BONNIE UPDATE........

 Dr. Jeremy was out again today.  Suzanne messaged him yesterday because Bonnie was still 3 legged lame and holding that front foot up if she wasn't laying down.  He said he would come out today.  You might know by the time he got here early this afternoon, she had probably blown the abscess on her own.  She's not walking 100% sound,  but he said he doubts that she will for months if ever.  She's going to have to grow some good hoof  and  hopefully internal structure to replace what she's got now.  

John and I are going to watch race cars tonight at Tucson Speedway, but will help Suzanne feed a little early.  Once we have everyone in their pens, we will let Bonnie out to roam around for awhile while we feed everyone else.  She'll get a little exercise and not have to worry about nosy donkeys in her business.

Yesterday Siggy and Beefy were hanging out together.  I told John when Beefy first got here and Siggy was following him all day long, jumping up and biting Beefy's butt, they would probably end up buddies.  If so, it will look rather silly, but stranger things have happened.  The last day or so, they haven't paid much attention to Bonnie.    

BONNIE HAS SETTLED IN........

She's not going out yet for a couple of reasons.  Beefy is bound and determined that he is the answer to her prayers, and I might add, she seems to think he just might be........!!1  LOL  He is pretty loyal and is getting exercise running around and around her pen.  He seems to think there is a way in, if he can just figure out what it is.  

Of course Siggy, the 28 inch micro mini thinks she's pretty cute too, which of course Beefy sees as a threat to his inside track.  He went after Siggy a couple of times and we were afraid if he caught Siggy, he might hurt him because of the size difference.  Couldn't rely on Siggy to give up, he thinks he's 10 foot tall and bullet proof and has no problem wading right into the middle of trouble.  So for a few days, Siggy had to stay in his pen during the day and Beefy stayed in his at night.  Of course Bonnie had to put up with both of them day and night, don't know if she got any sleep or not......!!! LOL

Things have settled down and the boys have reached a level of acceptance and they can both be out together now and Siggy seems to have decided to find other things to do.  YEA.......!!

Tyler and Dr. Jeremy came out earlier this week and trimmed Bonnie's feet.  They decided not to open up the abscesses since they are so close to the coffin bone, so she got her worst foot packed with Epsom salts and wrapped.  The last couple of days she has been pretty gimpy on that foot.  They think she's probably trying to open that abscess on her own.  One thing about abscesses, they can go from barely able to walk, 3 legged lame to instant soundness, if the abscess opens and drains.  She's not 3 legged lame, but she certainly isn't very comfortable.

Suzanne takes videos almost every morning when she comes out and heads for the feed room.  She never knows who's out there until she opens her door.  Looks like there was quite a few out there for this video.  They like to stand in the middle between Suzanne's RV and our house.  As soon as the sun comes up it shines in that area and as a bonus they have access to both doors when they open.  It's usually Suzanne's first, but I guess they don't want to take a chance on someone coming out and they not know it.  

Yesterday afternoon Dr. Jeremy and soon to be "Dr." Haley, her graduation is just around the corner, came out to draw blood for Coggins testing of the donkeys going to California for the Run with the Burros next month.  Suzanne will take 9 donkeys for the 3rd year in a row to this event.  The 2nd of April will be the 3rd annual Tombstone Donkey Dash , we will have a booth set up and some of our volunteers will be running or walking donkeys.  There will be one more race this spring before it gets too hot, in New Mexico.  This will be their 1st pack burro race on May 7th, 2022.........!!  No more races in the Southwest until the weather cools off in the fall.  There will be races in Colorado all summer, where pack burro racing is the summer heritage sport for the state.   

MEET BONNIE......

 

This is Bonnie a couple of days ago, when she got here after a pretty long ride from the Phoenix area.  I knew she had a problem in the summer with sores on her legs which of course the flies love, which causes more sores.  I did not know she has been chronically foundered, probably over a long period of time, and it doesn't look like she has had regular hoof care for a long time if ever.   The next morning she was a little more comfortable and has improved a little more each day, although she is still laying down more than what would be normal.

