Pickles, Butters & Elliot
These three little nuggets came to the ranch when the moms who raised them to show couldn't bare to see them go to slaughter. It started with Elliot (who has 1 horn because apparently the de-horning process applied to him as a baby didn't take), and soon after, his bunkmate Pickles arrived (gray ears) and finally Butters. We were just missing some Toast or Waffles! Actually, thank goodness no Toast or Waffles - we are all full up on goats at the moment. But we really appreciate the opportunity to keep these fellas in the world. They bring so much joy to us and the other animals. These three are the very first to come running in the morning when they see us roll out with our wagon of hay. They open their mouths and dance around on their hind legs hoping any and all treats fall in. They've lost weight since arriving, because the show program beefs them up. Losing the weight is a good thing! Since they're all boys, their daily feeding includes hand-mixed soy hull pellets with ammonium chloride (to keep them from getting urinary calculi) and sugar "to make the medicine go down" to quote Mary Poppins.
Kindness Heals the Soul
We had an important breakthrough with Brooks, our very shy 2-year-old spotted donkey. He has found his home with the goats! He sleeps with them, and when he wakes up in the morning the goats rub their little faces all over him, like he's one of them. Brooks hasn't let us humans fully pet him yet. So we're happy he's found his hugs in these super sweet boys who just never seem to have a bad day.
