MEMORIAL DAY

As far as I know none of my family have been killed in war, although all of the men before my generation served.  Joining the military was expected, especially in time of war.  Not so much anymore, unfortunately.  John spent 23 years in the Air Force, I don't know why everyone wouldn't want to join the military and see the world, it was a great life.  But then again, I think I might have some Gypsy blood in my veins........!!! LOL

Last night we went over to some friends for dinner.  They have a red heeler named Maggie and asked if we'd bring Saddik, so they could play.  Doug has taken him a few times to play with other dogs, but we had never taken him out like that.  

He really wanted to sit in the co-pilot's seat, that's where he sits when he rides with Doug.  My fanny was already there, so he had to settle for sitting in the floor, which unfortunately meant he couldn't see out the windshield.  BUT, he did discover the air conditioning vent, which was almost as good as looking out.  

Then he figured out he could stand up on his hind legs and look out, but that got tiring.  So he put his front feet on my seat and leaned on me for most of the trip, about 40 miles.  But he could see out the windshield, so it was a good trip............at least for him.......!!!   I kept telling him he wasn't a lap dog, but he didn't seem to think it was a problem.  

We had a good supper and the dogs played really well together.  He minds well, considering he really hasn't had very much training.  We didn't want him in the house, his tail can be a lethal weapon and Terri, has a lot of what I call "foo-foo" stuff in her house.  I could just see that tail taking out a whole room, if he got started.  We ate outside and if Maggie went in the house he stood by the open door.  A couple of times he put a foot inside and we told him no and he quit.  He is such a nice dog, loves everybody and everybody loves him. It's hard to believe someone dump him out here, they'll never know what they missed.  

The donkeys are all doing pretty good, although GiGi is not eating right now, and gimping around more than usual.  I think the lameness might be from having her feet done a couple of days ago.  She is the one that came in with 11 years of horribly twisted feet, and has to wear a shoe on one of her front feet to keep it from going back the way it had grown.  She does NOT like Tyler, and I don't think she ever will.  She has to be put in the "redneck" squeeze to get her settled down, so he can work with her.  Her front shoulders are deformed from walking "wonky" for all those years and I think squeezing her  maybe made her shoulder sore.  But I don't have an idea why she isn't eating very much.  Quilla did this a couple of weeks ago, for about 3 days and then he was fine.  We'll watch her for a couple of days and hopefully she'll perk up.  

Doug came in the other day with a present for me.  He had been to an art studio in Benson and found this:

It's actually a painting of a donkey on a mouse pad.  He had to get it, said it looked exactly like Boaz and it does.  He didn't know the name of the artist, but it was on the package the pad came in.  B. Peo.......hmmmm that sounded familiar.  Sure enough I checked back and Brenda came out here a couple of years ago to take pictures of the donkeys, for future painting subjects.  So there's a very good chance that this is indeed Boaz.

Over the years we've had quite a few artists and photographers come out to see the donkeys, and many times they share a picture or photograph with us.  When Brenda came out she gave me a donkey picture she had already painted named Nariz, that hangs by my computer, along with others.  

Doctoring is starting to take more time.  Although it isn't really hot yet, the flies have moved in and some of the doctoring has to do with the flies.  Unfortunately a lot of it seems to be caused by the heat, sun and immune system problems on some of the donkeys.  This morning I noticed a lot of flies above a bandage on Quilla's leg.  Cut the bandage off and the sore I covered a couple of days ago was about twice the size it was then.  It's been covered, no sunlight, no way for the flies to get to it, medicine on it, BUT, the sore grew anyway.  One reason I'm never bored I guess..........LOL

PEOPLE REALLY SURPRISE ME SOMETIMES......!!!

Yesterday I got a call from woman, wanting to know if I had any orphans that might need a momma.  She has a mare that had tried to give birth the night before to a too large foal, that had to be sacrificed to save the mare.  She said the mare has had 4 babies and absolutely loves having them to raise.  

Come to find out she is up in Buckeye about 150 miles from here.  She said she had called all the rescues and horse places up there and was branching out trying to find a baby for her mare to raise.  

Kudos to her for a lot of reasons, thinking of the mare, thinking of some little foal that could have a more normal life, if a momma could raise him.  And willing to make the effort to find a baby.  She said the last baby the mare raised, she also mothered a baby deer.  Things like this, put my faith in human nature back into the plus column. 

