Donkey Day

Starting the new writing schedule today (what is left of it, anyhow). I've designated Saturday for posting donkey-related material. Apologies to those who remember my last post... at least this one will be about a different donkey. Well, two different donkeys.



Soon after we brought the rest of the Karakuls home (we managed to get a few on camera, above), we started losing them (our black male, and another) to canines amok (coyotes or dogs, don't know for sure). Our in-laws took pity on us and gifted a mother and daughter donkey to the farmstead as an early Christmas present. They also provided a stock trailer (which we had to buy new tires for, but that's a mess I'll tell y'all about later). DH made the drive, and he really knocked himself out getting them settled in the old buffalo pen (the former owner had 4 at one time, and actually decided to graze them elsewhere after DH made a crack about steaks and boots... go figure!). That night, the wild things got our prettiest ewe. DH set snares, but did not catch anything for long (one snare got chewed/frayed). Instead of keeping Sombrea (the momma--the owner thought she might be pregnant again--that's another thing I'll discuss later) and "Lacey" penned for a few days, we let them out soon after we found the corpse.

This is Serenity, formerly Lacey. I'm sure you can see why I changed her name:



And here's Sombrea:



Doesn't she look cheesed off at me? She usually is, but I can always win her over with carrots.

I can certainly say that we were not prepared for these animals...no decent shelter (they took over the dog pen during the ice storm in January so they could at least have four sheltered sides--going by six to a box), feed not budgeted for, main caretaker (moi) not trained to equines, and so on. Sombrea developed an abcess in her foot (according to vet, due to founder), and DH had such a time of not being able to deal with it... well, let's just say that we could have lost one or both that night (yet another future story). She appears to have healed well enough to put her full weight on the foot, so it is now up to DH to post ads in the Greensheet. If we get ambitious, we might post fliers at the local feed stores.

Well, my time is just about up...tomorrow is Book Review Day. If I can find my copy of Looking After a Donkey, in time to read it, I'll post a review. If I don't, then I'll write a review I owe for BlogHer.