And then there is Wendall

His story is much the same as his friend Wally. But poor Wendall is really afraid of just about everything and everyone with the exception of his smaller buddy Wally.

I am very sure that Wendall has been tackled and grabbed for anything that needed to be done with him from catching to haltering to even being touched.  He constantly hides behind Wally when we go in the stall with them. We must reach over Wally to pet Wendall.  Yes, he was difficult for the farrier. This guy is also under one year of age and it is very clear that no one has ever done anything positive with him. He is really frightened when we halter him, and is ear shy as well. I suspect that someone has restrained this baby by grabbing and holding him down by his ears. Donkey youngsters do NOT normally respond to people the way Wendall does. He is NOT aggressive in any way but avoids us if possible. Even though Wally and Wendall were consigned by the same trader I doubt that they both originated at the same place. Their confidence level is so very different.

Oh how much less difficult it would be for us in the business of rescuing donkeys that their previous owners did NOTHING with them at all instead of using brute force on them! And how I wish there 10 of me.

***Update January 30, 2012***
 
 
Well, Wendell has been with us now for about four weeks and has made great progress. When Wendell first came to stay with us he had to drag a 10 foot lead with him everywhere he went so that I had something to get hold of first and then work my way up to him whenever I wanted to work with him. Now he has attached to his halter a 2 foot "handle", just enough so that I can reach under his chin and have something to get hold of, he will still take a step or two backward or start to turn away when approached but is coming along nicely in that respect.

 My saving grace has been the fact that Wendell absolutely loves his grain and cannot resist it which has been a huge blessing for me to get him to start coming up to me instead of me going to him. I started holding his grain pan and making him come to me to eat his grain on about his third or fourth day with us, this took all the courage he could muster and any movement of even my little finger would send him backward 3 or 4 steps, but after about 3 days of that twice a day it became old hat to Wendell. The next step was asking Wendell to eat grain from my hand which again took alot of courage on his part but again, he just couldn't resist his grain. Wendell now will walk up to me when he sees the grain scoop and eats grain faster out of my hand than I can pour it into my hand.

Wendell carrying around his inner tube

Wendell has discovered how much fun toys can be and plays with just about anything I give him, however an old inner tube from our lawn tractor and an old sweatshirt seem to be his absolute favorites he tosses them into the air, and plays tug of war with Tom.

About a week after Wendell came to us my husband had finished chores ( everyone was belly up to the salad bar), and my husband walked past Wendell with his head in the hay feeder and said, " hey Wendell how's it goin?", he said Wendell jumped back so quickly he thought he might go right through the barn roof! Last week, after all the rain and thunder we had (in January) we had some standing water in the pasture which had frozen and when Wendell tried to walk across to get his yellow toy tub the ice is started making a horrible cracking noise under him and up went the tail and the front feet, he spun around on his back feet and didn't quit running till he was back in the barn! Only after he figured he was safe did he poke his head out to assess the situation and try to figure out what just happened.

Tom and Wendell are beginning to play together more and more, Tom and Jane seem to love bright colored anything that they can carry around so I have bought from the local farm store two kind of floppy plastic tubs that have handles sticking up from the top of them that I use to put all their toys in and they all love to carry those around after they have taken all the toys out and scattered them around the pasture, (it's alot like picking up after the children, I pick them up they scatter them around). Well, Tom was carrying the very bright yellow tub around the other day and decided he wanted Wendell to join in, well Wendell wasn't quite sure about the whole being chased and beaten about the head by that bright yellow tub, but he did so want to play with Tom so once again he mustered up all the courage he could and hung in their running with Tom in the pasture and at least tried to have a good time until Tom finally dropped the tub. Wendell is really a very sweet donkey who wants to be brave and have fun but has a few issues from his past we have to help him through.

Wendell is in foster care with Marcy Smoker. You can contact her at
517-673-5509 or  marcysmoker@hotmail.com