Little Casper has been over at Lara and Vic 's for a few days now . For a little brat that doesn 't like other animals , he sure has fretted , because he was over there and everyone else is over here . He has worn a path beside the fence that is close to a foot deep . They said he wasn 't eating or drinking and we 've all tried to figure out how to fix the problem . Someone mentioned getting him a goat , BUT , if he didn 't like the goat , then what do we do , get the goat another goat friend . . . . . . . . . LOL I can see where this could turn into a real problem . Since he tolerates the donkeys without trying to kill them , we thought about a donkey , but can 't use any of ours , they know where home is , and it " ain 't " next door . I still have in the back of my mind the idea that he might get along with a molly mule or a mare . Unfortunately I 've racked my brain and all my friends that have horses or mules either have geldings or mares and geldings . We already know he doesn 't like geldings . Kris that was fostering Rusty , has 3 aged molly mules , but I wouldn 't want to put them into a situation , in case I haven 't actually figured out an answer to the problem . . . . . . . . . . ! ! ! This morning John walked all the way across Burroland to check on the little guy . John said he was actually away from the fence , but come just a running when he saw John . John gave him a carrot and talked to him for awhile . Lara came over and said he 's actually settled down quite a bit and isn 't hugging the fence quite as much , and is also eating and drinking . So hopefully it 's going to work out . I 'd still like to find someone willing to see if he will get along with a " girl " , with no other " boys " involved . This is a picture of a rock squirrel , sitting in Julius ' feed dish , packing his cheek pouches with cat food on the back porch . We thought we had lost Julius this week . He wasn 't here for 3 days and nights , and finally showed up yesterday morning . He was really spooky , John had cleaned up the back porch , we have friends bringing steaks to grill this afternoon . . . . . . . . . . YUM ! Julius took one look yesterday at the changes in his safe area and took off out of the back yard . But this morning he was back and let John pet him , even came in the house for a few minutes . John noticed someone had sprayed the back door screen , so we think a tomcat has moved into the neighborhood . John is going to set the live trap and if we catch him he will go to the vet for brain surgery . Years ago when we were trying to catch Julius ' mom Hobo , we managed to catch 3 tomcats before we caught her . I don 't know if they belonged to anyone or not , but if they did , when they went home they were walking different than when they left to explore . . . . . . . . . . ! ! ! ! LOL Posted by Yesterday was Casper 's day to be out of the pens , and a couple of hours after everyone went out , we got a call from a neighbor , that Casper was down by their place in the road roaming around without a care in the world . . . . . . . Grrrrrr . . . . . . . . . ! ! ! Lynn , Linda and I went to retrieve the little devil and as we spread out with a plan , we found out that he doesn 't need to find a place he can go under the fence , he basically goes in and out wherever he wants to . We got him to the pen area and he went in the pen no problem . Of course we closed the gate on him , so we wouldn 't have to spend anymore time rounding him up . And Gizmo got to go out for the day . The neighbor 's that tattled on him , came for a visit yesterday afternoon and we got to talking about Casper 's little problem . Actually it isn 't his problem it 's our problem . We really don 't like to leave them in the pens all the time , but he just doesn 't see a need to stay within the property lines . They have 10 acres that is fenced with horse fence , which is squares about 6 inches square . Vic is a horse person and had an old mule named Chief , we helped him find a few years ago . Chief is actually buried on our property . They said they would be willing to foster Casper . It 's almost perfect , 10 acres , horse fencing , no other equines and they will let him do whatever he wants . I don 't think he 'll be able to get out of the horse fence , unless he knows how to climb it , and that is a possibility I guess . He 's surprised us more than once already . . . . . . LOL Linda took this picture during yesterday 's round - up . I 'm doing my best to look unassuming and not interested in what he is doing . He 's watching me , just before he takes off running past me towards Linda . I guess he figured out I was probably interested in him after all . He ran down the road , took a right hand turn , went under the fence and headed for the pen area . Bad decision on his part , that 's when we got him back in the pen and he had to stay there . I sure hope this works out , it would be a good home for him . This is Frijolita and Daisy trying to figure out what the heck we are doing out there . We hardly ever go down that side of the property especially outside the fence . So now little Gizmo can be out all the time . Maybe he and Casper can visit thru the fence , they will be sharing between our properties . Gizmo is