I got in touch with Dr. Jeremy and Tyler.  Dr. Jeremy came out, took x-rays and besides having ugly feet, she also has abscesses in both front feet.  He called Tyler before he left and they will be out Monday to open up the abscesses and get her feet trimmed.  

She's a real nice donkey, easy to work with and already greets us when we go in her pen.  Of course she expects treats and so far she doesn't care what it is.  

She has a bed sore on one hip, that I'm working on.  Hopefully if she doesn't lay down as much it will heal quickly.   We put wood shavings down for her to lay on.  Unfortunately they stick to everything, including her bed sore.  I put some Vaseline on it tonight, covered it and hopefully in the morning, it will have softened the wood shavings so I can get them off without having to do a lot of scrubbing.

Busy, Busy, Busy..........

 Well, John and I aren't as busy as Suzanne is.  She's been to Empire Ranch with donkeys week-end before last and last week-end she took donkeys up to Black Canyon north of Phoenix for the 2nd annual Black Canyon Donkey Derby.  It sounded like a good time was had by all, and our Harley finished 3rd in his race.....!!!  John and I stay home and take care of the ones that didn't go.  

When so many of the donkeys leave for a couple of days, the dynamics of the herd changes.  Usually Frijolita leads the "A" team as they move  around the property.  Tula is actually the head jenny, so we assume Frijolita is her sergeant.  With Frijolita gone, Ruthie stepped into the job of leading the herd.  Tula never leads, but the herd recognizes her as the head jenny.  I don't think she wanted the job, she really hates it when the boys come into her pen.  John and her have a game they play to get the "riff raff" out.  She watches John and when he is in the right place, she will run out of the pen and of course the boys follow her.  She sees John heading for the gate, and runs back in, so John can close the gate before the boys figure out what happened..........!!! LOL  You can almost see her smile when she outsmarts them like that.  

Kelly one of our volunteers ran with Frijolita at Empire

This is La'roy and Jackson with the vets that did the health checks at Empire.  They ran the course with the boys and had a great time.  

Suzanne and Mamacita at Empire

Black Canyon was a 3 day show.  Besides the races they also had other events like obstacle courses, poop bingo, children's games, and a costume contest.  I didn't hear for sure how many teams there were, but the least number I heard was 58 teams running.  

The next race will be in Tombstone the 2nd of April, the Desert Donkey Dash.  On April 9th the California Breakfast Burritos will have a race in California.  We will not be renting any donkeys for Tombstotne, although some of our volunteers will be running in the race with some of our donkeys.  Suzanne will be taking 10 donkeys to California for that race, so she will have a couple of busy week-ends again.  I think that is about it for races this spring.  It won't be too long before it gets too hot to be outside and expect the donkeys to want to run.  When it gets hot all they want to do is to find shade and stand there until time to eat again. I think they might be a little bit smarter than people, actually I think that quite often..........!!! LOL

Tonight Beefy wanted to play games when it was time to go into his pen for feeding.  He and the "A" team were the last ones in, I went over to Burroland the 20 acres of wild country "ie" donkey playground.  He's still getting raspberry leaves because he is still being too obnoxious with the girls.  Poor Frijolita has "hickeys" all over her body.  Well, they are bite marks, but we've been calling them hickeys.  The raspbetty leaves  seem to help him behave.  He was gelded in Dec, and it will probably take about 6 months for his hormone level to drop to gelding levels.  

Tonight he followed the girls down to their pens and as usual didn't want to leave.  Usually after a couple of minutes of insisting he'll follow you to his pen.  When I have to go out and bring them in, I try to make it as unpleasant an experience as possible and if I can get them to run for the pen area, that's a good thing.  They don't need to come in at a stroll, it's not like they don't know what time it is.  If we're late they usually let us know about it.  

By the time, they got to the pens, Ruthie wouldn't take a carrot from me.  She changed her mind when I went out of the pen and closed the gate, so she got her carrot. Next time she will probably be less cranky about being so mistreated......!!  