CASPER'S CONTINUING ADVENTURE

Casper now has 2 goat buddies.  The neighbors brought home two free wether goats and threw them in with Casper on 10 acres.  At first he tried his attack mode and I guess they weren't very impressed.  Goats have quite a bit of personality of their own and usually pretty much run the show.  Lara said after a little while everything settled down, and after a couple of days he is letting them eat with him, although I guess the relationship hasn't become close.  But I have high hopes that this will be another species he can be with, as long as the  fencing isn't just barbed wire.  I haven't given up on finding someone with a mare to see if his problem is only with male horses or mules, that will run from him, when he is in attack mode.  I have to admit I don't blame them for running, he puts on quite a show of intimidation, for someone as little as he is.  I'm surprised some larger equine hasn't cleaned his clock.  LOL

Yesterday I got an e-mail, that is sent out to the equine rescue groups in Arizona, when there is a crisis situation, somewhere in the state.  It concerned an ad in the Phoenix area for a mini mule being advertised for roping, and the call was put out for help.  Quite a few rescues jumped in with money, trailer, hauling, whatever was needed, so I basically just watched the e-mails.  About an hour after the 1st e-mail I got a call from woman that needed a companion for her mare, who had just lost her 2 horse buddies.  We don't adopt out horse companions unless there is already a donkey in the family.  But a mule is a wonderful companion for a horse, so I e-mailed her all the info I had.  I know they got the little molly out, but haven't heard anymore.  Hopefully the woman followed thru on the information.  

She looks like she might be a little larger than Casper.  No matter where she ends up I'm really glad she's in safe hands.  

As of last night we are leaving the fly masks on 24/7.  The flies get up in the morning before we do,  and this works out pretty well.  We take them off a couple of times during the week to make sure they aren't rubbing or have some foreign material stuck in them.  But other than that, they will have masks on until late Oct or early Nov.........well except when they lose them.  Right now they are trying to reach the mesquite blossoms in the trees, so we have to look up instead of down, when searching for missing masks.  

Heard from Falena and Selena's foster home.  They were going to foster the girls for a month to see if they wanted to adopt them.  It's been about 3 weeks and they are ready to sign papers, the girls have wiggled their way into the center of the family.  When the girls were in foster for 3 years they were called Momma and Squeaky.  If you ever heard Squeaky bray, you would know why........LOL She sounds like a Model T Ford, trying to start and not doing too well.   Anyway Doug had told them about the name change and they have decided Momma and Squeaky works for them.  Momma has to wear a shoe on a rear foot, because of a contracted tendon, which turns the foot under.  Tim wasn't the least bit put off by the idea of having to make sure she wears that shoe as needed.  I think it will be a wonderful home for these girls, he even wants to use them for overnight packing trips.  With their personalities, they will be more than willing to go out and see new things.  They will also be great ambassadors for donkeys, with any people they meet while packing.  WIN, WIN.......!!

WRAPPING LEGS

For those that don't know much about equine feet, this is a nasty looking foot.  Actually for those that do know equine feet, this is a nasty foot.  This is Gus' right front and is the reason he spends quite a bit of time in feet made of casting material, used for arm and leg casts on people.  

The casting material works very well to give his foot the support he doesn't have internally because of long term chronic laminitis.  He has been stable for years with no reoccurring founder or laminitis, but the damage has already been done and as he gets older his foot becomes less stable. 

We are encouraged by the growth coming out at the top.  It will never look good, but it is growing out with better shape to it. 

As you can see the bottom half is contracted and scary.  He's actually walking and standing pretty good for him.  The foot itself isn't flaky, although he does have a vertical crack down the front that is trying to become permanent.  I hope as the better looking foot grows out, and better equipped to hold his weight, the crack will become less important and hopefully give up.  

Courtney and I would like to keep him out of the casting material as long as possible.  If he can make it to the monsoon season starting in July without it, she'll put it back on, thru the wet, humid time.  Of course that brings up another problem, stinky feet, somewhat like wearing sneakers all the time in hot, humid climate.  So far he hasn't had a problem with white line, or other feet problems, thank goodness.  

The wrapping legs headline tells what I've been doing almost every morning lately.  Almost every morning I add a leg or two, to my list.  Boaz, Quilla and Penny have now been joined by Coquette.  Coquette's leg sores are different than the other ones.  Hers seems to be internal, rather than sun or fly caused.  Last year they got ahead of me and was really a problem.  So this year I started early, checking her legs.  I should have trimmed the long hair off her legs when I clipped her earlier this week, because this morning she had a full blown case of sores.  I left the hair on with the idea that maybe it would help to slow down the sore problem.................nope, didn't help.  Now there are sores to contend with, not sure I can use the clippers, might have to just use scissors.  

