Hmmm..........MYSTERY SOLVED......!!

A few days ago on this blog , I was wondering why someone would walk up to me and asked me if I was the oldest woman racing or racing in NASCAR .  I'd have a talk with Woody, but, it seems this isn't the 1st time he's used my age as mic chatter when he's calling the races, so it wouldn't do any good.........  For those that don't know how old I am, listen and he'll tell you.........!!!  LOL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kASQimZt6dM

CATCH UP TIME

I haven't forgotten the blog, it seems that time has just gotten away from me, more than usual.  Here's some more pictures Mindy took while she was here. 

I think this is Don Juan "helping" me set up my doctoring kit.  I've told them over and over they aren't much help, but they still insist they are.  Not sure what Doug is doing..........LOL

 Mindy headed home Friday or Saturday and I think she would have stayed longer, but she had something planned that evening.  She really enjoys being with the donkeys. 

Doug took her over to Burroland in the golf cart to see the donkeys in their "natural" habitat.   Looks like they ran into a road block.

You would think BlackJack would be in shade, as dark and  hairy as he is.  Obviously not......!!  He looks like he's asleep.

We spent Memorial Day with our good friends Larry and Terri.  Larry had a brilliant idea on keeping my race car from jumping out of gear.  So while Terri and I visited, the guys worked on the race car, welding and bending, and designing an arm.   I will flip it up against the back of the gear shift, when  I get on the track and am in 3rd gear.  I stay in 3rd gear for the whole race, unless I spin out.  Then I would need to shift back to 1st, but all I will have to do is flip the arm out of the way, do my shifting back to 3rd and flip the arm back against the gear shift.  

The car has been getting harder to start and has been running a little rough when you start it.  Not sure what is going on, but probably better get the backup car up and running in case this one blows up.  As usual I am running for points and so far this year the shifter problem has REALLY been discouraging.  I'm in 5th for points, but I'd really rather be higher than that...............LOL

Lynn called last night to tell us Linda is composing a long e-mail to tell us about the 1st two burro races for Loki Joe, Justin and Pepsi and how they went.  So he wouldn't give us much information except that all 3 of the boys did good, said he didn't want to ruin Linda's e-mail.  

Saturday they ran at Georgetown, about 8 or 9 miles.  Lynn said Loki Joe was a little distracted and hadn't figured out that the plan was to run........forward.........!!!!  Linda was running with Justin and Pepsi was running with a woman they know.  He did say Justin didn't want to pass Pepsi.  As "sturdy" as Pepsi is, I'm surprised he will even run for miles...........LOL Hopefully, he should be less "sturdy" when they come back in the fall, he will be getting a lot more exercise than he gets down here.

Sunday they raced at Idaho Springs, about 5 or 6 miles.  Lynn said Loki Joe figured how what they were suppose to do and  focused on running  much better than the day before.  

These are some pictures Linda sent of them just hanging out with the donkeys.

Lynn hanging out with Loki Joe, Pepsi and Justin

I think that's Pepsi on the left and I know that is Quilla on the right...!!

I know that's Linda, but not sure who her buddy is.  It's probably Justin, but the camera angle makes him look like a big guy.

Quilla is such a lovebug, he soaks up all the attention he can get.

This is Pooh Bear, who is an inside playmate, going outside to play with Saddik.  The dogs know the difference between inside and outside playmates. Although Lennon especially likes to sneak the inside toys out if he can.

 Saddik seems to be having more fun than he should probably because he knows Pooh Bear is suppose to stay inside.  I think Pooh Bear is also suppose to have a shirt on, not sure where it went.....  LOL

MINDY MADE IT.........!!!

She's been here a couple of days and we haven't had a chance to see much of her.  John's been doctoring more than usual and had appointments yesterday and today, which take most of the day.  

That's OK, she's here to see the donkeys.........!!!!  LOL  She comes in the morning  and spends the heat of the day hanging round the pool at the motel.  Then comes back in the late afternoon to spend  more time with the donkeys.  She does some brushing, which is a big hit with most of them and of course comes armed with animal crackers, which is a hit with them all......!!!  

