PARTY TIME

Quilla & BlackJack entertaining new friends

A friend of mine has a birthday party for herself every year.  What makes it unique is, she always has everyone bring presents for a horse charity/rescue/sanctuary etc, rather than bring presents for her. 

We were the recipients this year.  Really had a great time, lots of good food, & got a chance to visit with friends I hadn't seen in a long time & meet some nice people I hadn't known before.  It's a shame we get so involved in life, that there's no time to relax & just enjoy "visiting" on a regular basis.  Everyone brought goodies for the donkeys, fly spray, buckets, bag balm, even a neat poo rake.  John tried it this morning & pronounced it really nice.  Patti said she had one & loves it.  Someone even brought a salt block, those suckers are HEAVY......!!!  

We even took 2 donkeys as "objects of interest", since everyone else were horse  people.  I had decided that BlackJack & Quilla would be good candidates as show & tell "items".  I went to round Quilla up in the morning, put a halter on him & started to lead him up to the pen area.  Usually he's pretty good about leading, but for some reason, he just couldn't leave Tula's side.  He jerked away from me, & took of running.  Of course if one runs they all run, so it was like stampede of silly donkeys.  It was hot & sunny & chasing them around wasn't really what I had planned for the morning.  Unfortunately Quilla didn't get THAT memo.  I followed them around for probably half an hour before John noticed & ask if I needed his help.........!!!! YES!  Although it didn't make too much difference.  Tula finally got tired of having to move & went in her pen.  Once she was out of the way, Quilla went in one of the pens & we had him.  

I had planned on washing him, since he's had fly spray on him & then rolled in the dirt.  Makes for a rather filthy looking white donkey.  Instead he got a "sitz" bath of sorts, I hit the worse looking places & hoped they thought the other spots were his.  He does have some spots but his are gray, not dirty brown.  Catching BlackJack was no problem...............time to load...........Quilla went in like a good boy, BlackJack decided he didn't want to.  The last time we hauled BlackJack he hopped in like a trooper.  It's almost like they are messing with my mind, & believe me some days there isn't much there to mess with........!!! (G)  Finally used a butt strap on him, after he kicked back to show his displeasure.  Of course then I showed my displeasure, so by the time he was loaded, we weren't speaking to each other.........!!! LOL 

Patti had a nice pen set up with fresh water, & lots of wild food growing in the pen, so they had a great time.  People went over,  petted them & fed them timothy pellets we brought with us, so they had a fun afternoon too.  

When it was time to leave, we loaded Quilla first, & he hopped right in.  BlackJack, no hopping, not even any interest at anything except pulling back on the lead, & kicking to show his displeasure.  BJ has never kicked before I really don't know what his problem was.  I was hoping they'd show all the horsey people how well behaved donkeys can be.........well that went out the window I guess.  He finally hopped in like it was his idea, but not before he had shown everyone what an "ass" he could be.  

Got home a couple of hours after normal feeding time to a crowd of "anxious" donkeys & mules.  This is the group, that on any given day, takes their own sweet time coming in to eat.  Obviously we are operating under different standards depending on who is late...........!!!