On November 21st, we moved Rebel from his long-time family home to his new adoptive family who happened to live just down the street. Rebel's owner passed and he was lonely with all the other horses and his human of over a decade gone. At age 17, he continues his life with a new family and pasture mate who will give him the much needed love he had grown used too.
A BLM mustang gathered in 2000, they gave me his Title paperwork which shows his history of owners and freezebrand number that will help us find out the day he was gathered, what herd management area he came from, his probable age. His history, "His story" of his lifes journey over the years which we shared with his new family so they to can know his past. A happy ending for an older and very sweet horse.
That same day I drove another 100 miles to a ranch in Alpine, AZ, to pick up a donkey and her foal who were not doing well at the higher elevation (over 8,000 feet) and colder weather after recently being transported from Texas to Lucky A Ranch.
Meet Alexas and Chloe, our two newest donkeys. On the thin side and seemingly depressed probably from so many recent changes in their lives. They left Fort Worth, Texas on Nov 8th with 17 other donkeys and arrived in Alpine late on the 9th, around 800 miles less than two days, now 11 days later they are traveling another 100 miles to another home to get them healthy in a warmer climate.
When we do our intake on new residents, among taking vitals, height and weight and starting their files, we like to have their history, as much as we can find. We got lucky that Chloe still had her feedlot tag attached to her butt. Much like the tag on your mattress, it states "DO NOT REMOVE", but remove it I did and then I set out to find out where she came from and what happened along her way to us.
Back in August we were asked by the
AWF (Ark Watch Foundation, Los Altos, CA) if we would consider taking in six friendly donkeys that were at
HSNT (Humane Society of North Texas, Fort Worth, TX)? We had already taken in six for AWF.
If we were able to take another six, HSNT could make room for some moms and foals in a kill pen in Bowie TX that AWF would purchase to save from slaughter. When HSNT went to pick up the six, there were 17 more donkeys needing help (standards, mini's, moms and foals) which AWF also paid for and all went to HSNT for quarantine, triage and care. We were pretty stoked that by our taking six, 23 more lives were saved from slaughter.
On August 26th, six gelded donkeys arrived. Two have been adopted, two are pending adoption and two pending long-term foster. We love these funny guys and have taken our time finding just the right homes for their personalities. We don't know much of their history. In the photo is Cappy on the left, Paco in the middle, and Major on the right not in the photo are Colonel, Sarge & Gunny. We do know they came from killpens in TX, went to HSNT and AWF paid their bail, vetting and care at HSNT and transport to us. Six of hundreds these two groups have worked together to save.
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| Chloe's arrival |
My grandniece, Alex (Alexandria) was visiting and helped me pick our newest arrivals names, Chloe for the baby and Alexas (from TX) for her mom. It was clear after just a short time that veterinary and nursing care was needed, they just weren't bouncing back from their recent travels and their vitals not good in addition to being underweight and no doubt anemic. Poor Chloe only weighed 150 pounds on arrival and Alexas only 350.
Dr. Christianson made a late night trip to see them, a treatment plan for each created (with input from killpen donkey illness experts) which I followed to the 'T'. Vitals taken every few hours for several days, texts to the vet, food monitored, powdered milk replacer given and funds raised to pay for it all. They are doing awesome and slowly putting on weight so I no longer worry about them pulling through. They enjoy the heat from the sun in the day and at night get blanketed for warmth.
It was just yesterday that I got my answers to the killpen tag on Chloe's butt. What killpen did they come from and who paid for them to get to HSNT, was there any other history on them? Things have come full circle.
Alexas and Chloe came from the feedlot in Bowie TX, they were purchased by AWF as were the rest of their group of 17 and the six (moms and babies). Yes, they were part of the group in Texas saved when the six boys came to us in August. Talk about karma.
We also know that Lucky A Ranch in Alpine, AZ, raised funds and bailed 14 donkeys from the Bowie killpen in late October, early November. I personally donated to that save. Those 14 were picked up by and taken to HSNT for quarantine and care. In exchange Lucky A Ranch picked up 19 different donkeys from HSNT that had already gone through quarantine and brought them to Alpine AZ. We brought two of those to EqWBR for care and to find the perfect home once healthy. Those two were saved from slaughter by AWF in August, along with 21 others from the Bowie killpen who were picked up and taken to HSNT for quarantine and care.
Amazingly we have two of the 23 saved from slaughter in August when we agreed to take in six from HSNT at the request of AWF. Talk about coincidence or is it divine intervention, maybe a little of both. We have their history and in Alexas and Chloe's cases 'her story' and it is a great one to tell.
If we really wanted to reach, we could say we saved Alexas and Chloe from slaughter. After all we took the six boys allowing these two to be helped, but I don't see it that way. We didn't raise the funds and pay their bail, we didn't transport them away from the killpen, we didn't quarantine them or provide their initial healthcare, but we do play a part of their history as have so many others.
Does the history matter? I think it does. It matters to those who donated each step of the way over these last five months to save and care for all of these lives. It matters to to each of the rescues who stepped in along the way to play their part (raising funds, transport, health care and more). It matters to the rescue world that we can work together, setting egos aside to save so many lives. It matters most of all to Alexas and Chloe because without this history they would not be alive today!
Now they are recovering their health and one day soon will move into a loving family who will understand just how special, how precious and how priceless these two lives are.
Thanks goes to the rescues involved in making their history (in alphabetical order):
Ark Watch Foundation and supporters.
Humane Society of North Texas, their staff and supporters.
Lucky A Ranch and their supporters.
and for us, every one of our fabulous supporters who make what we do possible.
We are truly blessed as are they.
A huge THANK YOU from sweet baby Chloe'and her mom, Alexas.