Here's some of the pictures she's taken

 The brothers, Shaggy Bill and Don Juan

 Rosie pulling out all the stops to beg for a cookie

 Even Roxy the neighbor's dog is begging for cookies

Boaz in his crusader fly mask that keeps the flies from reinfesting the side of his mouth with habronema eggs, that hatch into larvae that burrow into the edge of his mouth.  We'll be fighting the good fight all summer probably, but the mask really helps to get some control over the problem.  

Thanks for the pictures, Mindy....!!

Linda sent some pictures from Colorado of boys being boys.  This is Loki Joe and Leo trying to get the best of each other.  Watching geldings play can be traumatic for people not use to it.  They play rough.....!!

 

 

Guess Leo won.........!!!  LOL

MINDY IS COMING.......!!!

Mindy comes to visit with the donkeys, when she feels like it.  She actually is thinking of moving to the Benson area and maybe visiting this time of year to see how hot it is.  She lives up in the Phoenix area and it's usually hotter than we are, so it might be a pleasant experience for her.  

 This is a picture of Mindy a couple of years ago with Daisy....RIP

While she is here she is going to do some grooming on the donkeys.  All of a sudden most of them are shedding like crazy.  When John and I play "doctor" almost every morning (get your mind out of the gutter..LOL)  I carry a brush and some of them get a few swipes, but they need individual attention.  I would imagine it is itchy.  I usually have to clean the brush after every swipe.  Most of them love it and stand absolutely still, I guess they don't want to interfere and make you stop.  

Tula is now out, as long as she doesn't start limping.  Frijolita our little gate opener, managed to take the gate off the post between her pen and Tula's.  It was overnight, so Frijolita was out and Tula was "trapped" in her pen and had been for days and days.  Frijolita's outside gate to her pen was open.  So once the gate was taken care of Tula was free as a bird.  

I went to a clinic at Dr. Jeremy's yesterday morning and asked him, since she wasn't limping if she might not be better off out.  He said to watch for limping and see what happens.  So far, so good, we took her leggings off this morning and put some SWAT on her knees where she had roughed them up laying down.  Good grief you would have thought we had lost our minds to add another "torture" to the routine.  I thought she was going to go down on her knees in the dirt before I could get it on and get my abusive hands off her legs.  Probably for the foreseeable future we will be doctoring those knees, which means she will be going into the squeeze once or twice a day............oh! what fun...!!!  

Still doctoring the corner of Boaz's mouth and will be for quite sometime.   He's so easy to work with, I can do just about anything with him, which is amazing.  I remember a time, when he wasn't that happy to be messed with and didn't mind throwing a hoof to make his point.  Now he is just a big lover and has learned to work visitors for attention preferably a cookie.  Actually he works anybody he sees, but he seems to realize that visitors are suckers for a cute face more than we are, so he pulls out all the stops on them.  It's fun to watch him work them. 

I raced last night, can't say it was one of my better nights, although I did get to go thru tech after the race, with a 4th place finish.  I think there have been 5 race nights and that is the 1st time I've finished good enough to go to tech.

All the cars are suppose to be going the same direction, obviously there is a problem here....!!  LOL  This young man in the blue and yellow car and I had been running side by side for quite a few laps.  He got impatient and slammed into the side of my car and then rotated in front of my car.  Hmmm, what to do, what to do..........slam on the brakes and take a chance on someone behind you running into you or help him out of your way.  Didn't hurt him, in fact he finished 3rd to my 4th, but I bet he won't lean on me again.......!!!  LOL

My car jumped out of gear 5 times during the race, which has been a problem every since it was wrecked and the frame straightened.  The guy's have done all they can to fix it and they think the frame is weak and allowing everything to move around too much.

Our son has been working on a back up Neon, so I think they are going to try to get it ready to race in 2 weeks.

It's further along than this, but there is still a lot to do to get it race ready in 2 weeks.  Hopefully Rod will get his part done in a couple of days and John can do what he needs to do.  Our friend Larry has offered to help John get it ready.  Another friend Gary will help too.  It's amazing how many people are willing to help me keep racing.

