A DECISION HAS BEEN MADE

 I have been doing the blog since 2006, and thru the years I had time to write about what was going on here and what the donkeys were doing.  The rescue has grown not so much in donkeys, but in the interest people have in meeting the donkeys and learning about them.  

A few years ago we got involved in Pack Burro Racing, which is the summer heritage sport for the state of Colorado.  Lynn and Linda went back to Colorado full time, but before they left, helped get racing started in Arizona.  It's still going strong in Superior and Tombstone, Suzanne takes donkeys to every race possible for people to run with and enjoy the experience.  

She also goes to races in California and N.M. and plans on attending the Mancos Festival again this year in Colorado, to give Koshare a chance to actually finish the obstacle course without drama. Although he won the event, he flunked water crossing with lots of drama.

Our little rescue has been discovered as something to do in the Benson area.  The local RV parks and the Benson Visitor's Center are very good to mention us when people are looking for something to do and of course there is always word of mouth.   We've had over 1000 visitors this year even though we were closed for the summer for tours.    

A tour is an hour or usually more, if the people are enjoying the experience.  We all enjoy talking about donkeys and if they want to listen we'll oblige them.  As a working "ranch" we all have jobs to do, and tours take us away from that.  We don't mind, talking donkey is more fun than chores.........!! LOL But we hardly ever get caught up.   

We have some of the best volunteers in the world, and couldn't be the rescue we want to be without them.  They have all pretty much showed up for a tour and wanted to get involved with the donkeys and have stayed.  

Suzanne

John

Tish

I've enjoyed doing the blog and sharing some of the adventures we and the donkeys have.  But it's time to move on to other things.  Our Facebook page will continue, Suzanne will share her morning videos and we will keep it up to date on what is happening and information on where the next race or festival is that we will be involved in.  

Thanks for following, all these years.............!!!!

OBTW, we will be having an Open House March 4, 2023 to celebrate 25 years since John bought me a $50 donkey that was headed for slaughter, BlackJack is still here and has been a great ambASSador all these years..  We would like for everyone that has ever been out to visit with the donkeys to come out and help us celebrate.......!!!!

Hmmmm.........we have a grumpy donkey to contend with.........

 Chewie and Carter have settled in nicely, they are now going out during the day.  They have to stay in at night because Chewie is use to being blanketed at night since it's been cold.  When they go out one goes one way and the other a different direction.  It's interesting to bring in a couple of donkeys that have been together for years.  A lot of times they hit the ground and don't even say bye to their former "friend".  These two are in a pen together because they had been together 5 years.  Over the years most paired donkeys have separated when they had access to other donkeys and plenty of roaming area.  La'Roy and Jackson have stayed paired, at the hip, but it's rather one sided.  Jackson is bonded and LaRoy goes along with it.  

This is Carter in a little feeding pen inside their larger pen.  He looks to me like a little chunky Irish donkey

.IRISH DONKEY SONG

The reason he is in the little pen is to keep him from getting chunkier.  He likes to help Chewie eat his feed.

The set of the ears shows an unhappy donkey. Nora tattled on him and he had already gotten in trouble for pushing his way into Beefy's pen between the  wall to his right and the outside corral panel on the right. There wasn't room to squeeze thru there, but he managed.  

Put him back where he belonged and this is what happened.  

He stomped in all the nice clean sand John had put in there, when he started pawing sand everywhere.........!!!!!  LOL

Even on top of the corral panel, and the ears are still telling his opinion of the whole situation........LOL

His problem was, since he had figured out how to squeeze thru here, we chained it, hadn't been a problem before.

While we were fixing the problem, Chewie had finished his feed, so we moved Crabby Carter and his bunk out in the big pen, and peace reigned.......  LOL  It's so much fun to watch their minds work and it isn't very difficult to figure out what they are thinking.  

NEW BOYS............!!!

 Chewie and Carter came in a couple of days ago from a good home.  Their family is having to move closer to civilization "ie" Tucson for medical care.  They have other equine but these boys have been kept separate, they were at the bottom of the pecking order.  They are both over 30  heading for 40 and have the usual old guy issues, arthritis, teeth wore out etc, but other than the normal wear and tear, they seem to be healthy and well adjusted..  

Introductions

This is Carter when we put him in their pen

Chewie having supper on arrival

They are nice boys, although we were told they aren't real good with their feet.......!!  Being that old, you would think they know when humans "borrow" their feet, they give them back........LOL

 

ETC..............

 Last week-end most of our volunteers joined us for a good dinner at Pinnacle Peak Steakhouse in Tucson.  John and I wanted to thank the volunteers for all their time and effort working with the donkeys.  Without their efforts we wouldn't be able to share the donkeys with the public, they pick up poo, help with feeding Mike right now is working on adding electricity to the Mare Motel.  We had rain over the week-end and if there is one thing donkeys like to do it's roll in mud.  They don't like to be groomed when they are wet so we didn't know if the mayor's visit would happen or not.  They had a chance to dry off overnight, so they got a quick grooming before the mayor got here Monday morning and looked pretty good.  Well except for Casper the little mini mule.  He was absolutely filthy and looked like a mud ball, so he didn't get his picture taken.

