12-14-08 & 12-15-08

12-14-08, part 2.

Early in the morning Jason hooked up the big trailer and Tawnee headed off to the auction. Deb came down later and picked up the other truck and trailer and left shortly after.

The auction was extremely long, their tack sale went until 3:30 pm. NER staff and volunteers were very cold, and shivered and shook the whole day through. It was so cold, and then it started to rain. The horse auction ended late, long after sundown, and by then it was pouring rain and gusting wind. All the staff headed out to the truck to get lead ropes and halters and then out into the dark to find the horses NER had saved.

It was so hard finding the horses, the auction does not have adequate outdoor lighting, and with the wind and rain it was almost impossible to read their tag numbers. They managed to find them eventually.

Once they were all found they were herded down the dark, dreery alleyways to the loading area, where they were safely loaded into the two trailers.

One of the horses that was rescued was this young miniature horse. He looked so sad and pathetic in the rain. So small and fragile, loaded with parasites and his overall health is not good.

Finally all the horses were loaded up and were ready to go. But wait a minute, all the trailers are full with large horses, where's the young mini going to ride?

In the back seat! With some heaving and ho ho ho-ing by Tawnee and Becky the mini was lifted into the back seat of the truck for his warm ride to the rescue with Amber by his side.

He looked so bedraggled and confused in the truck. He was wondering what this new experience was, he had such a long, tiring day. Everyone was settled in and ready to go, and they finally pulled out about 8:00 pm for the long slow drive to the rescue.

On the way back to the rescue Deb pulled slightly off the road to let Tawnee pass her and got stuck in the mud. After some valiant efforts to try to get the rig out, Tawnee and Deb realized that Deb would have to wait there with the mini and the other horses and Tawnee and the other volunteers would go on to the rescue, unload the big trailer, and then Jason could go get Deb and horses unstuck.

Tawnee finally made it back to the rescue with the big trailer. They got the horses unloaded safely and settled in.

Jason headed out to rescue Deb, wondering if a tow truck was going to have to come out. He assessed the situation, hooked up his personal truck to Norcal's truck, and pulled it right out. Once back at the rescue the horses were more than happy to get out of the trailer and onto solid ground.

By this time the little mini, now named Starvin' Marvin, was enjoying his life in the truck. He was finding things to snack on in the truck, including Amber's Cracker Jack's. He was quite resourceful when it came to finding munchies, hence the name. He was warm, dry, and feeling good. By this time, Deb had become quite attached to the little guy. She just had to take him home to foster him until he is better health.

So Jason carried him from Norcal's truck and tucked him into Deb's back seat. He settled right in for the ride. The cool thing about Deb's back seat in her truck is it already had hay waiting for him.

Tawnee got all the horses settled in for the night and then crashed into bed. This sweet guy is a stallion, we are planning on having him gelded. He is extremely well behaved and is very sweet.

Thank you again so much for making this auction a huge success. Yes, it was the longest, coldest, wettest auction ever, but 14 horses lives were saved thanks to your support! This makes a total of 18 horses saved at livestock auctions this month, and over 200 for the year just from auctions. That is 200 horses who very likely would have been shipped over the borders. The auctioneer gave a speach to everyone that since there are no slaughter houses in the United States there are no killer buyers at the auction. After the speech everyone cheered and clapped their hands, even the KB's. Guess the auction house hasn't read the reports from the USDA that over 100,000 horses have been shipped over the borders just this year alone. And yes, they head out from California auctions too.

12-15-08

Tawnee woke up this morning and found out she couldn't move. She was still thawing out from the day before. Claire came out and worked on emails, phone calls, and helped out in the office a bunch.

Tawnee finally got thawed out and headed out to get work done. Tawnee hauled 2 horses from the auction to the rescue last night for a couple previous adopters who saved a couple horses directly from auction yesterday. They didn't have their trailer with them at the auction, so they came here.

Around noon they arrived to pick up their 2 horses.

They also fell in love with one of the other auction horses and decided to adopt him and take him home as well.

They are going to be fostering Dancer, from the Luck 7 group, who is still thin and in rehab. She is looking so much better than when she was rescued.

Tawnee didn't believe that Dancer was putting on weight very well until she looked at the photo that was taken Oct 22nd, when she first came into the rescue. It is hard to see a horse's progress when you are with them every day, but she is definitely on her way to recovery. She has had such a long, uphill battle the whole time.

They loaded up their two new horses from the auction and headed off.

Jason dug a post hole for an automatic waterer post, and did a lot of chores around the ranch that had been on the To-Do list for awhile.

Thanks again for your continued generosity and support!