Come and meet Wally

This Standard baby (about 7- 8 months old) found himself in the kill pen at a large riding horse auction. We saw both him and his companion Wendall arrive at the sale. As they were pushed off the trailer their halters were immediately removed and they were sent down a long aisle way to what is commonly know as the kill or dead pen. Their owner evidently didn't want to pay the reasonable Coggins test fee on the boys. If he had chosen to do so they would have been sent through the regular part of the sale.

We came home with both boys after purchasing the pair from the individual that bought them from the kill pen. Usually a few bucks profit is enough to make these guys happy as they are more interested in big fat horses and not puny little donkeys.

Well our Wally is a complete sweetheart ! Yes, he is really skinny and had a big worm load. And as expected he was crawling with lice. He also has a very soft agreeable disposition. We did have both boys gelded last week and have treated both their internal as well as external parasites.  I was really worried about their depressed appetite but that has  improved as well. They now expect to be fed well AND on time! 

They had their first farrier visit Tuesday and Wally did quite well as long as he could hide his head under my arm, and I was brushing him with my other hand. We are sure it was his first trim and also his first time being tied. He will make someone an exceptional new friend and companion.

 For more information, contact Sharon 517-623-0000 or email her at akaminidonkeys@fnwusers.com

***UPDATE 2-23-12**

Here is a bit of a Wally update. He developed an upper respiratory infection (certainly not unusual for a baby that was dumped into the kill pen at auction) and that made it necessary to isolate him from other donkeys here at the rescue. Oh how he hated that period. But as most things it worked out for the best. Being confined to his stall it gave me many opportunities to halter, groom, clean his stall ,etc. He got so used to me being around him he quickly started to enjoy my company and decided to welcome me constantly fooling with him. I would lean on him, scratch his boney little butt and intentionally bump into him. Oh yes,  also brought him his hay and grain and of course that made me even more welcome! During his very brief illness he NEVER once missed a meal and never had a temp.

The last two pictures attached here are the first day of turnout following his incarceration. He raced down the lane, back up again and did the most lovely sliding stop one could wish for. I think I also briefly saw him stand on his head a time or two. So much for having been under the weather!

The other pictures were taken about two weeks ago. He was being taught to lead better as well as to load into my trailer. The loading lesson went very well as he only said a "You expect me to do what???"one or two times.

Leading was not too bad till we got to the blacktop road and we asked him to cross the dreaded yellow line. Oh my word!! He showed me how he could stand tall on those skinny hind legs and insist that we were asking the impossible of him. Well my persistence finally won and young Wallace became airborne and flew over that loooooooooong snake in the road in record time. Guess he figured that if he went really HIGH and really FAST he could quickly put the situation behind him. Will work on that more in the future.

He had a visit with the farrier Tuesday and evidently he had forgotten that he had EVER been trimmed and proceeded with doing the young donkey dance for us.No kicking but he did have his dancing slippers on. More work to come.

**UPDATED PHOTOS**