Lavender Dreams Farm & Donkey Rescue

We got up early, fed and gave water to the little bird (we named her Topsy) and went out to try to set her free again. It took just a second while she got her bearings and then she took off in a slow upward arc and quickly gained speed. As she headed towards a stand of pine her parents swooped in beside her and flew with her until we couldn’t see them anymore. I have no idea where the parents had been because there were no birds and no bird sounds and then there they were. We were delighted to have gotten to save and release another baby bird and see her flying free Feeding a baby bird is serious business – every hour with dropped and tweezers can be a full time job!. This morning we saw another of the little swallows in the grass below the lilac bush and so we are back to feeding another baby bird. He is very tired and weak and we wonder if maybe the parents had not been caring for him since the siblings are all out now. It is definitely the bird we have seen in the opening of the birdhouse and not one of the others - we are going to try to nurse him back to health so that he can join his family.  

We had a torrential rainstorm last night and are grateful for a day that we do not have to water! The gardens are beautiful and lush, the rain making the whole area clean and pure. Harvested rhubarb, strawberries and French breakfast radishes and am baking pies, freezing berries and canning preserves while it is still cool.  

I brushed out Frankie in the early hours right after dawn - he has become so soft! He is shedding the bristly hair from poor nutrition and lack of care for downy new growth. He sees the brush and he is at my side in a flash. He now loves to be fussed over rather than walking away from it. It is still painful for Frankie to walk and he has a very slow gait but he enjoys the mini-walks and any attention he gets. His relationship with the other donkeys has improved and they now all gather at the fence for treats and lounge in the sun together. It’s a heartwarming sight to see them like this, getting along so well. It’s not perfect but it is much improved. They can even eat together now - I did know if that would ever happen the way Frankie Lee would stand in the middle of the hay and kick and bite so that the others would stay away.  

We lost one of our most loved chickens July 4^th. Blackie was our very first chicken and was a gentle, sweet girl. She always came running when we called her name, wings flapping, legs going as fast as they could. Her favorite food was macaroni which I cook for the chickens in the winter months. Blackie loved to be carried around, at almost 10 pounds she was very heavy but she loved being cuddled and held. She was eating cookie crumbs in the morning with the other chickens but in the early afternoon we found her inside the chicken house. She is missed so much as she had such a presence about her. On Halloween she would wear an orange lei and let us take her picture. I will post it later and will keep everyone posted on the baby sparrow. 

Loafing shed addition in progress….

July 4^th and we are up early – 5 am – to feed the baby swallows that we found in the yard late last night. We gently open their mouths and drop in raw bits of hamburger mashed up with water. We give them tiny droplets of water mixed with Rescue Remedy and they appear ready for flight. One is almost twice the size of the other and is flapping his wings. David stands in the middle of the yard and of the little bird flies, soaring high and disappearing high into the air. His sibling seems weaker and flies a short distance and lands in the grass. 2 more unsuccessful takeoffs and we brought him back inside. We tried again around noon and he did better, his parents swooping all around, but he can not yet maintain any elevation. We think he is just too young. Perhaps he was born later than his siblings. Since we were up at dawn I got busy in the kitchen, baking blueberry muffins, applesauce muffins and peanut butter cookies. The cookies are my Mom’s recipe that I have been using for years and never lets me down. I always take the liberty of adding half a bag of chocolate chips. I will include the recipe below.   It’s already 85 degrees by 9am but David takes the dogs and goat on their daily hike anyway. I stay home and get chores done so we can maybe, maybe have a few hours off this holiday. We have been including Frankie Lee in our walks but it is just too hot today and the donkeys are all lying in the dust clouds they have created by rolling. Frankie is still adjusting to life here but you can tell he really likes us as he comes when we call his name and he has finally realized just how good an ear rub feels. I brushed all the donkeys out last week and got piles of hair. There was a gentle wind blowing that day and the hair blew across the packed dirt looking like little animals running. Joey saw the movement and immediately sensed they were a threat. He bucked and snorted, creating an instant frenzy with all the donkeys but it was soon over when I showed Joey it was only hair. Donkeys are so intelligent. If only people would understand that donkeys are not stubborn, that they simply need to be shown either what is being asked of them or what a perceived threat actually is. Donkeys have so much to teach us. 

