09-30-08

The auction rescue is currently at $1877. 12 more days to make the goal a reality!

Penny Possum was ready to go home today, so she was loaded up after Jason got his morning chores done.

Penny got her last look of the rescue and said "Goodbye!" to all her friends she had made here.

It was a long trip to the northern coast of Ca! It was almost 500 miles round trip.

Penny Possum's mommy was so happy to see her and take her home. We met partway at a park, Penny had another hour and a half ride from where we met. People were coming up and asking about the horse and the rescue while we were unloading and re-loading Penny. It's so great that rescued horses can be ambassadors for other horses that need rescuing.

There was a lot of neat site seeing to be done on the way back to the rescue. Little short 5 minute stops that help stretch the legs and get some new sights and sounds in. First off was the Bigfoot tourist trap. They had a bunch of really nice wood carvings, all for the $200-$500 range. For all you Shrek and Donkey fans, here he is, life size! It's amazing it was done by a chainsaw. It turns out that the big-foot tourist stop also had a great carving of Shrek and Donkey.

This may be the next wild-lands rescue towing rig. Or not. It is quite the school bus, they must have pretty tough winters if they need that just to get the kids to school and back home again...

They claim this tree is 1000 years old. We didn't take the time to count, we'll go ahead and take their word for it.

It was a long trip, well after dark once all was said and done. Now all the horses are tucked away for the night waiting for the first traces of dawn to appear.

It all starts over again in a few hours.

09-28-08

First thing this morning Jason drug himself out of bed, dressed up to do a dirty job, and got the wheel fixed on the trailer. Last time it was used some mysterious grinding noises were coming from the wheels, sounding like a bearing. Fortunately it was an easy fix and it got done in less than half an hour.

Then Jason changed into town clothes to take Lallie to her new home.

Deb came out again today to work with the horses. She is sure a very useful volunteer and member of our organization! She got several horses evaluated and got some training done. Great work Deb!

Annette and Kimmy came out today as well and cleaned stalls, did all the dirty work first, and then headed in to do adoption applications. Thanks so much for your great help! We really appreciate it. It's not always fun cleaning stalls, but it has to be done and it sure takes a load off everyone else.

Lallie enjoyed her new home, and got to meet Hershey, another horse that was adopted from us. She is so happy in her new home!

Hershy sure is looking great these days, so clean and fat and happy. Just the way we love to see horses treated. He gets his fly mask washed and dried every night. His Mommy is the most diligent person around when it comes to keeping the hay our of his water trough. Thanks for giving Hershy such a wonderful home.

Jason headed to Home Depot to get some siding for the tack room. Once he arrived back to the rescue it had to be unloaded. Once again he changed, this time back from town clothes to work clothes. He kind of felt like a teenager that couldn't quite figure out which outfit to wear today.

He was able to get some of the siding up and it looks great!

Nook and his Mommy headed off to their new home today. Tawnee loaded them up and delivered them this afternoon.

Nooks adoptive mommy is so thrilled to have Nook home now. She will be fostering Jai, Nooks mommy, until he is weaned. She has been driving to the rescue every few days to spend time with Nook, and it is just going to work out great to have Nook and Jai moved to her place. Thank you so much for giving Nook a great home!

Pastor Larry, the guy that may be performing weddings at the rescue (if there are any takers,) came out this evening to adopt Dinky Donkey. Larry has recently lost his donkey, Red Dog, he had owned for 15 years. Red Dog was the mascot for his ranch. Dinky Donkey will take Red Dog's place at the ranch for the next many years. The really neat thing is, Cowgirl, Dinkey Donkey's best friend of many years, is boarded at Larry's stable and so Dinky and Cowgirl will get to spend time together. How cool is that!

Ok, this is the first and last mention of this voting for money things unless something extra special comes along. We've been asked if we would be eligible for this particular one, and the answer is Yes, we are eligible, but after the Petfinder had such troubles with their voting system we are wary of any online voting system. Especially when there is so much money involved. You are welcome to vote if you would like, click here. It seems more secure, and there are anti-vote fraud measures in place, but we do not feel called to solicit votes at this time. Feel free to check it out and spread the word if you would like. We would definitely be grateful if anything was to come of this, but we are really burnt out from online voting websites.

It is so great that equines are finding their forever homes, opening up spaces for more to be rescued at the next auction.

09-28-08

Quite a lot happened today. For starters, the auction fund is now at $1847. Thank you so much for your generosity in saving lives! Over halfway there, and still some time but it is ticking down. Oct 12th is the next auction day.

Long time volunteer Teressa came out today to volunteer wherever needed, and among lots of other things she did she got to rode a horse for the first time while volunteering. She loves riding English, and since Roan is an English horse she got to ride. She got to evaluate her as a dressage horse to see what she knew.

The abandoned dog we rescued along the road loved hanging out with Becky. She was trying to smooch a grooming as Becky is one of the best doggy groomers in the west. We named the doggie Hugs, it seems to fit her well. Despite her subtle clues, Hugs didn't get a grooming today. Becky took the day off from dogs to spend time with horses instead.

The contractor came out today and wrapped up his part on the tack room. The roof got nailed down, Jason will be the one that lays the metal roofing down on top...

...the front door got installed and it's looking really nice!

Beauty tried to steal a turkey sandwich off the picnic table, someone needs to let her know that horses are herbivores!