I had something funny happen at the races last night.  I had a spectator come up to me and ask me if I was the oldest woman racing in NASCAR.  He didn't say "Hi" or "I have a question" or "I hope you don't mind me asking", just walked up and asked his question.  It's not polite to laugh at people, but it wasn't easy to keep a straight face, while I explain my checkered past in racing and how long it's been.  Sometimes it doesn't take a whole lot to amuse me I guess..............!!! LOL

AH..........GLORIOUS SUMMER..........!!

Summer is vastly overrated in the desert.  And it isn't even June yet, which historically is our hottest month, lots of days over 100 degrees.  

John just put up some camo netting on the back porch this morning.  It has 2 uses.  Originally I ordered it to help keep the doves from flying into the windows.  The feeders are in the back yard and if they get scared, they take off in a panic and don't pay attention to where they are going.   

Years ago we talked about screening in the porch, to keep the birds from hitting the windows, but that really doesn't go with our type of house.  The camo netting should work out good for the birds, and as an added feature, keep the afternoon sun off the west side of the house.  

Julius, the indoor/outdoor cat isn't too impressed.  He was in the house this morning, when the "changes" occurred.  He just wanted out, I opened the door, he took one look at the changes, made a u-turn and is in the house someplace.  Wonder how long it will take for him to get brave enough to confront this situation.......??  LOL

I noticed a couple of days ago, that Tula is roughing up her knees, when she lays down in her pen.  She's walking really well and is off pain meds.  I knew we couldn't put socks on her legs.  That entails putting a plastic sandwich bag over the hoof, and then pulling a long sock over the hoof and up the leg.  Not something she would accept, she doesn't even like to be touched.

A friend made some knee covers for some of my old guys that laid down a lot and their knees got scraped up.  The covers are held on with Velcro straps top and bottom and don't require picking up a foot.  But it does require touching......!!

Yesterday morning John and I prepared for battle.  We got her behind a corral panel and squeezed her between the panel and the side of the corral.  She actually did pretty good, I managed to get them on both knees without getting a broken arm......!!! LOL  With the 2nd one I had to go outside the pen because we couldn't get her turned around in the "redneck" squeeze.  

Equine are left brained, right brained.  You can do something on one side, but when you go to the other side it's brand new, never done it before.  Tula did better on the 2nd side than the 1st side, without any squirming and jumping around, which was a surprise.  Later in the day I noticed the 1st pad had slipped down her leg, because I couldn't get it on tight enough.  But the 2nd one is still up where it needs to be.  We had to run her into the squeeze again last night as feeding time and fix the 1st one.  She was a little easier to work with I think, of course non-stop animal crackers probably helped.....!!! 

 This was before we fixed the pad that slid down in the afternoon

 

This is after we fixed it.  You can see, she is still in the "alert" mode, she is always on alert when we are around her.  She has been here about 10 years and is still not comfortable around people.  A couple of years ago she started taking animal crackers from visitors, IF they are on the other side of a corral panel, IF they stretch their arm out as far as it will go and IF she can get her neck long enough to reach it.  She's not taking any chances although recently she has been getting a little more comfortable with their arm not being quite so long.  But if they move or do anything she sees as dangerous, she backs off immediately.

After putting her in the squeeze and her squirming and digging her feet in trying to gain position, I was afraid she would start limping on her right rear leg.  But it hasn't seemed to bother her at all.  I might plead her case with Dr. Jeremy and if she continues to walk without limping, see if she can come off of "pen" arrest.  Donkeys are tough and it is just a crack in a small bone, although I don't know how important that bone is, I'll ask him.  It doesn't look like it is load bearing or anything like that.  

Heard from Lynn and Linda today, she sent videos and pictures taken at the Ragnar team marathon run this last week-end.  I assumed they finished, but she didn't say how they did.  

This is a screenshot of a panoramic video they sent.  There were a lot of people in this race from the way it looked.  This is just a few of them.  

 

Where's a donkey when you need to haul in your supplies?

Lynn ready for his night run

  

 

Beautiful country.....!!

 

 

My,my,my, doesn't this just look like loads of fun..........?  NOT....!!!  I'm so glad they share pictures.....!!! LOL

Looks like they picked up a new member of the team.....!!