The new loafing shed for Frankie and friends is almost finished! It’s been quite a job building it with just the two of us but it looks great and very professional. We have named it the Jubilee Dream Home for Donkeys and Long Ears. Each of the letters represents the initials of the people who so generously donated towards Frankie’s rescue and care. Jimmy the goat has become Frankie’s companion and will also share the new enclosure. The ducks like to stay close to Jimmy so they will also live there until winter.

We are grateful to each and every one of you who have helped us to help the donkeys. There are so few places willing or able to take in donkeys and we are very appreciative of the assistance. We have given our lives towards this venture, helping donkeys and other animals, but without financial help we would be very limited in what we could accomplish.  

From all of us to all of you – Wishing You a Happy and Safe July 4^th!

Summer arrived in full force this week. We went from a very long, freezing cold winter to a mild, short single week of Spring to full bore heat. It is unbelievably hot and the gnats and mosquitoes are out in deadly numbers. We are wearing netted hats to keep them away and the donkeys are covered with the Skin So Soft and eucalyptus spray I make up. (See last year’s blog entries for the recipe – it works great for animals and people).   Frankie Lee is doing really well. He is doing much better with the other donkeys and is sharing food and treats now. He has become a brushing junkie and just seeing the curry comb brings him running. We are very proud of the way he is adjusting and developing the social skills he completely lacked. He has not bitten anyone in weeks! The farrier was out again on Friday and was pleased with the way Frankie’s feet are looking and the way Frankie is able to carry his weight evenly on them. That was fabulous news.   Many of Frankie Lee’s new blog friends have emailed me asking for more updates. I apologize for not keeping up. Sometimes I am just so overwhelmed with chores and taking care of all our animals I don’t get inside to write on our blog. I will try to do better! We have people reading our blog from all around the world now and we get emails daily from people wishing Frankie well and asking about his health. You have all helped him overcome major adversity both physically and psychologically with your thoughts and prayers and financial support. We thank you all for your love and concern for this little donkey who got a second chance. Jimmy Toe Toes, the newly adopted goat, is adjusting well. He likes everyone he meets and is a voracious eater. We had an outdoor chip and dip party last weekend and Jimmy was on a leash, being very well behaved. That is until someone gave him a chip. Smokey (our big, black dog) guards everything. Birds, mice, rats, any small animal we bring home Smokey will keep tabs on. He also watches over food and when Jimmy came up to the table for more chips and saw Smokey standing guard, he put his head down and butted Smokey out of the way. Chips went flying, the table fell over and Smokey was totally surprised. But peace was soon restored when they each got a chip. When we take the dogs and Jimmy on a walk they all trot along together. Jimmy is learning ‘no’, heel, and come. He is so smart! This goat has definitely found his forever home and has settled easily into the routine here. He loves the chickens and nestles in with them to sleep. He was in the chicken pen temporarily as we had no place to put him in the emergency situation we found him in but it has worked out great. Instead of building him his own pen we think we will just enlarge the chicken yard as the chicken house is big enough for all of them. Complete with fan in the summer and heat in the winter.  

It’s already hot for early June and so it was time to get the duck pond out. Sunny and Cher were quacking in the spot we set it up and were longing to get out of the baby pool we use in the colder months and into the large and deeper size. They are happily swimming about and are content to sleep, lay their eggs and play in there from dawn to dark. If we didn’t make them go in for the night they would stay in there 24/7 except to eat. They are pretty fun to have around and are always a big hit when people come to visit. 