very sweet and loves people . He 's going to have to have a special home , where the people will him lots of attention and he has equine friends . Linda and I were going to body clip Daisy today , as you can see in the picture she is much shaggier than Frijolita , which is one of the symptoms of Cushings disease . She has been on medication for years and it does control most of her symptoms , but every year I do have to clip her . The reason we didn 't is this morning was jacket weather for some reason and the weatherman says cold nights the rest of this week . I don 't think she would appreciate losing her hair in middle of a cold snap , so we 'll just wait . This is a picture Doug took of Rosie 's new shelter , made out of pallets . For right now they are just using a tarp , but eventually the plan is to cover it with fiberglass roof panels . Most of the designs you see for these shelters use tarp , but in Arizona they only last one season , if you are lucky . Sunny Arizona is good for a lot of things but tarp longevity isn 't one of them . Posted by BlackJack , John and Cisco , doing their thing up at Gammons Gulch a few years ago . There was clutter of vehicles behind them and also off to the right . Linda said she knew someone that could " fix " it , and I think it came out great . . . . . . ! ! The movie was THE GUNDOWN Spring in the desert is usually windy and today has REALLY been windy . We went down to Sierra Vista about 50 miles away to find a 12 foot corral panel , with a 4 foot gate built into it . Lynn is redoing Rosie 's pen , so she can have a nice shelter to eat in and we can stand up in it if we want to . Lynn figured out if we lengthened the pen with another panel , when visitors come to see the donkeys , we wouldn 't have to let her out with Gigi . Her pen is within Gigi 's pen and didn 't have access to where the people stand . John had a doctor 's appointment , and there are 2 places that sell corral panels in Sierra Vista . But the 1st one didn 't have panels with a gate . The 2nd one did , but after checking inventory , paying for it and going to the yard to pick it up . . . . . . . . . . . . they didn 't have it . Of course we were after the cheapest one to serve the purpose . . . . . . . . . . bummer . They did have a better quality one that had a bent pipe and they said they would discount it . I must say they were more than generous , it ended up only costing $ 6 more than the other one . Believe me , it cost a lot more than that to start with . Enough that I wasn 't going to buy it . . . . . . . . . . . . LOL We should have taken the trailer , a 12 foot long panel , 51 / 2 feet tall , won 't fit in the pick - up bed . Thank goodness John always carries tie down straps , ended up tying it down on top of the bed and driving home very conservatively . The wind added to the adventure , but we made it . LOL being here or sneaking out when we don 't know it . LOL Since he doesn 't play well with Gizmo , and ignores the donkeys , they are taking turns being out of the pens . Each one gets 24 hours out of the pen , while the other one has to stay in the pens for that time . So far it 's working out just fine . Just wish the little monster would behave himself . Gizmo would still like to be friends , but Casper just isn 't going to give up trying to fight with him I guess . . . . . ! ! You know how sometimes something happens that makes you think the world is getting smaller and smaller ? Well yesterday was such a day . Lynn and Linda have some good friends staying in Tucson in their RV for awhile . They invited them out for a visit and to see the donkeys . We were all jabbering about this and that , really nice people and we ended up , guys talking military and gals talking about something , don 't even remember what . All of the sudden the guys come over and get in our space . John says , " you 're not going to believe this " and he was right , it was pretty unbelievable . Russ and I are cousins by marriage , if you want to stretch the bonds of family . . . . . . . . . . . ! ! ! LOL I guess they were talking about where they had been stationed and John said he 'd met me at Richard 's Gebaur , AFB outside Kansas City and as they say , it all started falling into place that we were from the same little town , went to the same school , and shared relatives . Not only that , he spent time with the aunt and uncle that ties us together and their 5 kids , and that aunt and uncle only lived about 2 blocks from where I lived , and we spent a lot of time with them also . I 'm from the aunt 's side of the family and he was from the uncle 's , and he is older than me , so we didn 't run across each other in school , although we both graduated from the same school and I actually had heard quite a bit about his family over the years . Even remembered after he left that his Mother was a nurse for the local doctor . He actually remembered my uncle that was like my big brother , who was 2 years ahead of him in school that wasn 't involved in any of this mess . I even had a package of family pictures to send to Judy , one of the kids , which I showed him . Today was a rough day . Lynn and Linda went with me to take Nicki into Adobe Vet Clinic . They evaluated him and found out he did