Boaz and I are fighting the good fight with his habronema larvae in his lip.  Every morning, John helps me with him, although he is so good to let me root around in the corner of his mouth with tweezers and pull out things I find interesting.  

It looks like a mass of raw hamburger, BUT I do believe we are getting ahead of the fight.  I had forgotten I had Renee at Colorful Equine make a couple of crusader masks for him this year.  She special makes them to cover the edge of his mouth, so the flies can't just fly in at will.  A couple of days ago, his mouth was swollen and I wasn't really making much headway at eradicating the flies.  The mask has made a world of difference and we are also putting wormer on the area 3 times a day, which kills the any larvae that hatch out and I can remove them the next morning.  It's not as swollen, and angry looking, so hopefully we are making progress.  

I've also finally found some socks that seem to stay up better.  This spring we bought some white socks to dye green, so Lynn and Linda could wear them on their arms and look like cactus at one of the races they ran.  We found out the socks had too much polyester in them to soak up the dye, not only that but after you tried to dye them 2 or 3 times and gave up, all you had to do was soak them in a bucket and then wash  them in the washer and they were as white as they were when we bought them.   I took them out to the feed room to cover legs, and have found out they cling much better than the regular crew socks we've been using.  So far we've got 4 in socks and as of this morning they all have on these socks except for Penny.  I'll change her out in a couple of days.    They are really long too, so they cover more of the leg.  

I'm suppose to race this Saturday, I really hope the car will stay in gear.  It's very disheartening to be doing pretty good and have it jump out of gear which it has done in 3 of the 4 races so far this year.  John says he's done everything he knows to do, so we'll see how it goes.  We're talking about building a new car for next year, that's assuming I am still competitive by then.  LOL  My Neon is getting beat by Chevrolet  Cavaliers on a regular basis, so John wants a Cavalier..........of course.........!!!  LOL

NEVER BORING AROUND HERE....!!!

John went into Coquette's pen to move her bunk and lookie what he found.  Pretty little girl, recently shed her skin, because she was bright and shiny.  John got the catcher and took her for a ride.  She never did rattle or act aggressive at all.  

Same day, I was moving Tula's bunk out of her shelter and there was a grouchy one under her bunk.  He wasn't very interested in cross species relationships and let me know it.  He wasn't very pretty either, probably hasn't shed out, maybe that's why he was so cranky.  John brought his catching stick and container and off they went down the road. 

John has found an area that has lots of ground squirrel holes, away from people to take them.  Of course taking all of them to the same place probably isn't a real good idea.  LOL  

We already seen more rattlesnakes this year than in the last couple of years for some reason.  Of course we haven't seen any mice or rats....!!!  

This is Coquette getting her annual haircut.  She probably has some French Poitou relatives in her background, and has the long, fine hair that mats and clings close to the skin.  If she doesn't get clipped she sweats and ends up with sores on her body.  Another one with a poor immune system, I would imagine.

I started clipping her, and ran out of energy, so John finished her.  My clippers are really big and heavy, and effective..........BUT.......... they wear me out.  I might add, she does not appreciate being clipped, so she wiggles and squirms and insisted in standing in the sun, although I set her up in the shade of the feed room porch.  

I just got a call from a woman looking for a donkey to protect their goats, I think she said.  They had coyotes come in and wipe out half their herd, which is so sad.  She wanted to know if a mini donkey would be good protection.  Two coyotes can kill a mini and more than two can destroy a standard that is old or crippled.  Had that situation happen not too long ago, with an older donkey that we had agreed to take in, he was so damaged he had to be euthanized, poor old guy.  

Unfortunately all my info I gave her was negative, minis can't be guards, not all standards are good guards, etc, etc.  After I hung up without being able to help her, John said maybe I should have mentioned guardian dogs.  He has such good ideas sometimes, just a little late this time.......!!!  I'm going to keep that idea in my memory bank for the future, when someone calls.  I don't really like the idea of donkeys being used as guardians, although many of them bond with their herd, it's usually a life without another donkey.  The guardian dogs have been used for centuries, in fact when I was a kid there was cartoons about 2 guardians dogs protecting a herd of sheep from a wolf.  I think one was named Ralph, they greeted each other as they changed shifts.  Of course the dogs always won against the wolf.  Like the coyote always lost to the roadrunner......!!!

