Well, we built a barn and ended up with an extra stall. Which as all horse owners know, is a sucking vacuum until you fill it. So Frank and I were discussing what we wanted to do about that, and Christmas rolled around and we decided we wanted a donkey. Meet sweet Lily on her first day here. She was saved by a nice woman down in Oregon, just steps from getting on the semi to become donkey-hamburger. Lily LOVED her cozy stall with endless hay, and she didn't come out for 2 weeks! Finally, she decided to come out and graze and met Bailey and they became good friends right away.
Well, time passed and it became obvious that we got a 'buy one, get one free' special! This is Lily out in the side pasture talking with Maddie. I never saw a pregnant animal as huge as this one! (See also picture of her to the right.) Well, time passed, and passed and passed, and finally on July 8th, after checking about every hour all night, at 5am I went out and found this!
I could not believe that that huge baby came out of poor Lily. Baby Daisy's legs were already almost as long as her moms! Also she had thick hair and it wasn't a few days later that I discovered that she had some little teeth too! She must really have been overcooked!
Daisy has turned out to be a great little donkey. I never had donkeys before, so I just raised her like I would have a little horse and she's learned all her lessons well. She does everything I would expect a horse or donkey of this age to do. Momma is still shy, and tries so hard to please, but her baby is very people oriented and especially loves kids. Next year Daisy will be learning her big-girl lessons like riding and/or driving!
We can't imagine what Red Pony Ranch would be like without the donkeys. They bring so much joy into our lives. It is so interesting how different they are than horses, especially in how they love people. They do, however, know how to tell time, and we better not be even 5 minutes late with their dinner or we hear about it! HEEEE HAAWWWWWW!
No comments:
Post a Comment