have feeling in the rear leg we were worried about . It had a puncture wound that was sore enough he wouldn 't put weight on it and actually didn 't react when I poked his toes with scissors . He was dehydrated , so they gave him a liter of fluid and said they felt he should have 24 hour care , which they don 't do . So we packed up and headed for the 24 / 7 specialty clinic . Years ago we had a cat named Misfr with eye problems and we took him there for a round of treatment . So we not only knew where it was , we were prepared for the estimate . He was 12 years old which is a worry for knocking him out to suture the wounds and also they were afraid he might be septic . I guess bite wounds are bad , no matter what mouth they come out of . I always heard people bites are worse than dog bites , probably an old wives tale . They delicately discuss how far you want to go to save your dog , because they have all the bells and whistles , I would imagine they have the same machines as people doctors . I told them I 'd like blood tests , and x - ray to see if he might have some broke bones or any internal problems . They said it would be about an hour or so . We went to lunch , came back and waited , and waited and waited some more . It was about 5pm when they finally called us back and we got the good news , no broken bones and the bad news , he had lung cancer . The tumor was about 1 / 2 the size of his heart . The vet was talking about surgery and chemo and I don 't know what all . She said with the surgery and chemo , he 'd probably have a year or so . Without treatment , if he survived the fight damage without infection and whatever else might happen , less than a year . I have always said I would not put one of my animals thru some of the horror stores I 've heard people go thru to keep their " fur " kids alive . I didn 't change my mind , he was euthanized before we left the clinic . John had a jeep tour this evening and I knew there was aTish Last night we all went out to eat and put all the dogs in the dog pen . Nicki and Lucy have had issues in the past , but lately had been getting along or possibly ignoring each other . Whichever , there hadn 't been any problems between them lately . When we got home Linda and Doug went out to let the donkeys out and couldn 't get in the feed room door . Linda heard Nicki squeal , and she thought she had caught his foot under the door and told Doug to come in from the other door . When he did he saw the 2 dogs in a pile by the door , with Nicki on the bottom . Got Lucy off him , and started evaluating the situation . Lots of blood and puncture wounds on both dogs . Nicki was having problems standing and once he laid down he stayed down . He was breathing very heavy and I thought maybe he was on an adrenaline high . We stayed with him till bedtime and I think everyone checked on him at least once thruout the night . He was still breathing heavy until we checked on him about 5am , when his breathing was normal . He would wag his tail , but not try to get up , so this morning I did a pain check on all 4 feet . One rear leg had no reaction . Then I checked his spine and there seems to be a displacement . Called the vet clinic in Tucson and will be taking him in on emergency this morning . He 's about 12 years old , hopefully it 's something that can be fixed . Posted by WELL , THAT DIDN ' T GO WELL . . . . . . . . ! ! ! When it was time to let everyone out , I didn 't get the memo that EVERYONE was going out as a group . The 1st I knew that it was getting exciting outside , was dogs barking , people running , dust flying and in general chaos seemed to prevail . I went out to see if I could add to the confusion and noticed Saddik was right in the middle of all the excitement . I told Doug to take him in the RV , Saddik becomes absolutely deaf when things get exciting and he seems to prefer being right in the middle of whatever is happening . By the time I got outside John had managed to get Gizmo into Quilla 's empty pen . We all stood around for a few minutes discussing what had happened and what was going to happen , and what we hoped happened . The donkeys were all milling and trying to figure out what was going on to their tranquil life . Casper came by to harass Gizmo in Quilla 's pen and happened to get into BlackJack 's space . BJ made a horrible growling sound he doesn 't make often and Casper took an immediate left turn . WOW , who knew he could be intimidated . . . . . . . . . . . . LOL After everything settled down , we decided to try it again , this time they are racing thru the area where the donkeys had congregated to figure out what was going on I guess . Gizmo came running thru , kicking back at Casper hot on his trail , biting Gizmo 's butt if he could get close enough . Donkeys started kicking as they flew by . What a mess . . . . . . . . didn 't take long to decide it wasn 't going to work . I went to Gizmo 's pen , opened the gate and he ran in on the next pass . Then it took awhile to get Casper back in his pen for the day . As soon as he was corralled I let Gizmo out and was a little surprised that he was more than willing to come out . WELL , NOW WHAT ? l think Gizmo would like to be buds , obviously Casper has different plans