Update #4
I have to go somewhere tomorrow, so I am posting this one a little bit early. Again...no legal advice. Thank you. This one is about my "Long Ears".
When someone asked about me awhile back, they mentioned that I had mules, and someone corrected them and said, no it was donkeys.
I had told you about taking care of some pitiful donkeys at a place near here. What happened was, a friend of mine came over and asked me for some meds for an injured donkey that was at the place where she kept her horses. The donkey had gotten wire wrapped around his leg, and the owner cared nothing about him...not even cutting the wire off. She had to get yet another person to go cut off
the wire.
The man who owned the donkeys had gotten five jennies and a jack from the Adopt A Burro program, some fifteen years ago. He kept them in about a 100 acre pasture, and they had shelter by the way of some old barns, and water, and since he had a hay farm, she said he gave them hay and liquid feed in the winter, but he didn't geld the jacks, or worm them or give them any kind of veterinary care...and what he did do, kept him just above the line when it came to filing a cruelty case against him. That and the fact
that he owned a construction company that did work for the county and he was part of the "good ol' boys" network in the area. More or less above reproach.
I went to the vet and got a preparation for proud flesh and went every day and doctored the donkey. My friend said the man would give him to me. I named him Lucky.
The donkeys had multiplied and now numbered around 60. However every foal that had been born that year had died. For one thing, the older foals were never weaned. They continued to nurse and the jennies, who were weak and skinny to begin with, didn't fight them off.
I started feeding one of the jennies that was in foal. She had a beautiful little filly foal, but it died from a heat stroke. I spent the night at the barn trying to save it and couldn't get a vet out. The next morning, took the baby to a vet...and he tried but could tell she wasn't going to rally, so I had her put down. No...she didn't belong to me, but I wasn't going to take her back to that barn and let her lay out there and die slowly.
My friend who had promised I could get some of donkeys...was making no headway. I told her I would
pay $500 for 4 of the donkeys. That was Lucky, the jenny that had the foal and lost it...I called her Fern, an old jenny that I named Buttermilk, and a pitiful, skinny shaggy, four year old that I called Bug. Donkeys like this wouldn't bring $20 at the auction. He turned me down and didn't want me to go over there and take care of them any more.
I don't cry easily, but I shed tears over them. Not for me. I can buy donkeys. For them. They counted on me. I felt terrible having to leave them behind.
This is a picture of Lucky.
Awhile after that, I found three more donkeys. They weren't as sad as the ones at the "donkey barn" but they
were lacking in care. They had no shelter or water when I went to see them. They were fed once a day, a few pellets.
I wanted one...then decided two..but I couldn't leave the 3rd behind, so I bought all three. Looking back, I did
the right thing. I didn't know at the time, but donkeys are different from other equines. They form very strong bonds of friendship and had I left the littlest one behind it would have been very stressful for him...that would have been wrong.
I named them Amos, Moses and Hobo.
This is how they looked when they came to me. Hobo is the littlest one. Amos is the grey one. That is Moses in the foreground.
After I had those donkeys about a month, my friend came to me in the middle of the night and brought me a donkey foal.
It was from the barn. Her mother had died and she was trying to make it alone. She was chased from the hay by the other donkeys. The grass was all grazed down.
She was literally skin, bones and hair. My Facebook friends said I should name her Hope...so I did, for them, but myself, I called her Rags.
Had a vet with her, special feed, worming, supplements.... she didn't improve hardly at all. I guess she lived about a month. I hoped if I could keep her alive, then eventually something would kick in and she would get better. But, she never did. She ate so slowly. Only about half a cup at a time. I couldn't get enough food into her to do her any good. She would eat one strand of hay at a time. I'd throw out the hay every day and give her fresh....nothing worked.
One day my friend asked me if I would go by the donkey barn and turn out her horses. When I got there, I saw a small group of donkeys standing near the barn. I walked up to them, and I hardly recognized them, but they recognized me. It was Lucky, Buttermilk and Bug. It was so sad. They were so glad to see me. They followed me all the way to the gate.
Donkeys are different than horses. Forget that you've heard that they are stubborn. They are sensitive. They are more like dogs than horses, in the ways they respond to people...if you are kind to them. They are smarter than horses too, I think, and I have loved and owned horses all my life. However, donkeys are very misunderstood and they are one of the most abused animals. They have been loyal servants for centuries but they are a objects of derision more often than not.
I started clicker training Hobo, Moses and Amos. It is a method of training with only positive re-enforcement. They also don't "work" unless they want to. They are trained "at liberty"...which means, if they don't want to participate they don't have to...but the wonderful thing is...they love it.
I love clicker training for any animal. I first trained a cat when I was going to school to be a vet tech. Later my daughter and I trained some cats as a school project. While I was staying at my friend's house recently, I trained one of her dogs. I taught him to touch a target, sit, lay down, roll over, and sing...on command. He learned it all in less than a week.
These pics of my donkeys were made last summer. I haven't made any of them recently because they haven't quite finished shedding off. Hobo, who was the littlest, is the biggest now.
This is Amos (and my dog, Jan).
This is Moses in back and Amos in front.
And this is Hobo.
I would love to raise a mule foal. I have a nice Quarter Horse mare and I am so tempted to breed her to Hobo. But, it takes a year for the foal to arrive and then it would be four years before I could ride it, and mules have a long life span...and I am already 65 years old, so it wouldn't be a good idea. So, as soon as I can, I will get them gelded.
I will tell you how much I love donkeys. Because my donkeys are young, I am thinking of leaving my place to a donkey sanctuary in Texas, in return for giving Amos, Moses and Hobo a life long home.
Comments (30)
ont_gal
luckygardnr
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