Beefy was watching and when I told him to go where he belonged, he just stood there like he had no idea what I wanted him to do.  Got him moving at a pace a turtle would be ashamed of.  Then he went off trail, got him back, he went around the corner and headed the opposite way from his pen.  John had to stand guard to keep him from wandering everywhere but where he was suppose to go.  GRRRRR......!!  Once John was blocking his best opportunity to make me pay for expecting him to be a good boy and go in his pen, he headed for his pen and walked right past it.  Got him turned around and he went in his pen just like it was his idea.  He probably won't do it again, almost everyone of them have tried to see how far they can go at least once or twice.  That's why with donkeys if you start something, you have to finish it, no matter how long it takes

The morning parade

SPRING WINDS.....OH! GOODY......

 In the desert we usually get lots of spring winds, a couple of days ago, it was so bad in the afternoon, they closed I-10 highway east of us because of the blowing dirt.  Almost every year they have accidents in that area because of the dust.  It wasn't too good here either, we tried to keep our mouths shut when outside...!!  LOL

Friday night Suzanne loaded up 10 donkeys and headed for a fun run at Empire Ranch put on by the BRAY Club in the Sonoita area SW of us.  She reported a good time was had by all.  She wrote about it on our Facebook page and since I wasn't there, her report is much more factual than if I tried to write about it, so here it is:

FUN!!!! The Bray Sonoita Stargazer Run put on another awesome event. Too bad the wind did not cooperate.  Forever Home Donkey Rescue & Sanctuary brought 10 donkeys for this event and everyone had an amazing time. Our Koshare and Handler Jenni came in 2nd in the Long course, Our Bella and Handler Julieanne came in 2nd in the short course, Our Sasha and Handler Veronica came in 3rd in the short course and Ruthie with Handler Claudia won the Last Ass award! Our boy Cochise and his handler Heather won the Golden Ass Award. Heather came in 3rd in the long course but disqualified herself because she had become separated from Cochise for about 20 feet. She did not go back to the spot where she lost him so that disqualified her. We are on the honor system and Heather informed the race director when she crossed the finish line. What sportsmanship! Siggy and Handler Renee did the long course and had a blast. Frijolita was with her handler Kelly, Kelly's first time handling a donkey, and all I saw was smiles. Our boys Jackson and La`roy and their handlers the Veterinarians for the event went the extra MILES. They got off course for about 2 miles! Mamacita and our Suzanne worked really hard with training. This is Mama's first event and she did wonderfully! Overall a fun weekend! Thank you Bray Club for all you do for the Arizona donkeys! Now on to The Black Canyon City Donkey Derby this next weekend!

Bella and Mamacita had never participated in any of the races.  We thought Mama was pregnant for months before we found out she wasn't.  The Vets at the check-in said she isn't fat, she's had at least 5 babies in a short amount of time we were told.  They said her muscles are probably just stretched and probably will always be that way.  Bella had never gone because she has poor muscle development in her hind legs.  She had been in a small pen, but since she's been out here running around and getting exercise, her legs are much stronger.  Suzanne said she did really well and seemed to enjoy all the excitement.     

Mamacita looking for her friends that are up ahead

                                                    Mama and her running buddy, Suzanne                                                                        

WOW......!!!

 Only one more day in the month of February.  We've had so many visitors this month, we've only had 6 days without a tour.  People wanting to visit with the donkeys I guess.  A lot of the people are people that have been out here before.  Many of the winter visitors come back every year and remember donkeys that were special to them.  

Brenda Peo is a local artist that came out to take pictures of the donkeys years ago.  Hadn't talked to her since then, although I followed her Facebook page.  Roger Thompson is a photographer that came out last year and took lots of pictures of the donkeys and is back this year.  They met at Tubac at a showing of local artist's work, got to talking and found out they had both been out here.  They decided to come out at the same time and take some pictures.

Brenda brought her painting named Mork and Mindy to visit with the donkeys.  The donkeys look like they are very interested in her painting.

Roger was trying to get the "perfect shot" and Ruthie was trying to help.  

 Cisco wants to help too, unfortunately they aren't nearly as helpful as they think they are.  

 

Roger actually took this picture last year of BlackJack at the feed room door trying to get Suzanne to give him some Tums, one of his favorite treats.  We can give him 3 and he'll get off the porch and go to his pen.  But he won't leave if we only give him two, he's too smart for that.......!!!! 