for him . This is the behavior that got Casper in trouble and certainly will cut down on available adoption homes . He 's personable with people and doesn 't seem to attack the donkeys , so it will either be a home without horses / mules , or a home without any equine . Lynn and John finished running water thru the eastside pens this morning . We had always ran hose on top of the ground to the individual buckets in the pens . It worked , but look rather temporary . Now they looked like someone had a plan and we won 't have to carry water in buckets to the ones that didn 't even have hoses . Next project , Rosie 's shelter . She has a roof laying on top of the corral panels . If you raise up when picking up poo or doctoring her belly , we are all taller than a corral panel . . . . . . . . . LOL Lynn dug the trenches by hand , but for the west side we are going to rent a ditch witch for him . We are really going to miss them both when they go back to Colorado . They 've been waiting for it to quit snowing at home as their primary reason to head back , is to start their garden . We 're still trying to figure out how to adopt them . . . . . . . . . . LOL Everyone is here today , so we will let Casper out , while Gizmo is out with the donkeys and see how it goes . I hope he behaves himself , better than he has while they are separated . Mules can be a challenge , that 's for sure . Here is an article about a little mule named Muffin and I think this is a pretty common story for mules unfortunately . Although Casper going thru the auction 3 times since January and being handed off to someone else that handed him off to us , doesn 't seem to have put any fear into him . He actually seems to be very adept at getting along and doing his thing . But he is difficult to catch and without a redneck squeeze not sure you 'd ever get him . He 's well behaved , even under stress he 's never kicked at any of us , but he does seem to know how long a human arm is and also seems to be aware that humans can 't run as fast as he can . . . . . . . . . . . . LOL Gizmo is quite a lovebug . . . . . . . . . . . . . . on his terms . Since I took his halter off , I 've been scratching his head and neck every morning when I go out . He sees me coming and comes to the side of his pen to be scratched . This morning I went in the pen and he was OK with that . Jean said he is afraid of ropes because he was used for roping practice , so for now , no ropes are in his life . Jean had him for 6 years , but mules never forget . I have a feeling getting a halter back on him , will require a squeeze . Posted by GIZMO IS OUT . . . . . . . . . ! ! ! Yesterday morning I took his halter off . He was pretty good about it , although the halter had been on him so long it was very stiff and hard to unbuckle . He got impatient and took off , but came back and I got it off . He has the shape of the halter outlined , on his face , complete with bald spots because it was too tight , for a long time probably . He did very well , came out and went right to Casper , who was staying in his pen since he can 't behave . Of course he started sticking his head thru the corral panels , mouth wide open in a rather threatening manner . Gizmo , spun and kicked at him , actually got him a couple of times . So he 's not going to be a push over . Since he ignored the donkeys and went to hang with Casper , my assumption is , he is NOT a hinny , but is a mule . When we checked on him during the day most of the time he was in Casper 's area , although he would go off and explore . At first he went in Tula 's pen , which is next to Casper 's . I think he has always been in a pen , or at least for the 6 years Jean had him , he went in , rolled in the sand and acted like it suited him . We closed all the pens , so he couldn 't just stay in what looked like his comfort zone . After all there is a lot to see and do on 10 acres . We had Burroland closed , just in case we had to round him up at feeding time . He spent the day doing his thing . Round up was not a problem , if you have food on your body . He is more than happy to follow you anywhere . I went out in the afternoon with animal crackers to see if he would follow me . Not a problem , in fact he 's like Penny , he 'll run right up your back . . . . . . . . . LOL Today we are doing a home study , a possible home for him with a donkey gelding and a little mini mare . I have a feeling we better find him a home quickly , or he might be here permanently . I always accuse John of being a hoarder , but I kinda like this little guy . . . . . . . . . . . . LOL He 'll go out today and Casper will stay in like yesterday . But tomorrow we will all be here all day , so we 'll go ahead and let the little white tornado out and see what happens . I 'd like to think he will behave himself , but his track record isn 't all that good and he has the scars to prove it . Hopefully the 5 of us can keep the situation from getting out of control , if necessary . Posted by There is a 2 strand wire fence around Doug 's RV . Hasn 't been a problem , but if you look at the 1st picture , Casper is really close to Doug 's RV . Doug ran him out , and said he actually came back in right in front of him , as if to show Doug he could do what