BOOFER AND HIS NEW "DOO".........!!

Those of you that have been out here since last fall, might remember Boofer, the neighbor's dog that adopted us a few years ago.  It's a lot more exciting over here, there's always something going on, so this is where he stays 99% of the time.

This is a picture of him "helping" with one of the Open Houses a couple of years ago.  Rather hairy type cattle dog of some kind.  

Last fall he got into a massive amount of stick tights, that completely covered him below the ribs, front, back and everything in between.  He managed to pull out the ones he could reach, but his belly and rear end were so tightly matted, we wondered how he could even go to the bathroom.  Sometimes we could tell he could go, because that would also get caught up in the mess.  UGH!  

You might ask, "well why didn't we clip him?"  Because he is about 2 steps from being feral, never had been socialized or worked with, so all interaction with him, is on his terms.  He likes to be petted, and grin at you, but if you tried to control him or let him see something like scissors in your hand, he was gone in a flash.  

We gave up during the winter, because it gets too cold to clip him since he is an outdoor dog.  John started working with him a few weeks ago in preparation for warmer weather, by getting him to come into the garage.  Last week started out warm, so we made an appointment with the vet and borrowed her catch pole.  He use to be a growler and sneaky type, although we haven't seen that type of behavior for awhile, he certainly could revert under stress.  We figured the garage would help to contain him if necessary, while we got him in a crate.  John got him in the garage I waited outside until he yelled.  In I went and John had hold of his collar, but couldn't stuff him in the crate by himself.  We turned it up on the end and dumped him in.  

I had warned the clinic, so they were prepared to gas him in the crate and muzzle him before his date with destiny.  They called late in the afternoon, we went to pick him up and they said he was the sweetest thing, even set in laps while someone clipped him..............  WHAT......????  Maybe he knew they were helping him, or maybe being in a garage, crate, truck, clinic with strangers, put him off enough that he didn't know what to do.  I'm pretty sure if we had tried to clip him on his home territory, someone would have probably got hurt and it wouldn't have been him.  We took our large crate, you could put one of the mini donkeys in it I think and he rode home in the bed of the pick-up barking all the way.  Jumped out and seems to be enjoying his haircut. He sure looks different.......!!!!   

Of course as usual the weatherman was wrong and the next 4 or 5 nights were in the low 30's.  He won't go in the hay barn and he sure won't go in the garage for awhile, so he just laid out in the open and shivered until the sun got up.   Hopefully this year we can deal with it better.  

Yesterday we went down to Tombstone to plan for the Tombstone Annual Donkey Rescue Walk, May 9, 2015.  This the the 1st year of what they hope will be a yearly "party" to pay respect to donkeys/burros and maybe help the public realize how special they are. There will be a donkey race, which should be interesting.  One of the rules is the runner and the donkey have to cross the finish line together, not sure the donkeys will cooperate, but we'll see.  There will also be a fashion show, as in dress your donkeys up to be judged.  We are going to haul one of our alumni Rambo aka Bo down for that.  We tried to talk Amy into doing the race, but she tried working with him on leading and decided the fashion show might be easier.............LOL  

We are going to set up a kissing booth for anyone that would like to "Kiss an Ass Today".  We will take BlackJack and Cheyenne, one of the minis.  Sometimes the kids get intimidated by the bigger donkeys, but she is pretty little, so maybe they will be more comfortable with her.  Right now we're trying to figure out how to contain them.  They will be out in front of Doc Holliday's Saloon between the pavement and the boardwalk on a strip of dirt about 9 feet wide.  They can't be on the pavement or interfere with the stagecoach rides.  We were going to haul in corral panels, but they don't look like Tombstone, so we're talking about maybe making a pen with cedar fencing.  We'll check with Home Depot or Lowe's this week and see if its feasible.  There's a hitching post in the next block, but none where we will be.........SIGH...!!  

It should be fun, BlackJack especially has a soft fuzzy mushy muzzle everyone likes to play with and he likes it too......!!