It’s Saturday, feels like Monday, looks like the frost is becoming a regular occurrence!
Here’s a brain dump for you this morning! May as well share the conundrums, processes and strategies with people who have the opportunity to stop reading and find something else to do!🤣
We’re working with Irie on a twice daily program. She’s our rather over weight, palomino colored pony. We rescued her a couple of years ago with no idea about her history. We noticed her in one of the auction pens looking very agitated and completely lost. This is not unusual but she seemed to lack the ability to get out of the way of the jostling of the other animals. On entering the pen to check hip numbers and suitability of the animals contained within, it became apparent that she was of limited sight and had a protector in the form of a very small, determined mule. To get to her, we needed to get past the mule and we do, contrary to appearances, have a healthy regard for our safety! We resorted to eyeballing her. We ran through a basic observation , from a distance!
Feet - looked reasonable.
Body condition - poor, filthy, excessive number of burrs knotted through her main and tail.
Temperament - impossible to tell under current circumstances.
Vet concerns - sight issues unknown, cause of loss of sight and potential removal of one or both eyes.
Rescue risk level - high unless a bidder was interested in a backyard ornament. If no interest on the auction floor, we would bid.
Impact on ERN - high potential she would stay in sanctuary which impacts space for rescue, feed, vet and hay bills. These known issues are factored in to our decision making.
The auction started, lots of noise, movement and animals in a high octane environment. Irie was driven into the ring with all of the animals from her pen. There was no individual handling. The bidders bid up to the highest offer, then identified the animal that they wanted to purchase from the hip tag. The purchase price drops every time an animal is bought. It quickly became apparent that there was little interest in Irie. Her mule companion was sold. We needed a companion animal for her and identified a small donkey. The prices came down to rescue prices. Still no interest in Irie. She did not present well in the ring. How could she? Bidding slowed down so we decided to enter the fray. Janine raised our bid card and we waited to see if anyone would bid us up. No takers. We were given our choice of hip tags. We chose Irie and the mini donkey. These purchases signaled the end of the easy part of the rescue!
If you have time and the inclination, we can take a wander through our experiences after we took on responsibility for Irie and her donkey companion?
Carlene is doing well although she might disagree. She has discovered muscles that haven’t been used in a while and she says she is aching in places she never imagined! That can only be a good thing!
