More New Animals!

When we went to pick up Bacon Bitz, we got her from a farm that specialized in "mini animals."  We fell in love with Astro, and had to bring him home for my sweet daughter (and horse lover) Courtney's 10th birthday!

Astro is a sweet boy.  But the trouble started the day we brouht him home!

He is not only a stubborn little donkey, he is ungelded (not neutered).  So he has lots of ... um... pent up frustration.

A couple days after we brought him home, he bit off one of my baby goats' tails!  I had to haul that baby goat inside, clean up the nerve and cartiledge that was left exposed and sticking out from the skin, wash it in neosporin, bandage him up, and take him to a vet to get it sewn back together!!  That baby goat slept in a bunny cage, in my house, for 2 nights until she could heal.   Stoney stared at her forever, then finally curled up beside her for the night, and growled at us when we tried to move  him.

I couldn't leave her in the goat pen with the other goats, because animals have a strong sense of "survival of the fittest."  It's not pretty, but it's true.  The other goats (even the mama goat/herd queen who takes care of everyone) started butting her relentlessly when I tried to reintroduce her after her stitches.  They knew she was weak, and were likely trying to put her out of her misery.  After a VERY slow reintroduction, they're all playing together again.  Little Narnia is still gun shy after such a horrible experience, and she still thinks I'm her care taker (she runs to me to give me kisses and nuzzle her little nose under my chin when I come to see them), but I rather enjoy that! :)

But that wasn't the end of the Astro trouble.  He also ran away, and ended up three houses down... not once, but TWICE.  The first time, the neighbor boy came to tell us, and we went to retrieve Astro from their barn.  The second time wasn't so easy.  Astro broke into their stallion fields and started a ruckus.  The stallions can never be together when they are ungelded, and Astro managed to get 2 stallions together in a field, and chasing him.  The worst part was, Courtney saw him, went in to get him, and Astro ran to Courtney.  This meant that a crazed and scared donkey was chasing my 10 year old daughter, while 3 angry horses were on the donkey's tail, planning to kill him.

Thank GOD Courtney hopped a fence after quite a bit of running, and she was OK.  At one point, however, the horses had Astro down and were biting, kicking and stomping him.  He rolled over on his back to "give up" just before we were able to get  him out.  Thank GOD for protecting all the kids that were there (3 of my 4 kids were there, and all 4 neighbor boys were there), and for allowing us to get Astro out in time.  That would have been an ugly thing for the kids to witness.

Needless to say, Astro needed a more secure pen.  My husband and I spent the next morning building this:

Astro's a little frustrated with us for penning him in so well, but we haven't had any other incidents since he has been secured better!