Her blood test for Cushings came back normal, so she is probably just insulin resistant, although her numbers were within normal range.  She just needs to be taller I guess.........LOL

LAST CLIP JOB DONE......!!!

I guess we saved the best for last.  Daisy just patiently stands when you clip her or anything.  She had very good training, unlike most of our gang.  Quilla is just as good, not because of training, so much as he is just a sweet boy.

When Linda was here she helped clip Daisy to learn and then did Quilla by herself.  That left darling Coquette to be done.  Coquette isn't bad, but she is opinionated on where on her body you can clip without a fuss.

John and I got our "toys" together and headed out for battle.  She was actually pretty good about most of her body on both sides.  Equine are right brained/left brained, which means just because one side is easy to work with, doesn't mean the other side will be as easy.

One hind leg was OK, the other one, not so much.  Also under her jaw on the right side.........have no idea why.  She threw a couple of warning kicks which is really irritating.  So I tried a simple version of scotch hobbling, and forgot that donkeys are really quite agile on 3 legs.  As I said I wasn't in full scotch hobble mode, didn't really have a long enough rope, so we danced around and around for a few minutes, until the idea of using the redneck squeeze went thru my brain.  Got her in there and managed to get her finished, in between the pipe railing, with my hands still intact.  Actually except for under the jaw she stood still, so we got done pretty quick.

Doesn't look like the same donkey does it?  The flies are already starting on her legs, she is one of the fly magnets, that has to be doctored all summer or covered up with leg wrappings.

I'm waiting for the results of her blood test for Cushings Dr. Lindsey drew when she was out to see Tula about her mouth.  Coquette has long hair as you could see in the picture, but she might just be a long haired type of donkey. There are quite a few different breeds of donkey, from all over the world with different characteristics.  She's very likely insulin resistant at best, it's impossible to get the 25 plus extra pounds she is carrying off of her.  Our donkeys are fed a typical diet for insulin resistance anyway, but without putting her in a pen 24/7, we can't control what she browses off the property.

Talked to the neighbors about bringing Casper back to see if he had mellowed towards Gizmo.  John had seen them standing beside each other with the fence between them and thought maybe Casper had decided to be friends.  Lara said he still lunges at the fence, kicking and biting, so I guess not.  Unfortunately he couldn't stay here long term, unless he decided to respect our 4 strand barbed wire exterior fence, instead of doing a combat crawl under it .........LOL  Sure wish I could find someone that has no geldings, just a mare or two to see if it's all horses or just geldings.  He's OK with donkeys, in fact he liked to hide in the herd, when we caught him outside the fence and he had scooted back under the fence.  Guess he thought we'd think he had been there all the time..........!!! 

LYNN AND LINDA MADE IT HOME TO COLORADO

Got an e-mail this morning, guess they woke up to 29 degrees.....!!!   LOL..........they tried to drag their feet as much as possible, but I guess they ran out of things to do on the road before the weather warmed up.  Of course it's flirting with 100 degrees here, which isn't any better in an RV.   

 Linda took this picture the day we were clipping Quilla.  I was changing the blades, with Gus' help of course. 

 This is a picture of Boaz outside Lynn and Linda's bedroom window.  He has begging down to a fine art and I assume thought they should hand him a cookie out the window.........LOL

 Saddik, Lucy, who is tied up because she and Saddik liked to run off on an adventure and little Gizmo, who doesn't miss much that goes on around here.  Saddik sure misses their 3 dogs, especially Lucy, his running partner.

 I think Justin was checking out their RV, to see if there was room for him to hitch a ride to Colorado. 

It sure is boring around here with them gone, they livened up this "retirement" home.  They plan on coming back in the fall, which will be great. 

Linda sent this picture of them geocaching somewhere in New Mexico.  The cache was a micro (very tiny) magnetic thing attached under this metal donkey's tail.  I'm not up to speed on geocaching, but from what they said, people are very clever when hiding the little treasures.  There is one right across from our driveway, that someone hid last year.  We couldn't figure out why people would drive in our driveway, day and night, sit out there for a little while and leave until Lynn and Linda told us what was going on.  The caches are named, the one by our driveway is called, Old Donkey Heaven, so we get free advertising....!!

They only saw 3 donkeys on the whole trip back to Colorado, but Linda said they saw 88 elk......!!  Now that they have become donkey lovers, I'm sure they will won't miss any on their travels in the future.