he wanted . Then he stood out in the middle of the property , planning his next adventure I guess . If you notice in the 4th picture you can just barely see him up the road , as he is headed for Gammon 's Gulch . They got him to turn around and head the right direction . Linda stayed to open the gate , if he knew enough to turn in when he got there . Couldn 't leave it open or the others might have went on a hike too . When he got close Linda opened the gate , told him to come in and wonders of wonders . . . . . . . . . he did . I 'm surprised he didn 't just keep on going . It seems like he 's probably been in trouble a lot in his life . If he gets caught he gives up real quick . . . . . . . . . LOL Over the years our fences have been adequate , donkeys usually aren 't fence challengers . But they will take advantage of a weak spot in the fence , especially during mesquite bean season , when they can see all those neglected beans in the neighbor 's yard . The only other " challenger " was Jack the other little mini mule we had . Maybe it 's a mule thing . He is still trying to get to Gizmo . Today we will let Gizmo out to explore for awhile , then we 'll let the donkeys out and I haven 't decided what to do with Casper . He 'll probably stay in his pen for the day , that is if we can keep him in there . He went under the corral panels , not long after he got here and took off . Posted by Got a call from Rusty the mule 's foster Mom . Rusty and Reba went out about a year ago to be with Ruth an older mule that had lost her horse friend . Kris will be calling the vet today to have an evaluation . He 's lethargic , standing around with his eyes closed on a gorgeous spring day and wants Kris to be with him . He 's had spells in the past where he would go off feed and the vet would come out evaluate him , usually give him a B - 12 shot and he 'd be good to go for awhile . Kris seemed to think this is different , he is about 37 years old and we use quality of life as the decision . If the vet can come out today , we 'll let her be the final word . Rusty about 10 years We are all up early to feed . Today there is an Earth Day Celebration at Kartchner Caverns and we will be taking the 4 little minis for display , like we did last year with Ruger and Wister . We think everything is ready to go , taking 2 trailers , one for donkeys and one for corral panels to make a pen . We 've talked about putting a frame on the outside of the stock trailer to hang the panels on , but it 's one of the " round to it " things . Should be fun , people that have never been around equine and never thought about donkeys , usually love the little ones , I guess they are less scary . Of course they have cute little faces too . . . . . . ! ! ! UPDATE : Rusty was euthanized this morning . His gums were purple , his heart was racing and his breathing was hard when the vet got there . She said she could hydrate him and do whatever she could to get him thru this , BUT chances are he would either not come out of it , or crash soon if he did . Kris said Reba laid down beside him this afternoon for about 2 hours , then got up and went about her business , guess she was saying good - bye . Kris has also taken in another molly mule , so it will just be the 3 girls now . I would imagine Rusty was thrilled with another girl , he always thought he was a ladies man . RIP old man , we have a lot of good memories of you being a mule . . . . . . . ! ! ! CASPER IS GETTING AN EDUCATON . . . . . ! ! ! Well at least I hope he is . This morning when round up was going on , for everyone to go in their pens for breakfast , Casper started " attacking " Gizmo in his pen . John got the BB gun , stood on the porch of the feed room , which is at least 20 feet away and popped Casper on the butt . John said he tucked his fanny and took off running . . . . . . . . . . . . right into his pen . . . . . . ! ! ! He 's obviously not stupid . . . . . . . . . LOL From that distance it won 't hurt him , but obviously he felt it . Gizmo is a little stockier , but I have a feeling it doesn 't matter with Casper , he didn 't get all the scars he 's carrying , by giving up , I 'm sure . . . . . ! ! We haven 't had to use the BB gun since Paladin was here , after a recent gelding and thought every jenny on the property was fair game , just had to catch one . He was chasing Tula one time and she ducked under a large tree limb . . . . . . . . he didn 't . He almost went down , and as it was had quite a nasty swelling open wound on his forehead . Didn 't even slow him down , unfortunately neither did the BB gun . The only thing that worked was finding him a home with another gelding . . . . . . . ! ! Posted by Made it up to ShowLow and back as planned . Even took a side trip to Snowflake to visit with Christine at Equine WellBeing Rescue . I had never met her in person , but we had ran across each other on the internet a few times . Had a great visit , for an hour or so , met Larry her husband and had a great time . She just got in a load of mini donkeys from the large hoarding rescue , Peaceful Valley Donkey Rescue did a few weeks ago . They haven 't had a lot of handling , but she 's going to work with them and get them ready to be adopted . Some of them are