07-15-08

Another update on the little starved emaciated pony. He has been moved to a temporary foster home, and we are giving him some rest before moving him to our rescue for evaluation. He should be here by the beginning of next week.

This morning Tawnee headed out for the 120 mile round trip to pick up a bunch of the horses that were rescued at the livestck auction last Sunday. There is only one more load, which we should be getting tomorrow. It will be great to have them all safe and sound.

On the way back from picking up the horses, Tawnee went a few miles out of the way to look at the next load of 450 bales of hay. We've been having a really hard time finding transporting for it, as it was stacked wrong and it cannot be simply squeezed onto a semi-truck. We have given up and are going to do it all by hand. Anyone want to volunteer some strong arms and trailers? The hay has been sitting in the sun, so the outer layers are bleached, but the inside is lush and green.

Tawnee finally made it to the 10 acre irrigated pasture we lease near Gridley, and the horses got their first look at the green grass. Looks of joy and amazement!

The three horses that were already there came running up with joy and were totally thrilled to see the trailer pull up with more buddies. The horses are Phoenix, Levi and Nugget.

The horses were unloaded and headed out to enjoy their new pasture. Since we're so full at the rescue they will be staying there until horses find homes and we have some space at the rescue. The baby's were no doubt overjoyed to be able to get out and stretch their legs. It always so sad when baby's end up being rescued because someone had to breed their mommy, and since there is no market for grade baby's, off to the auction they went. The sad thing is, two of the mares have already been bred to a stallion.

As Tawnee drove off they were all settling in and looked so peaceful and content in the green grass. While Tawnee was bringing the horses up from the auction, volunteer Annette came out to help do office work. This last week was so hectic and almost no office work got done. Thanks Annette!

Mid afternoon Tawnee and Jason loaded up a number of the evacuated equines to take back to Berry Creek. The fire is burning the other direction and the fire fighters believe there is no chance that Berry Creek is going to get burnt from this fire now.

Spinner was so happy to be back home, he kept whinnying and whinnying when we first got there. The saying is "There's nothing like your own bed" and for a horse that might be "There's nothing like your own pen."

It was a lot faster taking the evacuated equines home than it was to rescue them, mostly because we could make a schedule and drop them off at the opportune times. When we were evacuating them, we were receiving calls left and right for directions here, there and way over there. Today it was just mapped out and planned. Two donkey's and a goat live here.

It was so great reuniting horses with their owners. They were faced with the threat of losing everything to the fire, and now safe and sound once again they are reunited with their baby's. It's a wonderful feeling to be a part of saving lives and bringing joy to victims of potential tragedy.

Once again it's almost tomorrow and the work must start up early tomorrow.