cat food there would be an uprising (as we have seen in the past). Another interesting response he gave us was that it was impossible for him to know where that hay came from. Right! Since we got nowhere with the dealer I called the local livestock inspector to inform him of the problem and to see if he could convince the dealer to inform the grower (so the grower could spray herbicide or something). The inspector’s response was incredibly alarming. He stated that my expectations, regarding the quality of hay I feed my horses, were too high and that it’s basically “buyer beware”! Again, shouldn’t a product be fit for its intended use? Is this too much to ask as a consumer be it horse feed or baby food? It’s just plain crazy to say the least! It was 10 days after the first sign of colic that Cody started to visibly improve. He did not want to eat any hay for weeks afterwards. I think he knew it was the hay that had made him sick. Now, almost 2 months later, he’s almost back to pre-illness weight and thankfully he’s getting back to normal. We are really lucky he’s a strong horse! Our purpose in telling you our story is to hopefully prevent this from happening to someone else. It really doesn’t matter where the hay came from but that ANY hay you feed your horses could contain a potential killer. Please look your hay over before feeding it. You don’t have to literally sift through it but look over both sides of the flake before tossing it into the feeders. It could save your horses life! Sincerely, Scott, Christine and Cody Guinane Vail, Arizona

ELEPHANT MIGRATION TRAIL

This isn't donkeys, but absolutely facinating.........!!!!!


Delightful story with fine photographs of what happens when you build a hotel on an elephant migration trail.

Mountain Lion

Just heard from one of our neighbors that a mountain lion has been seen about 2 miles north of us. Over the years we've heard of lion in the area occasionally. The neighbor said trackers with dogs chased it east into the Little Dragoon mountains. We don't have deer or javelina in this area, so hopefully it was just passing thru. It would be very possible for a lion to take down a donkey, especially the minis, so we certainly don't want them hanging around.

One year some neighbors farther north, had their large dog taken off their front porch. That one was not seen again as far as I know.

Since Chili is no longer going in a pen to be fed, he is staying busy trying to let everyone else out of their pens. If we forget to put the clips on or hang the chains inside themselves, he seems to have a 6th sense on finding them. He's let Chester out twice, both John & I checked Chester's gate this morning & it was "fixed" to not come open. Obviously Chili has figured out how to to bounce the chains, with a possibility of them coming open.

This afternoon John left the garage door open when he came to the house. When he went back, Chili (why am I not surprised) & his "gang" of minis had just dragged a full garbage bag outside & were in the process of "shopping" for goodies. John said at least Chili knew enough to take off when he saw they'd been caught. But Justin had his head buried in the sack & didn't realize the "jig was up" until John yelled at him.

Right now Gus & Rusty the mule are in the driveway trying to take each others flymasks off. At least they will be easy to find............!!!!

Yesterday Chili "discovered" that Tula doesn't eat as fast as he does & tried to run her off her pellets & beet pulp. She gave him "what for", but he is really hard to discourage. I went in & helped, but knew that this would be an ongoing future problem if we continued to feed them together. So it was time to do some switching around, but how? Everyone eats in pens except for Gus & Rocky, who have a bunk under the big cat claw. Adding Chili to anyone's "happy little pen" would definately cause problems. After much thought we decided that Chili could come out & eat at the bunk with Gus although Gus insists they eat on opposite sides. Rocky likes to hang around with Lucy & Buster during the day, so we thought that might work. Tried it last night ...........& except for Chili trying to bulldoze his way into Tula's pen it went pretty good. Well, not from Buster's point of view, he doesn't appreciate Rocky trying to eat from his bunk. So we put another feeder in for Rocky & this morning everything went well...............except for Chili's determination to get into Tula's pen. Of course last night when John went out to let everyone out of the pens at bed time, he came back in & said we had forgotten that when Chili is out, we have to lock the gates. He had let Buster, Lucy & Rocky out of their pen & also Jenny out of hers. He is a highly intelligent young man with too much time on his "hooves" & see everything as a challenge. Right now John is out looking for his fly mask from yesterday. Granted he probably had help losing it, but I'm sure he enjoyed the battle that got rid of it.................!!!! (G)

Yesterday we had to go to Sierra Vista to pick up my quad that went to see the quad doctor last week. Since we had the trailer hooked to the van, we figured might as well take trash in to the dump. John loaded the trailer, & came in the house to clean up. When I went out Gus........... dear, dear Gus had found the treasure & was in the process of spreading it around the countryside. When he saw me coming, (Yes, they do know right from wrong) he grabbed a sunflower seed package, (one of my favorite things to do when watching TV or reading, crack & eat sunflower seeds) & took off running. By the time I retrieved the package, John came out & saw the mess. What he threatened to do to Gus wouldn't be nice. Of course Gus didn't seem to upset about it though. He was standing away from the mess, probably waiting for us to leave so he could continue shopping for goodies........!!!!

So this morning when I was in the feed room, Chili decided he could stick his head thru the window & see if I had a treat to share. Unfortunately the screen was in the way...............but not for long.........!!!!! John said he will get more screening the next time we go to town..........!!!! (G) I know it isn't funny, but I do love to see how their minds work.

It's been getting chilly the last few nights, in the high 40's last night. I better get Pepper's blanket out, he doesn't have enough padding to keep himself warm if it's going to be cold at night.

Max & Chester, my 2 cripples are doing pretty good, although Max isn't very impressed with the supplement the vet recommended. At least what I was using was palatable. And I haven't noticed much change if any, in his motivation. The SMZ I'm giving Chester really is bitter. I tried pancake syrup as a mix, & got a resounding NOPE from both of them. So I tried molasses & that seems to work pretty good, although it has to be well mixed, no pockets of icky stuff. There also has to be enough timothy pellets, beet pulp & hay cubes mixed with it, or they won't eat it. I don't like giving them molasses, I am a real anti sugar type of gal. But neither of them have a problem with insulin resistance, so hopefully we won't develop a problem.

Everyone else seem to be doing good, most of them are putting on their winter fuzzy coats.