pregnant jennies , so the people adopting them , will get a " two - fer " good deal . . . . ! ! ! Spent the night in Showlow and went the next morning to pick up the hinny . He seems to be willing to go along with what 's happening . The woman had him 6 years and her horse and mini mare both have died . She is 81 , has Parkinson 's , and wanted him with other animals . So many people don 't plan ahead and when the time comes , without advanced planning the family doesn 't know what to do . We went thru Globe and came back thru Springerville . The Springerville route is highway 191 . Seems like everyone we 've talked to knows not to go that way , unless you 're ready for an adventure . It 's over 7 , 000 feet in quite a few areas , lots of switchbacks , and no a guardrail in sight . One area has signs no vehicles over 40 feet because the switchbacks are so " close " . And we got to see rain , snow , sleet and freezing rain , for most of the mountain part of the trip . . . . . ! ! ! LOL We really enjoyed the trip , but John isn 't comfortable hauling an animal , under those circumstances . He said his left leg is sore today from having the foot up in the air prepared to put on the brake . Saw a mule deer , and wild turkey , both by themselves , which is unusual . The little guy did just fine . We haven 't come up with a name yet . No one likes my choice , so we 're having a " conference " today , everyone can input their choice and then we 'll have to decide which one works . This video was taken this morning . We thought Casper was trying to visit with the new guy and trying to keep everyone away from his new friend , which we all thought was so cute . Until Casper started running at Linda , instead of the dogs and donkeys . Now we 're thinking this might be the bad behTish We are leaving this morning to go up to Show Low to pick up the little hinny . We actually have no idea what we are going to pick up . She says it 's a hinny , but they call it Donkey . She says he 's been used for roping , but mules or in this case a hinny aren 't usually roped , so I 'm wondering if his aversion to halters and leads is taken as roping abuse ? Our experience with mules that haven 't been in stable comfortable homes , really have no interest in cooperation with what they see as stupid unnecessary people in their lives . Lynn and Linda will be in charge while we 're gone . Doug has been in the hospital with pneumonia for a few days , but is suppose to come home today . Lynn and Linda have the routine down pat , and Linda will even have a tour today . She 's great at doing them , I think she likes talking about the donkeys . I raced Saturday night , got another " DNF " , did not finish . . . . . . ! ! ! It was almost a replay of the last race , I didn 't finish . All of a sudden the car starts coughing and sputtering and eventually quit , so I almost couldn 't get off the track . Where I stopped in the pits , left a puddle of gas . John had changed the complete fuel system , so needless to say he wasn 't very happy about the situation . I went out with 1 / 4 tank of gas , and the tank was bone dry , when John checked it . Got it home , he checked it the next day and found a broken clip that holds the gas line to the fuel filter . Once it came loose , with the fuel pump , still pumping , I basically ran out of gas . I 'm sure not having a very good start this year . Hopefully we 'll get all the bad luck over early , and do good the rest of the season . . . . . . . . . . . . OR NOT . . . . . . . . ! ! ! LOL This is the type of thing that usually happens with young males age 16 - 25 , sometimes after saying to a friend , " hold my beer and watch this " . . . . . . . ! ! This tarantula was found in one of the pens and we were afraid she would get stepped on . So John picked her up and started showing her to Lynn and Linda . She was on Linda 's hand for awhile , then John took her back and she dug her fangs into his finger . Linda got this picture , just as she nailed him with her fangs . Notice the open mouthed surprised look on his face . . . ! ! LOL We called Tony , that has been out a lot this spring , with Mike building shelters . He got a degree in whatever bug study is called . He said they usually just strike , so he was surprised at her tenacity also . He asked if she was thin and she was thinner than the female usually are . He said she probably just came out of hibernation and was really hungry . He said she was probably trying to eat John , guess we should have tried to find a cricket and waved it in front of her . John finally got one fang loose and she gave up . We took her back where we found her , but put her up against the shelter wall and later on she had disappeared . This is the result of her attack . We soaked it , a little triple antibiotics , bandaid and he was good to go . The experts said it 's somewhat like a bee sting . John said it wasn 't bad , except when she dug the fangs in deeper , when he was trying to get her to turn loose . Posted by PROBABLY NOT CASPER ' S FAVORITE DAY . . . . . . . . . . ! ! ! You would think going to the dentist was the most fun day to do today for the herd . John drove the truck and trailer up in the driveway , came in the house and this is what it looked