Well the flies finally started hanging around.  The fly traps are doing a rousing business and everyone has their fly masks on now.  The donkeys with bare legs are wearing polo wraps, and Penny even has crew socks above the polo wraps.  I finally figured out that if I put crew socks above the knee and polo wraps below the knee, the knee could bend without interference.  I only have to redo them a couple of times a week, which is a lot better than every day.....!!!

Penny has gotten much more cooperative.  We use to have to put her in the redneck squeeze, put a halter and lead on and tie her up.  Then we did the "you aren't picking up my foot, yes I am" dance until she would finally give up.  She will now let me pick up her feet, without any squeeze or halter.  Of course John is standing by with animal crackers, whatever it takes to make life easy, we do.......!!! LOL

LYNN AND LINDA LEFT THIS MORNING.....

It's sure going to be boring around here for awhile, while we slip back into our usual day to day routine.  Lynn and Linda were really fun to have around and they worked the whole time they were here.  As we've gotten older it seems like we do more "round to it" than actually getting things done.  No problem with those two, Lynn was out at 2AM one morning digging a trench, he said it was cooler....!!!  LOL  

I took some pictures this morning as they were saying good bye to the donkeys.  The donkeys are going to miss them too, they always had cookies in their pockets and believe me the donkeys keep track of important things like that.  

Linda after the dogs, they were play fighting

Lynn saying good-bye to some of the "fur" kids

 

Doug and John joining in the social hour

Saddik with his new collar, that has his name and phone number on it.  Since he likes to roam occasionally,  they thought he should have a collar, so he won't be confused with a stray, if he's out and about.  He's really going to miss their 3 dogs, since Nicki is gone.  They've developed a whole doggie routine of playing and they were as energetic as he is.   

They already plan on coming back in the fall, and we have incentive.  Lynn wants to try racing and has already started working on the roll cage out of the old Kia.  

Before Lynn left, he sanded and painted the roll cage,

John's assignment if he gets "around to it" is to get the motor and transmission put in this car and get it painted white.  From white it can go any direction.  I think Lynn wants it orange and blue.  I think that's the Denver Bronco colors....!!

Managed to salvage the trunk from my car, with the original BlackJack Racing logo.  

 The trunk might not work, if the car ends up orange and blue,.  We were at Culver's, our favorite fast food place at this time in history the other day and I saw a paint job that would be perfect.  I have spent quite a bit of time on the internet since, trying to find an comparable paint job, so far no luck.  

The Mustang was orange.  The front was black (which could easily be blue) but as it went up the fenders and hood, rather than be solid black, it thinned out to almost nothing except a few specks.  Really eye catching, wish I'd taken a picture of it.  The back was also creatively painted.  

John went over to visit with Casper after chores tonight.  He said Casper was more than willing to take treats, but still wouldn't let John pet him.  John said when he left, Casper started calling to him, probably wanted more goodies.  The flies are getting pretty busy, and Vic hasn't put his fly mask on yet, so we'll check with him tomorrow and see if we need to help put it on him.  Casper's not real cooperative unfortunately.  

WHAT ON EARTH IS SO INTERESTING?

BUDDY, COQUETTE, PENNY AND JOHN

Obviously something has got their attention.  Of course it doesn't take much, I think donkeys curiosity and nosiness compares to a cat.  If we move anything or bring in something new on the property, it has to be looked over by EVERYONE.........!!!  

John and Lynn have really done a number on my race car that was totaled in October.  John went to New Mexico a few months ago and got another Kia Sephia to make into a race car for the dirt track, if it ever opens up again.  They have spent the last 2 days, taking everything worth using again, off this car.  As you can see there isn't much left.  It's headed for our junk yard over in Burroland.  

Lynn has decided he'd like to try racing, when they come back next November. Since I already have another race car for the asphalt, and since the dirt track doesn't seem like it's going to happen, it seemed counter productive to buy another car.    He's already come up with his number and his colors, and was talking about buying a finished Hornet.  John talked him into racing the new Kia.  It just needs to be stripped and all the stuff off this car, put on it, including the engine and transmission.  If the dirt track does by some miracle open up, we'll be scrambling to find another car, but I don't think that will happen.......!!!

John is going to be busy while Lynn is gone, getting the car ready, he loves to work on the cars.  