FINALLY.........the Burroland sign as been moved to it's final resting place.  Looks good..!!

Haven't heard from the Colorado Donkey Satellite for a few days.  I think the big 24 hour marathon people race was this week-end.  So Lynn and Linda are probably either running or recuperating, either of which would take priority over computing........!!!  LOL

A MUST READ FOR ANYONE INTERESTED IN DONKEYS

This article is pretty long, but well worth reading.  Just copy and paste the link.

https://thehorse.com/features/tale-two-donkeys/  

Linda sent this video of Turbo and Pepsi playing.  It looks like Turbo is being careful not to step on Pepsi.........LOL

This is a picture Linda sent of Saddik, the pizza thief.  He doesn't look particularly guilty, she didn't say if he got to keep his prize or not.!!! LOL

GOING TO BE A "LONG, HOT" SUMMER........!!

A couple of days ago I was explaining about habronema larvae to a visitor and using Boaz and the side of his mouth for my "show and tell".  There wasn't a mark on his lip.  

This is what it looked like this morning.  I had already dug 3 larvae out before taking this picture.

 

 Had one more larvae to go in the upper left hand corner of the sore.  It is that little white circle and was the size of a grain of rice.  The 2 holes right below the white circle is where I dug out a couple of the little monsters

 I have a supply of Ivermectrin on hand will be using it twice a day on this spot and probably others.  He usually gets them on his sheath too unfortunately.  So far his legs are OK, although if he starts sweating, he will probably start slipping hair below his knees.  Poor guy just has a lousy immune system I guess.  Cisco is another one we have to watch close......and Coquette too.

Boaz is really easy to work with, but to take good pictures of the corner of his mouth, I think it takes more than 2 people.  Hopefully we can get this problem taken care of and won't have to deal with it all summer................but judging from past experience, I doubt it. 

This is Miss Tula in her pen or as we call it, on house arrest.  Dr. Jeremy said 8-12 weeks, we're going with the idea that after 8 weeks she will be healed and be able to go out with the rest of the donkeys.  Works out that she will be liberated on the 4th of July......!!

She's still on a heavy dose of bute, through tomorrow, and then I'll start dropping it down.  She's actually walking pretty good, the bute is for swelling and pain, and she seems pretty comfortable, so it shouldn't be a problem to get her off it.  

So far she hasn't been too unhappy, although at night she does complain after all the others go out at bedtime.  I've been mixing her bute powder with molasses and she really enjoys that.  I put it on top of her pellets and she almost gets in it before I get out of the pen.  Usually she won't check out her feeder as long as someone is in her pen, but I guess when molasses is involved, she will make an exception....!!! 

The last few days have been really hot, over 100* in Tucson and I almost waited too long to cover Penny's legs, the flies had already been chewing on her bare legs.  Doesn't her legs look patriotic?  This was when I first put them on, by this morning they were dirty.  That's why I took a picture as soon as they were on her legs.  They'll never be that white again......!!! LOL

GOING TO BE A "FUN" 8 WEEKS AROUND HERE.......!!!

 This picture of Tula was taken in 2011.  She's actually lightened over the years and hasn't been this dark in a long time.

 Today was an interesting day.  Tyler came out to change out shoes on Gus, Rosie and Gigi.  Gus had been gimping around the last couple of weeks and had way too much hoof growth.  His feet are kept long with fairly high heels, because he is more comfortable that way.  But for some reason his feet had really gotten long or in his case high and we haven't even had a drop of rain.....!!.  

He also trimmed Jasper for the 2nd time since he's been here.  Out of the 4 he worked on I must say they were all brats.  The stock helps a lot, but they all still threw tantrums and tried to be as difficult as possible.  That's OK, between Tyler and his helper, the donkeys didn't stand a chance.......!!  