like when we went out to load Casper . Not sure who is in the trailer , might be Boaz . Linda is in the middle , not easy to see her . This is me taking a picture of Linda taking a picture of Dr . Debra working on the little man . She is proud of the fact that she has never had to " drug " a mule to do their teeth . Well , the little guy didn 't ruin her record , he was pretty good , except for trying to crunch her hand in his mouth . She has special gloves so it wasn 't a big deal . A woman came over and said Hi Tish . . . . . I am terrible with names and faces , always have been and age hasn 't helped the problem . Actually we had never met , BUT , she was instrumental is saving Rosie and Gigi from being shot and buried , she called to see if we could save them a few years ago . She said she has been keeping up with Casper 's story too . It was nice to finally meet her and get to thank her for getting involved . Can 't imagine not having these girls around . There was also a couple there headed home to California from a cutting horse show in Ft . Worth . They had stopped off at the sale barn , where Dr . Debra works when she comes to Benson . I think they would have loaded Casper up , when they left if we had said yes . We were all teasing around , but I got the idea that they would have taken him . He is a cute little bugger . Mike Robertson owns the sale barn and said he remembered Casper and thinks every time he came thru the complaint was , he tried to fight with horses . He 's not even looked at the donkeys cock eyed , the only problem we have is going thru the fence to eat grass at the neighbor 's yard . Found out yesterday , that although he 's been caught 3 times , he 's been over there more than that . But he seems to be making an effort to not upset us , by making sure to be on this side of the fence when we might catch him , otherwise . . . . . . . . . . . ! ! ! LOL This was one of their horses . He might not look as impressive here as he did in person , but he was gorgeous . Wasn 't too impressed at having Casper where he could see him . If horses have never seen a donkey or mule , or a mini , sometimes they will absolutely freak out . This horse was jumping and bucking in a small pen . Then he 'd stop , blow and snort . After a couple of minutes of acting like a nut , then he was fine . In the same situation if a donkey saw something that was that scary , they would probably freeze and look at it . Posted by Sure glad Doug , Linda and Lynn are here this week . John and I have been hanging out in doctor offices . What that means is , you are there before your appointment and maybe , if you are lucky they come get you within 1 / 2 hour , put you in a room to wait , and wait , and wait some more . So although we try to make appointments to get home on time , it doesn 't always work out that way . But when we got home , the donkeys were taken care of , so we didn 't have to rush so much . Thanks guys . . . . . . . . ! ! ! ! Still not much problem with flies , which is really nice . I started the predator wasps early this year , Spalding Lab said start in February , so that 's what we did . I feel sorry for the little wasps that get delivered in cold weather I would imagine the freezing nights do them in pretty quick , unless they find a warm place in the poo pile with maggot eggs , that 's what they parasite , and then the eggs don 't hatch . . . . . . . . . . ! ! Little Casper is managing to stay in the doghouse . One afternoon when we came back from Tucson , Doug met us at the gate with a story to tell and Linda as a witness . They were out by the pens which are close enough to the neighbor 's place that a little white mule shows up really good if you happen to see him . Doug saw him on the other side of the fence and yelled at him . Doug said he came to the fence , got down on his knees and squirmed and wiggled until he popped out on this side . The little stinker obviously knows where he belongs and also obviously doesn 't care . . . . . . . . . LOL Doug said he was glad Linda saw Casper do it too , or we wouldn 't believe him . Actually , Casper isn 't the first one to escape like that . A few years ago , Jack which incidentally was another little mini mule ( there seems to be a pattern ) was upset because we closed Burroland during mesquite bean season to try to control the amount of beans they had access to . Jack seemed to think he was being mistreated and went thru the fence more than once , in fact it was like a daily occurance . He never went anywhere except Burroland , he wasn 't trying to escape , he just wanted to eat beans . . . . . . . . . . . ! ! ! Here 's another picture Linda took of us recently . They had been staying at one of the local RV parks , before they moved out here . I guess they participated in a lot of the entertainment in the park , and were invited back after they left when something was going on . So Linda and Lynn asked us to go to a end of the season dance , they held , before all the winter visitors hit the road for home . The guy doing the music usually plays somewhere in Tish The calendar for the next 10 days or so , is packed with fun things to do . Well , fun might be a little over the top . Today is the great grandkids birthday