One of the highlights of the day: Hugs got a forever home! She couldn't be smiling any bigger if she tried, and neither could the kids. She is going to be loved and pampered for sure. Rescuing dogs and getting them into homes might just be easier than horses. But, they're not facing cruel slaughter either. We're so glad we could get Hugs a home, a dog whose heartless owner dumped on the back road, hoping their problem would just go away and die, literally.

In between working ferociously hard, Tawnee spent a few minutes winding twine on the twine ball. All the extra twine laying around is now in the twine ball. It's getting bigger and bigger. It seems the balls hairy days are over for now.

Deb came out and worked extremely hard evaluating, cleaning, training, and spending time with the horses. Thanks so much Deb! Deb is becoming an awesome matchmaker when it comes to matching a rescued horse to an open home.

Jason helped do some cleanup in between fixing fences and doing bookwork. The list of chores he got done just goes on and on...

One of the horses Deb evaluated today, Lallie, got adopted. This previous adopter got married this weekend and spent part of her honeymoon at the rescue, adopting her new baby. She introduced a novel concept: she says she should have gotten married at the rescue. That would be quite interesting to say the least, any takers? We have a pastor that has adopted from us and enjoys spending time at the rescue, so, we're ready.

Finally the old tack rooms walls were taken down, Annette, Deb, Tawnee and Jason each grabbed a corner and moved it so it can provide shelter for some horses.

It looks great and the horses loved it. Not bad for $180 at Cosco a couple years ago. It has served its purpose in life very well, and it's still providing shelter! It's strange having it gone from its original place though, it has been there since ground was broke at the rescue.

After the old tack room was removed it was time to clean up where it sat. Lots of boards had to be moved that held saddles and blankets.

As the sun was setting the area was looking neat and tidy.

Ann Marie came out to spend some time with Sierra and her baby. Annette enjoyed saying goodnight to Sierra and Hocks, her baby, before she left. It's the first time that Sierra has taken a carrot from someone other than Ann Marie.

Sierra is really doing good now that her baby is here. She seems happier, more content, and unless all our eyes are deceiving us, she's gained a lot of weight recently Maybe it's all in our imagination, but she sure seems a lot better now that her baby is back.

09-26-08

The auction fund is now at $1597. We are almost halfway there! Thank you so much for your generosity.

We headed down to Gaiser Pets in Yuba City as they had a box of donation funds for us. We cannot thank business' enough for setting out donation cans for us, it really adds up! Thank you Gaiser Pets! They had the most creative, cutest donation box we have ever seen, definitely an A++.

From there we headed out to get some horses from a back yard breeder. We've gotten a lot of horses that he takes to the Roseville Livestock Auction, mostly mustangs: bred mares, babies, etc. Sierra was the last horse that we rescued from the auction that came from his place and she was extremely emaciated. He offered to let us come buy some of his horses, for about the same price as we would pay at the auction, before he takes them to auction so we took up his offer. Come to find out, these horses are living in a junkyard! There is twisted metal, rebar sticking straight up in the air, just a horrible mess.

We were coming there to get two horses, a mare and a gelding, but then we realized that the mare had a baby of her own and had also adopted Sierra's baby when the guy hauled Sierra off to the auction, leaving an orphan foal. Good thing this mare was wise enough to take care of the baby when the guy was not. We made an offer on the baby's, which was denied, and after a long bickering he agreed to sell them to us at $100 each. We paid $125 for the adult horses, one of which he said was crazy (the gelding.) He got down close to Tawnee's ear and whispered "If you weren't buying him I would butcher him myself." It sure made Tawnee's blood boil!

We got the 4 horses out of the junkyard and into decent living conditions at our Gridley irrigated pasture. We unloaded three of them, but left Sierra's baby in the trailer. We have a big surprise for Sierra!

Sierra is looking so much better than when we rescued her at the auction in July!...

...she was merely a bag of bones. By the way, the back yard breeder bred her to a paint stallion in this condition.
Sierra and baby are happily reunited now! The baby was so happy to see his mommy, he just kept whinnying and whinnying before we unloaded him. We are so happy to reunite mommy and baby.

Have a great weekend!

09-25-08

Today was one of those office work days that has no interesting photo's. Being stuck behind a computer is not glamorous or fun, but it is a vital part of rescuing horses. Appointments were made for potential adopters to see the horses. Two horses were placed in adoption pending today: Annie and Mariah. Lots of phone calls and emails were done too. It's tough keeping up with all the contact that comes our way, but we do the best we can!

We worked hard on getting an E-news written up and sent out. If you didn't get a copy, click here to read it. We hope you enjoy it!

One of the people making appointments forwarded a link to a blog called "The Jurga Report: Health Horse Headlines." It has a great article about horse slaughter and what can be done to do away with this horrible activity. We think you will find the article quite interesting if you have a couple extra minutes, click here.

And, to keep everyone focused on why horses have to be rescued, here is a link to a news report done undercover by a Canadian news company. It's a 20 minute documentary, so grab a box of tissues. It is well worth watching if you would like to see the reality of what happens in "civilized" Canada to our beloved horses. The borders need to be shut: yesterday!

This is a small blog, but that is what happens when office work gets caught up on. We did get the hay barn ordered, 3 - 4 weeks it should be here! We just have to get the land leveled for it.