Jasper's actually been walking really well and is becoming one of the star attractions when we have people come out to see the donkeys.  He's learned to "present" himself for inspection......!!!  LOL  But his feet really need a lot of work and he needs to learn that people can pick up his feet and actually give them back in a few minutes. 

Dr. Jeremy came out to check on Tula's hock and  Jasper got a happy shot for being such a jerk.  We didn't even check on Penny, Tyler got here earlier than we expected and once she hears his truck she's in the "come and get me" mode and she doesn't really mind letting you see how quick she is with her feet.......!!!  LOL  Since the other donkeys were already POed I figured she can be responsible for self trimming until Tyler comes back in 6 weeks.  

Once the pedicures were all done, we all moved onto Tula.  We are so lucky,  both Tyler and Dr. Jeremy  are genuinely interested in our "throw away" herd and do their best to help keep them in good shape and show up at the same time quite often.  

Tula, on the other hand is not the least bit interested in interacting with people she doesn't know.  They were very surprised that we've never put a halter on her.  Anytime we have to work with her is so traumatic, we figured out early on in this relationship that the best way to work with her was to leave her alone as much as possible.  Thankfully she has always been healthy and we've not had to insist that she let us handle her..........until now.  

They decided to put her behind a corral panel so Dr. Jeremy could examine her hock and she also got a happy shot.  He probably felt of her hock and surrounding area 5 minutes or more and finally found....."the spot", on the back of the pointy part.  I'm sure it has a nice long name, Dr. Jeremy said there are 14 different bones in the hock, but pointy part works for me.  

We discussed, putting a halter on her and opening up the redneck squeeze, but Dr. Jeremy said he'd take a chance with taking an x-ray with her behind the corral panel.  She was drugged, but still not cooperative.  He and Tyler managed to get an x-ray without Dr. Jeremy losing a hand, or getting his x-ray plate banged up.  

The diagnosis is, the little bone right below the pointy part of her hock, is cracked.  I asked him how this could happen, he said probably a kick or stepping in a hole.  As head jenny I'm pretty sure no one kicked her and she came in one morning lame.  So stepping in a hole sounded like the most logical diagnosis.

Treatment:  8 weeks of pen rest, because in this particular situation, the more she moves around the more stress is put on the cracked area, which keeps it from healing.  For soft tissue swelling and lameness moving is usually good for them. 

She is not use to being in a pen all the time, so we'll have to see how this goes.  If we had room in the hay barn we'd put her in there, out of the weather and soft ground.  That's where Jenny was after her hoof resection and Penny after her colic surgery a couple of years ago.  Not sure Tula would be comfortable in an enclosed area like that anyway, so we'll see how she does in her 20x24 pen.  

We kept Frijolita in with her yesterday, but today we turned her out with the rest of the herd.  She spent most of the day standing beside Tula's pen.  I guess we'll find out just how strong their bond is, in 8 weeks.  After a few days she might decide that staying with a crippled friend isn't much fun....!!!  Poor Tula, wouldn't appreciate us trying to "buddy" up with her, she'd think we were up to something, so she will probably just be by herself most of the time......!!! 

 This picture was taken in 2013 during her "reddish" phase.  The roans do a lot of color changing over time.

OUR VERY OWN DONKEY DERBY.......!!

Wonder what started that?  

Thanks, Linda.........just in time for the Kentucky Derby tomorrow....!!

ARIZONA DONKEYS BUCKET LIST..........NOT..!!

If I was taking bets, I'd bet the Arizona donkeys that went to Colorado have never seen snow before.  They all seem to be trying to figure out what the heck is going on.  Linda didn't say if it stayed on the ground for any length of time.  If it just falls and melts they won't get a chance to investigate and try to figure out what it is.  And maybe find out it can be fun to play with. 

I told Linda poor Quilla looks like a wet rat....!!!  LOL

John, that came down here last year to visit for a few days, got out to visit with the donkeys yesterday.  

They've got begging down to a fine art...!!

I hope John was "fair and equal" with his banana peels. Turbo has a definite advantage over "height challenged" little Justin....!!

More banana peels, please...!!

Linda said Justin and Loki Joe have buddied up, not sure where that leaves Pepsi, he and Justin hung around together in Arizona.

