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Monday, August 02, 2010

A Birthday, Sickies, Open Day!

Today is Odin's fourth birthday! He is the last donkey born on the DSC farm as of now. His mother Anu was pregnant with him when she was brought to the Farm with her other son Loki. Odin is a very lively donkey who brought much interruption to the "Special needs side" when he was brought over from the main herd in the winter months to gain some weight. He has caused a lot of mischief and is sometimes getting on the nerves of the older residents on the Farm, as he tries to entice them to his wild "horse" play. He is ever curious and needs to be in the middle of everything.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ODIN



I got to the DSC early yesterday morning, and to my surprise all the paddocks had been cleaned already, as I made my way down to the barn, I was greated my Helia and she told me in tears about Danny, she wasn't sure if I had heard about it or not. I gave her  a hug and told her that I was thinking about her all day Thursday and since then, and how hard it must have been for her. I walked into the barn with her and was greeted by Cate with the remark " Welcome to the animal hospital." The barn was still a mess and pretty much every stall was occupied by some sick donkey.  Cate  has been busy attending to all the sickies and Helia and I took over the cleaning of both side of the barn, so that Cate could do what she needed to do and we still had the place in tip top shape for Open Day. There were legs to ice, there were wounds to be cleaned and bandaged up, there were feet to soak, medication to give and the list went on and on. I ended up mucking out some of the stall of the sickies,  feeding the animals,  and I was soaking healing feet. And by the time the first visitors arrived everything was as normal as it could be. 
It was a very busy day, and the stream of visitors was pouring in all day long, there were lots of kids today. My favourite visitors are always the ones that enquire about indiviual donkeys, their stories and their personalities. Some that show a direct interest in the donkeys, their care and want to know everything about the DSC, from it's start to the future plans, from care of the donkeys to staffing/volunteers, from funding and how to help. It is always amazing to me how many people do come out to visit "their" sponsored donkey and are so happy when they meet him/her. Yesterday was an interesting day for most part, I had one lady  who was really nervous around the animals, even over the fence she was scared to touch them, so I directed her to "Summer", our oldest and sweetest donkey. Summer just stands there to let people pet her and if they stop she stalks them because she wants more. I saw her later on stand with the lady who nervously petted her, and Summer just enjoyed it. We had an unexpected visit from the original "Donkey boy", it definitely is always nice to see him and he promised to be out more often, as he really misses the place. Never knew he was such a huggy kind of guy lol...hugs when he gets there, hugs before he leaves lol and I am not talking about quicky hugs here  lol, more like long embraces... too cute! 
Oh Panne, our mammoth donkey made us laugh yesterday. He is the biggest donkey on the farm and kind of thinks he is the boss at times, well with his size nobody really wants to mess with him, but he was thinking about getting a drink of water yesterday and stood there starring at the water and kept backing up, he definitely was scared of the drinking water....so Helia, who really spoils them, got a smaller bucket so he won't be so scared, and filled it with water and put it in front of him, and he was still backing up from it, he got so spooked by it that he backed up into the walls and kind of panicked. Panne is a real goof ball and so accident prone, now I know why lol....big old goof.....early that afternoon he was rolling in the dirt close to Adam's walk way and when he went over on the other side with his roll landed on all the rocks that bordered  the sidewalk, that really must have been comfortable. lol. NOT! And then m(d)onkey see, m(d)onkey do, Indiana comes over, another fairly big standard donkey, rolls in the same spot and as he rolls over all you hear is his head hitting the rocks and I am thinking ouch! He got up and pretended like nothing  had happened. Oh those silly donkey boys! 





6 comments:

Sharon said...

LOL @ Odin! Happy Birthday! In that picture, he looks almost like a stuffed toy! So cute!

Very busy day for you! Why was Panne backing away? Did he see his reflection? I have gotten from your various posts that the donkeys will get silly, was this just a batch of silliness?

I hope you are having a great day and that it's not too hot!

Anonymous said...

too funny The white donkey looks so soft!!

Louise said...

I wonder what made Panne so scared of the water? Could he have gotten stung by a bee that was stranded in the water, do you think?

Odin is just adorable. I always have liked bad boys, lol.

Tina said...

Sharon & Louise- not really sure what spooked him in the water, must have been just his reflection, because we were right beside the water and there was nothing in it. He was starring at it for the longest time, stretching his neck out as far as he could without reaching the water and then just backed up into the wall.
As for Odin he definitely is a little "bad"boy and always there to make trouble. A typical four year old I guess lol....right now he is fascinated with the big syringes that contain molasses and medication for some of the other donkeys and as soon as one of the barn staff comes out with one, he is in hot persuite trying to snap it away from them...what a donkey. lol
Tammy- he is soft and cuddly, well at least until he rolled in the mud and try to clean of on you lol!

Melodie said...

Happy birthday Odin! I am going to say...he looks like he is mischievous with his cute spotted nose!

AJ-OAKS said...

That Odin is quite the character!! And that face of his is downright adorable!
A couple of the donkeys here will all of a sudden get spooked when they are about to drink. Took me a while to figure out what was going on. Turns out they see their reflection in the water!
Wow, that was a very busy day indeed!