12-12-08

Rescue Story - Nirvana

This weekends story is about Nirvana, a wonderful miniature mule.

In October 2004, we rescued Nirvana. She is a Mini Mule, only 35 inches tall. When Nirvana's master, who was raising Mini Mules, died in about 1995, the locals did not know what to do with the mini mules, so they let Nirvana and about 6 other mini mules loose to fend for themselves. Over 10 years, Nirvana's friends (the other mini mules died of starvation in the long, cold winters and deep snows; by being killed by Mountain Lions; and by being hit by cars and trucks. Eventually, Nirvana was the only one left. People from time to time would chase Nirvana with motorcycles and other things to have fun at Nirvana's expense. The locals would capture her every couple of years and tie her down and hacksaw her hooves.

In the Fall of 2004, The Plumas County Animal Control contacted us and told us about Nirvana, they asked whether we would rescue her, and we said, "Yes". When we rescued Nirvana, she had been wandering around the mountains of Northern California for about 10 years. Her hooves were in extremely bad shape. Her front hooves were about 6-8" to long and curled into the air. She had not foundered, but her hooves just had not been cared for in the right way.


Her hooves were extremely long, generally we don't see this on equines that are roaming free.

She was so little but had a lot of hoof on her.

We trailered her out to our veterinarian where a local farrier stood by ready to trim her feet. The vet was ready in case sedation was necessary, but she was a good girl.

There was a lot of hoof trimming to do, but Joe did a great job!

Thank you Joe for donating your time to make Nirvana a much more comfortable mini. She had to learn how to walk all over again since she had been walking for so long on her overgrown feet.

Soon she was all better and ready to be placed into a loving home.

We found that home where she is still living very happily in 2008.