Charley the dog had a tumor removed from his eyelid a week ago Friday.  He came home with a Elizabethian collar to keep him from scratching the eye or scraping  it on the ground.  So far he has completely destroyed 2 collars.  He's suppose to wear one for 3 weeks, until his follow up appointment.  He tore up the last one night before last, yesterday I drove into Tucson and got 2 more, but when I got home it was dark and putting one of those on him, isn't an easy task in the daylight.  He hadn't messed with it, so I cross my fingers and hoped for the best.  So far he hasn't bothered it, so we're giving him a chance to be a good boy.  

Suzanne's mother has settled in really well.  She says it's like camping out.  She's really enjoying the sunny weather and learning to drive the golf cart, so she can roam around while we're doing chores or whatever.  

Beefy is about to wear out his welcome with the girls.  He's decided that Frijolita, Tula and Ruthie are pretty cute.  They have gotten to the point where they don't want him anywhere near them because he's acting like he's the "man".  He's only been gelded since early Dec and had been used for breeding, so it's understandable that he's still going to act like a jerk for awhile.  But that doesn't mean the girls want to put up with him.  At least he's chasing the big girls, when he first got here he was in "lust" with Mamacita, who is less than 36 inches tall.  That just wasn't going to work, so he moved on to the big girls.  Suzanne started him on raspberry leaves this morning.  They are suppose to have a calming effect on both mares and geldings.  When Rambo was here, he was always chasing the girls, and I finally had him tested to make sure when he was gelded they didn't miss something important.  They hadn't, but he sure thought they had.  It will probably take weeks or months for Beefy's behavior to level out, although some geldings continue to act stupid, just because.  

Hmmmm.........IT'S ALWAYS SOMETHING.......!!!

 A couple of days ago Suzanne came in to share the unwelcome news there was water running on the ground out of the well head.  A few days before that one of the visitors on a tour just barely tapped the big bright blue barrel with his car bumper.  John had put the barrel over it to keep people from running into it.  Didn't think anything about it, John saw it happen and said it looked harmless.  

We have a large water tank the well fills up as needed, and sometimes it takes a day or two to run which is why we didn't know immediately that there was a problem.  Took a few days to gather up whatever replacement pipe that might be needed, so yesterday was, "THE DAY".  Suzanne and John worked all afternoon digging it out and hoping they had the right parts on hand.  Of course they had help......!!! 

 

Beefy making sure the hole is big enough to get to the broken pipe, which  was down about 2 feet.

Guess it wasn't deep enough, so time for the tractor

Buddy Brat probably making sure John knows what he's doing.  

They got it all replaced, glued up and we are now on pipe watch, waiting until the well runs water into the big tank again, to make sure it isn't leaking before John buries the pipe.  Wonder what will be next, seems like lately, almost everyday something breaks or quits.  Yesterday was also, "let's see how many golf carts we can break or run out of batteries"

.  

We've got some weak batteries, that John's been working around until we can get to town and get some new ones.  Yesterday 2 of the golf carts decided if they aren't getting new batteries they aren't going to run.  Unfortunately, I was giving a tour with one of the golf carts and nowhere near another one, Suzanne took time out from plumbing the well, to help with my problem, so the tour could continue.

Later on John was trying to put the only one still running into the shed to charge and the differential broke.  That's a shame because that one is our work horse cart.  Hopefully we can find the parts needed to fix it onine.  

Today Suzanne and her mom are spending the day in Tucson, this will be the first time her mom has been to Tucson.  On their way they took Charley the blind/deaf dog that showed up here last summer to have a tumor removed from his eyelid.  He won't be ready for pick-up until after 4pm, so they will be in town all day long.  Hope they find enough to keep them busy.  They had things to do and places to go, hope it's enough to last all day.   

Here's a picture of Charley, Renee took last time she was out to visit with her "Little Man Siggy".  I hope they weigh him today, to see if he's gained or lost since his last appointment.  He's been on a diet, but too many people know where the dog treats are and he doesn't look like he's lost any weight.  These cattle dogs are built stocky, but he's looking too stocky.