party in Tucson and we 'll have to rush home to a prior commitment . John goes to an eye specialist Monday to have needles stuck in his eye . YUCK ! He has fluid behind the retina , whatever that means . Tuesday he gets to go see the skin doctor in Tucson . Wednesday , our new mattress is being delivered . According to Temperpedic ads , you will be a new person after sleeping on their mattresses , so we 'll see , we 're hoping that we will feel like 40 year olds . . . . . . . . ! ! ! And John will be taking the neighbor lady to do her monthly shopping . Thursday , Casper has an appointment with the dentist . We figure if he is 15 years old and no one ever cared enough to get him gelded , they probably didn 't take care of his teeth either . He 's warming up to us a little , but I doubt that he will ever be , warm and fuzzy . Friday , is practice with the race car before racing Saturday . I already practiced yesterday , when we brought the car home from a friend that did some work on it . John has drove himself crazy , since the last race , when it vented gas and I got black flagged , trying to figure out and fixing stuff . Some of you know we live in a rather " rural , rustic " area . As in mostly local traffic and not a lot of sheriff attention . The problem with the car didn 't show up until the race was almost over , so to test it , I need to run at least 10 miles at speed , so the car would have time to build up pressure in the gas system , enough to vent fuel . We unloaded the car about 3 miles from home and away I went , with John following in the truck to watch for venting . No one caught up with us , but 4 cars passed going the other way . Wonder what stories they told when they got home . . . . . . ! ! ! LOL I passed our turn off and went another 9 miles north , where the pavement ends , turned around and drove home . YIPPEE ! no venting , but I still want to go to practice , driving on a road isn 't the same as driving on a track . Sunday is actually open , a day of rest I guess , to get ready for next week . With Lynn and Linda here we don 't have to be home for feeding , so Monday we are heading out to Show Low to pick up the little hinny and coIt doesn 't do any good to explain to office personal , that a gate left open , could mean their driver would be helping to round up a lot of donkeys . Or the price of colic surgery for ingesting plastic or other inedible items , is quite expensive . Not to mention items destroyed by curious donkeys . A brand new aluminum radiator with hoof prints all over it , comes to mind . What really irritated me about that one , the company replaced the radiator , not FedEx , even though I was very adamant who caused the problem . Posted by Lynn and Linda are one of the nicest couples you could ever meet . Earlier in March Lynn brought Linda out to see the donkeys for her birthday . They were going to be in the area for a few weeks and said if we needed any help to give them a call . When the big tour with the BIG bus was coming out , I thought it might be a little more than Doug and the 2 of us could handle . Gave them a call and they showed up ready , willing and able . In fact Lynn and his chain saw saved the day , or at least saved the big beautiful bus from getting scratched trying to get around the driveway . Well , to make a long story short , when they saw there was work to do around here they offered to stay a little while longer before heading back to cold country to plant a garden . They 've already learned the " drill " for feeding and letting the donkeys out and have offered to take over for a couple of days , so we could take an overnight trip someplace . If you haven 't been anywhere together in 5 years it 's kinda hard to come up with a place off the top of your head . . . . . . . . . . LOL But as usual a need gets filled . Weeks ago a lady that lives way up north called and asked if we could take her mini hinny . She had good reasons to need to rehome him , but she lives too far away for a day trip . At that time I didn 't know about Casper but did know that Pancho was going to a new home , so as usual we 'd have an empty pen soon . John said if she could haul him as far as Globe , we could make that in one long day . She said she would try to find a trailer and make it happen . She called a couple of days ago and found a trailer and wants to make arrangements to meet in Globe . BUT , with Lynn and Linda here we can make it an overnight trip and go all the way to her place . I haven 't been able to get in touch with her yet , but this should work out good for everyone . Who knows , maybe Casper will get a new friend out of the deal . So far he follows the donkeys around , but really doesn 't have anything to do with them . Maybe he 'll recognize the hinny as a fellow hybrid , hopefullTish My husband John , and I have a small private sanctuary for donkeys that needed a better home & for one reason or another would not be adoptable under normal circumstances . Some of our donkeys have physical or emotional problems . Some are old , many have ongoing medical problems that need daily attention . Every day with the donkeys is a learning process for me , & I would like to share these wonderful creatures with anyone that is interested .