Lynn wants to race Loki and Linda wants to see how Justin will do as a burro pack racer.  They might be pretty good at it, they both seemed to enjoy practicing down here.  

Linda shared a video taken during a burro race last year that was really funny.  The guy had a go-pro to record the race.  It seems that his donkey Earl had not really planned on racing that day, in fact I don't think he ever trotted one step.  He ate some grass and wandered around at the end of the rope for over 10 hours as the guy tried to encourage him to pick up the pace, so they could finish before dark.  It was hilarious to watch the guy accept the reality of the situation and lived to race another day.  Thanks Linda, it was fun to watch in a painful sort of way....!!!   LOL

Tula is doing a little better today.  I quit giving her bute and she's on Equioxx for inflammation and Gabapentin for nerve pain.  Still looks swollen, but she's more inclined to put weight on it, so hopefully she will continue to improve.

We had an unexpected tour yesterday, which was interesting.  One of the women was totally blind, so I took her around in the golf cart.  We would stop and the donkeys would come to the cart and seemed to understand.  In fact Jasper that has only been here a few weeks, put his head across me to put his head closer to her, so she could pet him.  Donkeys seem to have an intuition about physical and mental differences, we've noticed over the years which is one reason many organizations use donkeys in their programs.  

We have a problem with Roxy the neighbor's dog that has adopted us.  I guess she gets bored at night, so she jumps up in the shelters and pulls the fly masks off the hooks.  GRRRRRR.....!!!  This is not acceptable for a lot of reasons and has never been a problem before with any of the other dogs.  Not sure how to keep her from doing it, unless we take the masks out of the shelters, which removes the convenience factor for putting them back on in the morning......!!!  SIGH.....!!!  One reason we're never bored, I guess.........!!!  LOL 

GETTING SETTLED IN

I know Lynn and Linda are busy getting resettled, but Linda has been real good to share what they are doing with pictures and videos.

Pepsi had quite a few reasons for going to Colorado, one was so Justin would have someone his own size to hang around with.  Another was to keep Pepsi away from the mesquite beans this season, hopefully he will lose some weight this summer, rather than gain.  Another reason was so Lynn's Mom could hang out with the minis and not worry about getting knocked down.  

As far as I know, Pepsi has never walked thru a trellis before, with someone he doesn't know very well, to get to a porch.  These guys are so easy to work with, they pretty much go along with whatever is happening and trust us to take care of them.  

But I am surprised he's acting so shy.....LOL

Meeting the horses I would imagine for the first time, judging from the stillness of all the donkeys.  They looked like statues.

Might as well get a little exercise......!!!

Forrest and Pepsi, practicing their racing style.  Who knows, they may like it...!! LOL

As of yesterday everyone except BlackJack are wearing fly masks.  It's actually suppose to be cool this week, but I don't think the flies got the message.  

About 3 days ago, Tula came in 3 legged lame.  She isn't easy to work with, she obviously has been mistreated in her earlier life and sees no reason to trust people again.  We can work with her within her boundaries and poking and prodding a leg isn't within what she will accept.  John set up a corral panel in her pen, so we could squeeze her between it and the outer railing.  For all her distrust she has never kicked or even panicked when we have had to work with her.  But we have always put her in one of these "redneck" squeezes.  She didn't like it, but was just evasive, not dangerous.  She has some swelling at the hock, which to me has always looked like it would be a knee, but isn't according to the experts. They say it's an ankle, but it's half way up the leg.......!!  Makes me wonder what they call the fetlock, which is down by the hoof. 

 I would imagine she twisted it or even might have stepped in a hole over in Burroland.  There is no consensus on the best treatment, some people swear that they should be kept in a small area and not use it at all.  Others say as a flight animal, they do much better if allowed to move around.  Unless she gets worse, we will let her out with the herd.  She's already 3 legged lame when she 1st starts moving, but seems to get better as she moves around. 

The skin problems are starting to show up unfortunately.  I go around each morning with my meds and cover up sores on everyone, so the flies can't get to them.  John and Doug look everyone over when they put  them in the pens for breakfast and tell me if they see any new wounds.