PEOPLE WHO ARE VIOLENT TO ANIMALS RARELY STOP THERE!

Monday, June 06, 2011

Another OPEN DAY!

Yesterday's Open Day started off rough, as a co-volunteer and I met up at the upper parking lot and the farm pup Hugo took of with one of her gloves, ok so we are used to donkey wrangling but puppy wrangling is a whole new ball game as he can get into areas where we don't and he sure took full advantage of that, training that little guy had none, so telling him to stay or sit or drop didn't do a thing. Of course he thought it was a fun game and enjoyed the taunting. We finally cornered him and ushered him into the house, where he jumped up on his couch and just looked at us, glove still in his mouth, and finally he gave it up. After that little side track action I went down the lane way, I had a different role for this Open Day once again, but since it was still time before the Learning Centre opened I thought I am gonna do some barnyard chores. I just took a quick glimpse into the Learning Centre and what do I see? Donkeys learning about donkeys in there, mind you, the Learning Centre is tightly locked, so how in the world did I Rosie, Nugget and Johnny get in there?  The two sliding doors are locked and we only use the "man door", I climbed quickly over the fence ( did you noticed I wrote quickly? lol I did a lot of fence climbing yesterday let me tell you) and rushed into the Learning Centre, those little buggers had unlatched the doors again and were standing in there all innocently, like nothing happened, but it didn't take me long to get them out, which was good. They didn't wreck anything and I looked it up and went my merry way down to the barn, where Larry the sheep scared the living daylight out of me....omg I know I am jumpy at times, but not like that. I walked out of the tack room and didn't see Larry come around the corner coming into the barn, and as I walk out the lets out the biggest  and loudest "Baa" I have ever heard, and made me jump right back at the door again. Larry is such a funny little guy, I am really falling in love with him. Larry, up to this point, has been a very docile and slow moving sheep, not much life in him as he is very old, but the last few weeks, he is like a new sheep, he runs around like crazy, is friendlier than anybody on the farm, comes for cuddles and pets and is just a little love bug. He is just so cute.
The day started slow with people coming out but got busier after lunch and we had a full day with people and donkeys, at one point we had to close the barn, as one of the donkeys was down and obviously in severe distress, and everybody thought she was going to be goner any minute, with elevated heart rate and temperature, but after a while our oldest donkey Summer perked right back up and was back on her feet. Thank God, hope she is going to do better today. Then we found my sweet Buffy out in the field with a big gash on her neck, so she was brought in and treated and stayed the night over on the barnyard side in good care. Buffy is such a sweetie and one of my favourites, I was glad I got to spend some time with her as she was hanging out in the Office Paddock, where the Learning Centre is situated. Another constant companion today was Danny Boy, the mule, however only in arm reach and only to look at as he is very shy and doesn't like to get petted, however he is the first one to come and see what's new with you when you arrive.  
So it was a busy day and we were really short on people, only two volunteers as I was in the Learning Centre, and we were short one barn staff, so it was  a little bit crazy today and we stayed longer after closing to get all the chores done. I was glad that I didn't have to work last night as I was just exhausted from the day and the heat we had. 

3 comments:

Joan said...

Wish I had been there. Why so few volunteers I wonder. Sounds like a full day for sure. I hope Summer is okay... did Cocoa greet the visitors? Thanks for giving us the flavor of the day.

Tina said...

I think, because it was the first real nice weekend, that some of them stayed home to work on their own gardens etc. And some of them come only every other week, so that was the case too. Definitely will have to do something about this...but at least I will be back on the volunteer side next Sunday lol.... I think Cocoa greeted visitors, one lady told me about meeting Cocoa and how big he was. I only seen him briefly. Haven't really had much time with any of them lately....gotta change that too...maybe once I am out a job I have more time lol.

Sharon said...

Good visual - chasing a puppy, lol! I hope Summer will be alright, that was a bit strange. Poor Larry, you probably startled him too! :-)