Lynn and Linda are getting ready to leave in the morning for Colorado, where they live.  We sure are going to miss them, I've gotten lazy since they've been here.  They've jumped right in and enjoy feeding and taking care of the donkeys.  I certainly wouldn't want to interfere with their fun, so I let them do whatever they want.............LOL  Linda's even doing some of the doctoring.  Coquette has a habronema summer sore on the side of her mouth already.  So we're keeping it covered with Ivermectin, which will kill any larvae in the sore. 

COULD HAVE BEEN WORSE

Tula has been with us for about 10 years.  She came in distrustful of people and to this day, hasn't changed much.  We can work with her in the safe corner of her pen to put a fly mask on her, but she isn't comfortable, and if you want to get touchy feely, her skin crawls and she will usually take off at speed.  In the last year she has started taking animal crackers from visitors, if they are on the other side of the corral panels, which is a giant step for her.  

Earlier this week, we noticed she was drooling, but still eating and taking treats, then she stopped taking treats, so it was time to call the vet.  We've never had a vet for her and because of her issues and really hoped we'd never have to.  

E-mailed Jackpot Equine my "go to" vets, in the evening and Dr. Lindsey was here the next morning at 10am.  We've had both Dr. Lindsey and Dr. Karla out and they are both really caring and compassionate vets.

I had given Dr. Lindsey a head's up in my e-mail, so she was aware of the limitations working with Tula.  We got her in a squeeze, and she got a happy shot.  Then she got another one.  Donkeys can be very hard to get cooperative even with drugs sometimes.

She has never been dangerous, she doesn't kick, rear, or strike out with her front feet like some do.  She just wants to get away, but finally the drugs took effect and we could take the squeeze away, so Dr. Lindsey could get to work.

 1st she got her mouth flushed out. 

 Frijolita is trying to figure out what is going on with her friend, Tula

 Tula had some hooks, but this is about when Dr. Lindsey found a hole in the top of her tongue about half way back.
Thanks for the pictures, Linda

She used a hemostat to poke in the hole, which was about 3/4's of an inch deep.  Didn't find any foreign matter, so she probably poked it with a mesquite thorn or cactus spine.  It probably was in there for a couple of days when we noticed the slobbering, and then worked it's way out.   

It got flushed and she is on antibiotics for the next few days.  She seems fine and no more slobbering.  She also got her teeth floated, I would imagine for the 1st time in her life. 

What I find interesting is, after we have "controlled" her like this, you would think she would be stand offish for awhile.  It's almost like she knows it needs to be done, but she just can't bring herself to participate.  When it's all over her behavior is just like it was before we corralled her.  No better or no worse.  

Coquette had an ACTH blood draw for Cushings.  She has been heavy every since we got her about 3 years ago, which is probably more Insulin Resistance than Cushings.  We've got some weight off her, but not much.  She has excessive hair growth and she is always hungry.  So while the vet was here I thought it might not hurt to get her tested.  Quilla and Daisy are already on pergolide, one more wouldn't make that much difference, but I hope she isn't.

Everyone is wearing a fly mask now except for BlackJack.  The flies don't like him very well.  We aren't having much of a fly problem so far, BUT, they do like to get in the donkey's eyes.  Buddy has already lost his mask.......somewhere........!!!!   

ROUND TWO AT THE SPA

Today was Quilla's turn.  He's a good boy to work with, although he did get a little squirrely when the clippers started getting dull.  Can't blame him, the blades start tugging when it's time to change them.  But we were so close..........!!!!   A couple of cookies soothed his nerves.  

Almost started without taking a before picture

Linda, bless her heart did most of the clipping today.  I usually do one donkey and then wait a few days for my back and wrists to recuperate.  But we are trying to get the 3 long hairs done before she leaves this week-end.  

 Quilla came in years ago extremely overweight and even though he has lost weight and actually looks much better than this angle makes him look, he still has the fat pones from being heavy.  He has fatty liver disease also, so is always on a diet.  

I guess Daisy thought she should get another spa day, she came in and hung around for awhile.  Linda continued clipping, just about done.

Almost forgot to take an "after" picture.  As you can tell Quilla isn't interested in sticking around, once the cookies were not forthcoming.  I don't know anything about his early life.  The woman we got him from had him for 9 years, but that is a ranch brand on his left hip, a  3 with a umbrella or something like that over the top.  So I assume he probably started out on a ranch.  

We're still looking for a friend for Casper, we are thinking about a mini mare or something like that.  I sure would like to try him with a mare, with no geldings around at all.  Haven't figured out how to accomplish that yet.  I hate to get a little girl or borrow one, and find out it won't work.  Life certainly gets complicated sometimes.......!!