The mayor of Benson came out Monday to make a little video.  Every Monday he puts a video on their Facebook page of some business or place of interest in Benson to let people know they exist.  He was out at the Mescal Christmas event, met the donkeys and asked if he could do a video about the donkeys.  

Mayor Joe's Visit

   

John, Mayor Joe, Suzanne, me and Willie Nelson.  Mayor Joe was quite taken with Willie when he saw him at Mescal last week end.

Bonnie entertaining us.  In the video she is the one joining in the conversation.  She's come a long way in the months she's been here.  She is chronically foundered, her feet will never be healed, but a change in diet and regular feet trimming has made a world of difference in her comfort level. No more bedsores from laying down, she spends her days roaming around with the other donkeys.  It's very rewarding to help these animals improve their health, so they can be comfortable enough to enjoy life.  

This is our volunteer dinner Sunday, what a great group of donkey lovers

A dear friend in California sent us some cute magnets, designed by a group of children she works with, for us to resale in the store.  None are alike and it's really hard to choose a favorite.  Earlier in the week, we had 2 new volunteers come out and were here most of the day helping us try to catch up seems like we are always behind.

 One of the things they did was get the donkey magnets touched up from their trip from CA and spray them with a clear finish.  Most of them have glitter on them and without the clear coat glitter would start falling off.  They will probably be quite popular, I had a favorite and it's already sold, guess I'll have to find another one.......!! LOL  

Been Busy

 At least that's my excuse for not keeping up with the blog.  It's not the only thing I'm not keep up with unfortunately........!!!! LOL  

Betsy has settled in pretty good, although some of her "I'm sweet and misunderstood" has worn off.  Beefy the mammoth thinks she's pretty cute and she seems to think he is the answer to a maiden's prayers.  He is much larger than she is and we're afraid he will hurt her.  He's also being very rough with the other boys that would like to get to know her better.  As long as he is around that's not going to happen.  Waylon and Roper have been the most loyal.  Waylon has tried to take charge of Betsy and run Beefy off.  Lots of kicking and rearing up, a little blood drawn but nothing real serious.  The last 3 or 4 days she stayed in her pen, so the boys wouldn't fight.  Beefy spent all day long and I assume the night too, standing by her gate, in case any of the other boys got any funny ideas.

This morning we let her out and kept Beefy in his pen for awhile.  All was quiet, so after an hour or so, we let Beefy out.  At first it seemed like a bad idea, lots of running and nonsense going on.  Let's put it this way, I'm glad we didn't have a tour this morning, some of the visuals bordered on being x-rated..........!!! LOL  But they finally settled down, Waylon seems to have given up and Roper is following them around in case something happens to elevate his status with Betsy.  Don't think that's going to happen, this morning when I let Beefy out, Bonnie was standing at his gate and he didn't even pay any attention to her as he took off looking for Betsy.  

Betsy bears watching, she is spoiled and expects treats and if they aren't forthcoming she gets really pushy.  It might take awhile to make her understand we aren't going to put up with that behavior. She has a lot of moxy or spirit or whatever you call it.  

Betsy chasing the golf cart  

She's very observant and very quick, which might become a problem with the driveway gate.  I don't think she'd run away, she's too nosy about what is going on here.  But that gate is really interesting........!! Especially when it opens and vehicles go back and forth.  

Justice and Boaz have been getting out.  John finds a spot in the fence, fixes it and they get out again.  Right now he's ran out of places, showing foot prints coming and going, Justice was out a long time yesterday, just roaming around on the outside of the perimeter fence.  John spent quite a bit of time today and hasn't been able to find where he's getting out.  Boaz actually stayed in yesterday, guess it wasn't as interesting out there as he thought it would be.  

 

Last week-end we spent 2 days out at the Mescal movie site for a Cowboy Christmas Festival.  Lots of people came by to see the donkeys.  A man named Larry sent us this wonderful picture he took of John and Bella. 

This time of year we can stay about as busy as we want to with parades and displays and we get calls for a donkey to carry Mary into church.  We've always turned them down, I can see how that could go really wrong.  

This is Willie Nelson in his younger days, on a wagon train outing.  He could probably do the church gig just fine.  But he's retired from working, and he's a pretty big boy, I'm not sure he would fit down the aisle of a church.  He went for his first outing at the Cowboy Festival last week-end.  We took 5 donkeys for the people to pet, and he seemed to enjoy all the attention.  He'll probably be one of our regulars, he's very well trained and quite a gentleman.