On a sad note, our big, gray cat Pookie crossed over the Rainbow Bridge on May 19th. He was almost 20 and lived a full and wonderful life here with us but of course, it is never enough time together. We rescued him from a shelter

Monday was quite a day! We had been asked to help with a goat that had been shot and to bring along our homeopathic remedies and anything else we could think of. The goat’s friend had been killed by gunshot and this little guy’s leg was a putrid mess. Fortunately a neighbor to this goat had begun cleaning the wounds a few days earlier. When we saw him we immediately said that we would take him if the owners would release him to us. Since they had no intention of spending a dime on this little fellow (they didn’t even know his name for sure) they were glad to relinquish him to us.

We brought him home in our pickup, sitting in the front seat and baaahing quietly. We have our work cut out for us. Nursing his leg is quite a job but it already is looking better today

The first thing we did was to introduce him to all the animals here and show him around. The donkeys were very curious about the little goat and they all sniffed noses together which was a wonderful Kodak moment. He played with Vinnie right away but was afraid of Smokey at first and butted at him with his little horns but today they are fine together.

(We have not named him yet but are zeroing in on one. Al? Jimmy? Lucky? All suggestions are welcome!)

We are definitely not set up for goats here and had to settle him into the chicken pen last night with a giant doghouse that was left here by the precious owners. Little Goat slept thru the night and was up even earlier than the ‘up at dawn’ donkeys, baaahing away, straining to see up into our window as he was standing on top of his house! I had forgotten that goats are climbers. All day long he has been jumping from house to stool to table, playing and romping. He had just a small pen where he was before, with nothing but dirt and a crummy fence so he is really having fun. We worked in the big garden in back today and brought Little Goat in with us while we worked. He played with Vinnie and amused himself climbing on the dirt piles. The ducks waddled in and inspected him closely. He didn’t seem to mind them and so 24 hours later all seems to be fine except that our one cat, Bill, is not too thrilled with him.

We are hoping that he might make a good friend for Frankie Lee (Seabiscuit had a goat friend!) but we will have to see on that as Frankie still needs a lot of TLC and healthcare.

We just bought all the materials for the new donkey shelter for Frankie Lee and began putting in the piers Saturday. It will be a long project for just the 2 of us but at least it has been started! Frankie continues to blossom with his new diet, new hooves and all the love he is receiving. He still has some serious problems but we take things one day at a time and are grateful for any improvement physically or emotionally.

Thank you all for your emails of support for the donkeys and especially Frankie Lee. All that love streaming his way is sure helping him to recover from years of neglect.

Wednesday started off fine. Frankie ate breakfast and then went to stand in the sun which is his normal routine. But by 10am he was acting like he was not feeling well. Head down, little coughs, half yawns, excessive gas. The he got down and did not move. This all happened very quickly – within 10 minutes. Although we have never seen colic ourselves it was a pretty sure thing Frankie had it. I raced to the phone and called our neighbors, Gene and Paige, who have had horses for over 40 years who came down immediately to help. We got Frankie up and began walking him round and round the corral. We got a bottle of mineral oil down him (no easy feat) and gave him Bute for pain so that he would not feel the need to get back down. Although donkeys love to roll, a roll now could mean death by kinked intestine. So we walked and we walked. We walked thru the afternoon and until dark when Frankie pooped. This was a huge event as this meant his intestines were working properly. We watched him through the night and in the morning he pooped again and was eager for breakfast. It is often impossible to know why an animal colics but Frankie has been through a lot with a significant dietary change. He also Hoovers the ground ingesting small particles while inhaling stray bits of hay between meals which could have caused it. So now he must wear a small mask over his nose and mouth temporarily to prevent him from doing this. 

 Yesterday Frankie was feeling great and hee hawing for food bright and early. We are watching him carefully but the vet thinks that he is fine and that the colic was caught just in time to prevent serious harm. It was so scary but we set aside our panic and with the help of our friends were able to bring him out of a potentially fatal colic. It comes on so fast that if you are not alert and prepared it could be too late. We are so grateful and feel so blessed to have Frankie fully recovered and still with us. I am sure a lot of his issues, including the colic, have been helped by all the thoughts and prayers streaming to him from all over the world by people who are reading his blog. Thank you all!