Tried to catch Simba a big black tomcat that's been hanging around here since he found out we feed canned cat food on the back porch.  He'd like to come in the house, but needs corrective surgery for that to happen.  I had a tenative appointment for last Tue for him to go to the vet. He'll let me pet him while he's scarfing down cat food.......BUT...... did not appreciate being scruffed by the neck and an attempt to cram him in a cat crate.  Guess we'll have to become better friends before that happens.  He hasn't tried to bite or scratch, he just wants to escape.  

MUST BE SPRINGTIME, THE WIND IS BLOWING............

 One of the pleasures of spring in the desert, lots of wind, but the days are nice and sunny, so I guess it's a trade-off.  

Suzanne and her mom have been back from cold snowy dreary grey Midwest about a week.  Her mom is thrilled with all the sunshine and the warm weather.  The nights are still chilly enough there is ice on the water buckets in the morning, but it seems like every morning the ice is thinner and thinner.  Won't be long before it warms up enough to be able to run the hoses in the morning and fill the water buckets.  

The donkeys are doing good, now that Suzanne is back some of them will be doing some burro racing in California, N.M. and of course Arizona.  They all got their feet trimmed this week-end, in preparation for the 1st race in about 3 weeks for a lot of them.  This will be N.M.'s 1st ever race, so everyone is looking forward to it.  There will even be a race in Tennessee this year.  The sport has really been discovered in the last 6 years or so, with lots of new faces showing up to participate in the fun. Suzanne is taking a trailer full of donkeys to CA, John and I will stay home and take care of the ones that don't go.  This will be the 3rd year our donkeys have went out there to run.  

When the donkeys got their feet trimmed the only one we didn't know about was Beefy.  He wasn't here the last time Dan did feet.  Justice is a little better each time, although Dan still has to Scotch hobble him.  This link shows how a Scotch hobble works, although it's a little fancier, Dan just uses a cargo strap.  Each time he comes Justice gives up a little quicker, so hopefully soon he won't need the hobble.  

When he got to Beefy he tried to pick up his rear feet and Beefy said I don't think so.  He wasn't really mean, or kicking trying to connect, but he wasn't going to cooperate, so out comes the cargo strap.  Beefy is big enough and strong enough, he could be formable, but Dan got him trimmed without putting him on the ground, which is better than the 1st time with Justice...!!! LOL  

Last night Suzanne came in late to tell us she had heard Beefy braying and it sounded really close to her trailer.  She opened the door and there he was.  Wouldn't really be that much of a surprise, but the donkeys hadn't been let out of their pens for the night yet.  She came out to put him back in his pen and was scolding him when she went around the corner of the pens.  There stood Jasper, which explained how Beefy got out.  Jasper is one of our official gate openers unless the gate is double locked and someone forgot to lock Jasper's.  Beefy's pen use to be Jasper's so he probably just walked down there and opened the gate, since he knows Beefy leaves hay sometimes.  

This is Jasper trying to see if there are any cookies on the golf cart yesterday.

  

If he only knew, Kathy one of the volunteers just brought in 2 big boxes of little cinnamon cookies today.  She is busy cleaning water buckets and always brings goodies for the "fur" kids.  Yesterday the donkeys got special cookies Linda sent from Colorado for their Valentine's day treat.  

Not sure what we're going to do for hay buckets in the future.  When we first started weighing hay we found 18 gallon rope buckets and they were really cheap, which is a good thing, since they don't last very long.  They split and crack and eventually aren't useable.  It seems every time we reorder them, they are thinner, which means they split and crack quicker.........!!!  I just went in to order a bunch of new ones and they now seem to cost about 4 or 5 times each for what they use to cost a few years ago and they have less plastic in them, by weight.  Almost all the places that sell them, say they aren't available right now, even at the higher prices.  Not sure what the answer is, but it is a problem......!!!   

This morning Suzanne came in and said there was water soaking the ground around the blue barrel that covers the well head for the water well. Hmmm..........that can't be good.  A few days ago one of the visitors on a tour, clipped the barrel when they were leaving with the car, not bad, but obviously bad enough to crack the pvc pipe to the well.  Haven't heard back from the local well guy, so don't know when he will get a chance to come out to hopefully fix it.    

I'M READY FOR SPRING & SO ARE THE DONKEYS.....