DAISY'S SPA DAY........!!

Well maybe that's a little over the top, but she did get body clipped for the summer.  

THIS IS BEFORE

LINDA LEARNING HOW TO CLIP

FINISHED PRODUCT, SURROUNDED BY HER HAIR.  

She's very cooperative, just stands and waits for the next animal cracker.  I think she probably appreciates getting rid of all that hair.  

Linda was interested in helping, and she did a great job.   We'll probably do Quilla tomorrow and maybe Coquette the next day.  I'm only good for about one a day.  Quilla is good too, but Coquette, not so good.  She seems to want to keep her hair.  The 1st year I did her, we had to use the squeeze and she still managed to squirm and wiggle.  When I got thru, she looked like she had been thru a leaf shredder.....!!!  And I didn't care, by then, if fact I thought about not clipping her the next year.  But she was a little better, at least I didn't have to use the squeeze.  So we'll see how this year goes.  

I called this afternoon to see how the girls were doing in their new home.  Tim said they are doing just fine and they are really enjoying learning about donkeys and the way their minds work.  They've gone on "family" walks on leads.  He's talked about using them for packing on trails, which would be a lot of fun I would imagine.  Maybe it will happen, he seems really interested.  

I guess Midnight the bitchy horse next to them is continuing to be obnoxious.  He said he thinks the girls are teasing her, to make her lunge at the fence.  I wouldn't be surprised, donkeys usually have a sense of humor and once they figure out she can't get to them, it's their game......!! 

FALENA AND SELENA ARE TRYING OUT A NEW HOME THIS MONTH

Yesterday we took the girls into Tucson to hopefully their new forever home.  

This is the girls getting to know their new friend

The girls going into their pen, being googled by the "neighbors"  The mare with the highest head seems to think she is in charge of the world.  She's like this with the other horses and I guess she will bite you if you stand too close to her pen.  She romped and stomped and lunged the whole time we were there.  I wish the girl's pen wasn't next to her, hopefully she'll settle down quickly to just being bitchy..........!!  I would imagine the girls will just ignore her, donkeys don't do "drama" usually....  LOL

This is their Moab mare on the other side.  She is very sweet and seemed to welcome them to the neighborhood

The people will foster them for a month to see if it will work out.  The pen is smaller than we would like, but they will get 2 days of freedom in one of 2 arenas with their mare every week.  If they're adopted  they will be going to Colorado in the summer, along with the mare.  

A big plus to counteract the less than ideal pen size, is Falena's contracted tendon that requires a shoe.  Tim wasn't fazed at all, when he was told about it.  Most people want donkeys that require no extra care, especially if it costs money.  But he didn't see it as a problem, even though it will be a lifetime commitment.  He wants to train them to pack, which I'm sure will be easy, these girls are really easy to get along with.  

Lynn and Linda will be leaving this Saturday to head back to Colorado for the summer.  We are really going to miss them, they have become family.  For never being around donkeys, they have completely immersed themselves in anything to do with the donkeys.  It's finally warmed up enough to go ahead and body clip Daisy, so that's what Linda and I will do tomorrow, unless something more important comes up.  It's not too hot yet, so we can put it off for awhile, but Linda wants to try everything and this is about the only thing she hasn't done.  

This year instead of putting fly masks on everyone at the same time, we have been observing faces.  If a donkey has more than 3 or 4 flies on their faces or in Frijolita's case gnats, we just put a mask on that one.  I'm sure sooner or later they'll all be wearing masks.  Yesterday was time to put one on Gizmo, the mini mule.  I don't think Gizmo has ever had a mask on before, to say he was less than impressed is an understatement.  Had to put him in a redneck squeeze.  This morning he wasn't overly cooperative, but he did let John put it on without having to go into the squeeze, after they danced around the pen a few times.  John opened the squeeze as a threat, and he said Gizmo decided to give up.  Anyone that thinks these animals aren't smart and don't think, hasn't observed them very long.  

Speaking of Gizmo, he's dived right into the animal cracker way of life.  He presents himself at the front of the pack, whenever crackers might be available.  He has so much personality, and seems to really like people.  I don't carry crackers and he will still come up to me to get scratched.  Of course he usually doesn't stay long without the crackers. LOL  He also spends time over by the fence between Burroland and the 10 acres Casper is staying on.  They both have made a trench in the dirt from pacing back and forth one on one side, the one on the other.