Today we took Chester & BlackJack down to Sierra Vista for the Care for the Horses rummage sale. This is a picture of BlackJack wooing a little girl. She was quite taken with him, & kept coming back to visit.
This morning we got up at 4:00am in order to get down there before 8am. Got everyone fed, & prepared for the adventure of loading. A few days ago I mentioned that BlackJack hadn't been in a trailer in over 11 years, & we really didn't know what would happen. We decided to load him first, just in case it turned into a battle. I walked him up to the trailer, I hopped in & he didn't. Hmmmmm He didn't seem overly uncooperative, just cautious. After a little sweet talk & the promise of a few horse treats under his nose, he slowly put one foot after another up in the trailer. We tied him in the front & got our next victim, Chester. He's usually ready to go into a trailer, his problem is getting out. One time he stayed in the trailer with the gate open for over 2 hours when we brought him home. Some of the other donkeys, were hopping in & out like grasshoppers trying to encourage him I guess. He was willing to get in the trailer until BlackJack turned his butt out & "dared" him to come in. So we had to close the middle gate & haul Chester in the back half. Really didn't want to do that, since it's bouncier back there than in the front.
Quite a few people came by & visited with them. There was a lot of what we would think of as weeds in the pen they had set up for them, & since we hadn't brought anything for people to feed them, they pretty much ignored the people that wanted to pet them & enjoyed the "wild" food. Except of course for children, almost all donkeys love kids.......well except for Quilla. When he sees kids he heads for parts unknown if he can.
The folks that borrowed the trailer to bring their girls down from Minnesota stopped by & Mary was going to go riding for the first time this afternoon.
Gus' family also came by. Gus now has 6 horses to irritate. They have had to chain all the gates, Gus likes to let everyone out. He has lots of ways to keep them & the horses entertained, judging from the stories they told on him. They still think he's a lot of fun, which is great. Gus will entertain himself & not everyone would appreciate his style. He would be very unhappy without a lot of interaction with people & other animals. They said he likes the chickens, the barn cat, not so much. But the cat is quick, at least so far........!!! When Gus was here, John said, "I'll sure be glad when he's gone". Since he's been gone John says, "I sure miss Gus", we also have Gus stories.....!! (G)
When it was time to come home, we loaded Chester first & it went just fine. They both rode in the front half because he didn't act silly when we brought BJ in, they had already spent the day in a pen together, so it was no big deal I guess. I was really glad they didn't decide to act like donkeys, with so many people watching. They didn't pull us to the trailer, & jump in, but they went in pretty good, so I was proud of them.
Ann had little Toughnut there. His story is on Care for the Horses home page about half way down under OUR LATEST RESCUE. I had read the story, but wasn't prepared for what a cute little guy he is & how far he has come along in just a few weeks. I also didn't realize how small he is, he's not much bigger than the minis, & quite a bit smaller than Buddy Brat. Of course he is really ear challenged, although those little 3 inch shell shaped ears look much better on him than great big donkey ears would. He's also still being treated for the sores & wounds he came in with. I almost asked John if we could take him, he's that cute. But I asked Ann what she was going to do with him, & she said he is going to represent their rescue. They'll take him around to tell his story & help educate people about abuse. It's a good thing, otherwise I guess I'd have been working on John to add Toughnut to our herd & we don't need that. I guess there is a battle going on in her organization about renaming him Hercules........................ I like Toughnut, it's so Arizona. So I put in my vote, we'll see which name wins.
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