Our mornings lately have been pretty chilly.  So far the coldest morning was 11 degrees out here in the San Pedro River valley. But the days are sunny even if the temperatures don't get above 60 degrees, so we have the illusion of warmth.  The forecast is for another week of below normal temperatures.  😒

John checks the donkeys each morning to see if anyone is shivering or trying to stand in a compressed ball to keep warm.  So far even the old guys are doing OK.  I won't blanket unless they really need it, don't want to interfere with their natural ability to take care of themselves.  This morning LaRoy especially was all fluffed out, he looked like he had stuck his hoof in a light socket.......!!! LOL The first morning we had a pipe break in the garage, which flooded the floor.  But for the most part, no insurmountable problems so far although breaking ice on the water buckets is becoming a daily task. 

Our volunteers are still coming out even if it is cold.  I must say though none of us are rushing out early, so chores are getting done a little later than usual.  Unfortunately, some of the donkeys have figured out that they don't need to show up at regular time, because we're not in a hurry to start chores without sun. So morning roundup is rather disorganized, of course part of the problem is they come into the house/pen area where the sun comes up.  Once they find a nice spot with the perception of warmth, they don't want to move.  Bribery cookies don't work with everyone, so John gets the ones he can and the others will finally mosey towards their pens.  

Renee was out today, and shared some pictures of the donkeys she took when she was grooming.  

Renee and Beefy

Little Sasha

Renee's "little man" Siggy....he is her running buddy when there is a race to be ran

Mamacita and Renee

I'm not sure who this is, I have a feeling it might be Boaz

BlackJack

She even took a picture of Charley

THANKS FOR THE PICTURES RENEE......!!

   Suzanne was planning on heading home this morning but the roads in Indiana were iced over.  She is hoping to leave tomorrow morning if they get the roads cleared.  

BUSY MONTH JUST ABOUT OVER....

 If I was taking bets, I'd bet we have had more visitors this month than ever before.  Almost every day, one day we had 4 or 5 tours, which kept us busy.  We love it when people want to see the donkeys and the donkeys REALLY love to have tours, when they see the Solo red cups come out they know it's going to be a good day......!!! LOL  Solo cups mean animal crackers in the hands of people that think they are cute and don't know one cookie works as well as a handful.  Many of the donkeys have learned tricks to get people's attention.  

                                                    Jasper's trick is showing his tongue

Boaz wiggles his nose and shows his teeth and actually has quite a list of tricks, if one doesn't work, he'll try another one.  

Justice is trying to learn from Boaz, their pens are next to each other.  Justice sees Boaz getting more cookies, so he's trying to work the people too.

 Mamacita usually sings when the people get to her pen, she's a soprano.......LOL   Rosie  does her thing by fleman.

Of  course LaRoy is still working on his rope technique.  On December 12th I put a video on the blog  when Suzanne took some donkeys out to Empire Ranch for a week-end celebration of LaRoy trying to get some of the other donkeys to play with him.  He actually has one purple rope that he uses to get people on a tour interested.

I have just wasted a lot of time, probably not as much as it seems like, trying to find on my "NEW" hated computer the still pictures I took that day of him with his rope to put on the blog today.  But can't find them, Win10 obviously thinks I am much smarter than I am.........LOL  So no pictures to share of the little guy and his rope.......Grrrrr!!!

YIPPEE....  FOUND IT.........  The people on tours are a lot more interested than the other donkeys were that day it looks like...!! 

His technique is still a work in progress, most of the time he waits until we've already visited with him and Jackson and have moved on to pick up his rope, which doesn't work really well for getting the expected cookie.  He'll figure it out, hopefully.........!!

Our local bank usually has a corner set up for local artists to display their work, and this month they had an artist named Larry Scott showing some of his digital artwork.  

Letter from Home

This one of Mike Benjamin and Zeke caught my eye and I got in touch with Larry.  Mike and Zeke were dear friends for years along with Mike's wife Teresa.  They did a couple of walks to raise money for our rescue, one from Ft. Huachuca to Tombstone, one up north that ended with them being in a parade in Kingman, AZ.  Mike passed away a few years ago, Zeke recently and Teresa this month.  I'm glad we got a chance to know them all, good memories and I love looking at this picture.