cafe le donk made huge progress----3/4 DONE... chip's plan B is doing beautifully. --he is fun to watch-- he plans ahead- which is somewhat unknown around here... there was none of teh usual "do you have any xxxx???" thAT IS SO OFTEN THE CASE WITH SDP PROJECTS... IF HE NEEDED 4" BOLTS HE HAD 10 OF TEHM IN A LITTLE BOX... WITH THE APPROPRIATE KNUTT --- IT WAS --AMAZING.. ALSO FUN WAS HIS CRANK UP PIPE LIFTING DEVICE I HAVE NEVER SEEN BEFORE HE COULD LIFT THOSE OVERHEAD PIPES 10 FEET IN THE AIR WITH VERY LITTLE CONFUSION...-- ALTHO I DID BACK OUT OF THE WAY...
MY ONL PROVBLEM IS--- THE HORSES-- WHETHER PONIES OR BIG DRAFTIES... HORSES ARE NOT DONKEYS CONFRONTED WITH ANY CRO9WDING AQT TEH FEEDER. A POLITE DONKEY SWISHES A TAI.. AHN JERKS THEIR HEAD AOBUT 3 INCHES OUT OF CHEWING RANGE.. WHERE IF 2 HORSES.....ONE HORSE- BAcks up STARTS KICKING, SCREAMS AND TURNS AROUND TO BITE IF TEH KICK DIDN'T CHASE THE OTHER AWAY..- IN THE PROCESS LOOSES THIER PLACE AT TEH FEEDER- WHICH IN THE ANGER OF TEH CHASE- THEY DON'T SEEM TO NOTICE.-- WHERE THE MORE THOUGHTFUL DONKEY NEVER MISSES A MOUTHFUL.
SOUNDS RIDICOULOUS - AND IT IS--
WHAT IT ALSO MEANS IS TO HAVE ANYONE WANDER IN THE DONKEY PEN TO PAT DONKEYS HAS REDUCED THE SAFETY FACTOR FROM 98.4% TO 1.3%. because of the horses and thier entirely different approach to life.
MO IS HUGE---STILL NOT THE 1800 POUNDS SHE SHOULD BE... BUT BIG... I HAVA ABSOLUTELY NO QUALMS ABOUT GOING IN THE :"FEEDER" WITH HER....PUTTING MY HAND ON HER RUMP -- SAYING "MO PLEASE DO NOT KICK ME" AND WALKING PAST WITHIN INCHES OF HER REAR.-- ALL OF THAT TAKE S YEARS OF EXP[ERIENCE--- I PUT MY HAND ON HER RUMP TO SAY "HEY.. IN CASE YOU WERE NOT NOTICING... . I AM BACK HERE " TEHN IN CONVERSATIONAL TONES I ASK HER NOT TO KICK ME- ADN .... SO FAR... SHE HAS NOT. HER ATTITUDE HAS BEEN- PROBABLY-- IT IS NOT WORTH THE INTERUPTION OF MY HAY CHEWING PROJECT.
WHEN SHE FIRST ARRIVED, IF YOu GOT NEAR HER REAR END SHE WOULD KICK-- WITH GREAT ACCURACY--- IT WAS MY ASSUMPTION HTAT SHE WAS "PUT IN STOCKS" TO GET SHOES ON HER-- PROBAbly... teh blacksmith - in an effort to get the shoes on as quickly and accurately as possible, would put her in an amazingly storng wood frame affair and tie her foot up in position for him to trijm adn nail on the shoe- this is never popular with horses altho it is very common-- you hardly ever--- -- no make that -- i have never seen an older, and tall blacksmith... by the time a young man gets enough experience to be good, his back is gone.... so he hires an assistant--- ( i.i a young guy who's back isstill functioninig) i have mentioned before the 3 generations of kriz family that fly around the country and deal with the budweiser horses - all teh men are very short- now that i think about it..... i met one of them on a flight to california once-- the only baggage he had was teh usuall soft sidded leather carry on -- with his hammers, knives rasps... and nippers--- --that would be hard to explain to security now.
back to mo---- it took 2? weeks of just touching her befor she relaxed...the other interesting part is, she was... during this time.... totally safe to handle to harness- drive-- and un harness-- because she understood what was going on- and being an inteligent animal- if there was no reason to kick... she didn't.
ALL OF THIS IS TOTALLY RELATED TO MUZZLES AND VETERNARIANS AND OUR DANES,,,,.
where you could now get in trouble with mo is to shut the stalll door in her face when she thinks she ought to be allowe to go thru that door... she might flip it with her nose and fling you across teh alleyway...
she needs to have someone hold her while she grazes on my grassy patch-- and she wou ld stand tehre-- left alone, she wantes to run up and down boxford road... and i don't seem to be able to get her to understnad-- my rule there is an unrelenting one
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Dear Carlene,
I know I just wrote you with Rizz’s two month update, but I am so proud of her remarkable performance yesterday, that I want to share it with you.
We had a tornado watch while I was at work yesterday afternoon in DC at the Department of Agriculture building. When we get a tornado watch, we evacuate to the sub-basement of the building. As in all emergency situations, I have the option to shelter in place until emergency personnel can evacuate me. Seeing as how my office has windows and is on the top floor of the building, I decided it wasn’t the best place to be waiting while watching for a tornado....I didn’t want to be the first one to see it 😊. So Rizz and I headed down the 12 flights of stairs with the hundreds of others making the same journey. There were people crowded in front of us and behind us, but Rizz kept pace with the crowd with, “step, brace, step brace, step brace...”. When we got to the sub basement, the topic of conversation with everyone was how calm and well behaved Rizz was. Since this was right at the time of the evening commute, when the tornado watch was over, we had to walk to the train station in a deluge of rain and stand in it on the platform while waiting for the delayed train. Also, since the trains had been delayed, the platform was packed with people and again, the topic of conversation around us was how good Rizz was. We ended the day by stopping at the store and while we were checking out, Rizz lay on the floor and rested her head on the bottom of the shopping cart and slept. It struck me then that this was just a 19 month old puppy that had a really hard work day! I know she will continue to mature into her work, but yesterday, she performed as if she had been doing this for years - thank you and the trainers for such a great partner!
Heidi
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wasn't therer a seeing eye dog who got her owner down 92 flights of stairs in the world trade center????
