23rd February 2007
Princess Lolly here - my human has just realised that my learning capabilities are superior - because I knew that I had to come out of the stable alone to have my special medicine this morning to prevent the others sharing it, and what's more there was a bit of white left in the bottom of the bowl yesterday which she collected up by rubbing a piece of brown bread round the bowl, this morning that got forgotten so I picked the bowl up and gave it to her and then followed her to the kitchen for the bread to be rubbed around the bowl, just incredible the human thought after only one helping.
Sadly though I cannot take credit for being the only clever one in our yard - this week we have the Mystery of the opening of a stable door, which could have been a mystery for a long time if it hadn't been solved by our very Jean Marple this morning.
Every morning this week Giselle's stable door has been opened during the time that she is supposed to be having her breakfast, (she is having a special breakfast every day because despite numerous visits from the dentist she is a little bit thin due) and stays in her stable until she has finished.
This week the door has been opened every day; at first the human thought she had failed to close it properly, so next time she made a point of putting the bolt across and then the foot pedal and doubled checked. Then she hid in the kitchen and watched - all the donkeyss except Champers went out into the field - and it wasn't long before Champers put his head right down and rubbed the foot pedal with his head easy, all that was required then was teeth to pull the bolt across! The human was so amazed that he should use his head and not a hoof, and no wonder he is the one putting on weight and not Giselle.........................................
17th February 2007
This is Mummy's little Princess here - well I always knew I was a Princess but now it has been confirmed by a professional.
These last few weeks I have had a delicate little problem, and it was suggested that I had - you know whats !!!?
Every day when I was let out of my stable I would rush to the wheelbarrow and rub my chest along the handles and having relieved the terrible irritation of that then I would turn round and give my hind legs and tail the same treatment ? oh it was so nice just to have a scratch.
Well it all came to a ?head? or more truthfully a ?tail? last week when my human was indulging in a spot of mutual grooming and discovered a bald patch down that appendage and worse still lots of raised lumps inside my hind legs, and if it was possible for matters to get any more serious, my skin felt extremely hot and sweaty.
Having smoothed on various cooling salves to no effect, the cavalry was summoned in the form of the ?vet? ? Was I at death?s door? - Would I be scarred for life? - Was it ?YOU KNOW WHATS??
Some flakes of skin were scraped off and rushed to a microscope, should the human order the wreath of carrots at this point? ? well only for me to eat - I have apparently got a fungal infection.
How has this disaster occurred? - well we donkeys all had the added luxury of deep straw beds during the cold weather and the mites that were living in the straw decided I was tasty enough to bite!! - the cheek of it.
Once they had made a hole in my skin, it was similar to when you get bitten by a midge, it formed a raised bump which got itchy, which made me scratch, which inflamed the skin and hee-haw the vet says you have the perfect conditions for a fungal infection to move in and then to thrive under the skin - that in turn made me even more itchy, which made me scratch more, and the rest is history !!
The all important cure - the broken skin flakes, beneath which the fungus is growing protected from the fresh air which would kill it, slowly move up the hairs - these protective flakes have to be scraped off together with any loose hair and then a fungicidal cream carefully applied to the bald bits.
So what on earth has any of that to do with my being a princess? Well you have all read about the ?princess and the pea? and how her skin was so delicate that she was bruised by the pea even though a pile of mattresses ? all of us donkeys had the same straw beds, but it was only my delicate skin that was affected ? need I say more?
10th February 2007
Well I don't know about your world, but mine has turned white!!
Not just a spinkling, but big time snow, the sort that encourages me to rush around the paddocks doing big snow plough turns so that everyone gets covered in the snow I have disturbed - which of course is why not much has happened and we are still shut in our stables!! Spoil sports! I bet I could soon make Annabell into a snowball if they let me out.
Of course on the credit side, it has been so very cold that one night my human gave us extra hay at 10pm which helped give us all a nice warm feeling in our tummies, she then switched our red heat lamps on as well, real luxury. Just as well because the next morning the front of our stables were thick with frost and it took my human ages to get the car ready to go to school.
I have appeared twice on Television this week with my stable mates as part of the weather forecast, showing us all on a frosty morning in one of the paddocks with our individual piles of hay. My human is trying to put us donkeys in the public eye, as this year marks the forty years of the Donkey Breed Society and we are all supposed to be trying to publicise the donkey as much as possible.
The vet came and gave Annabelle her second jab, I heard her say that she was a lovely donkey but then she didn't see me in my stable next door!
My human is already studying the show calendar to see which shows we are hoping to go to, I heard them say that I am going to be the main donkey going to the shows this year, so I hope to be going out for days and having those humans to myself and lots of fussing and extra grooming which I simply adore.
I heard those humans talking about all those donkeys less fortunate than us who have no kind of shelter in this wet and cold weather; I just cannot imagine what it must be like for them, it just doesn't bear thinking about. We all line up in the middle of the afternoons here saying that we want to come in, although sometimes they do make us wait until about 5.30 which is most annoying because by then we all want to be first in and there is a charge.
Have you noticed how the snow deadens all the sounds, and reflects all the light even when it is dark; when I bray it sounds sort of muffled as if I am doing it under a blanket, which is probably why we are still shut in, no-one heard my alarm call, and when it got dark last night you could still see everything against the bright white.
We were out in our paddock when it started snowing, and it just settled on our backs and built up and up until we all looked as if we were wearing white fur coats instead of brown and grey ones, and do you know it was really warm underneath, not at all wet like you would imagine.
My friends up in Lancashire have a sledge and their donkey pulls it along in the snow, you can see their picture on the driving page; if you want to take your donkey out for a snowy walk you will need to paint the underside of their hooves with oil so that the snow doesn't get stuck in them and then you will find they can walk along quite easily, and because we donkeys have got four hooves instead of two we don't fall over like you humans.
Do I hear the door opening? are we going out? yipeee I like snow..........................................................................................in fact most donkeys like the snow so if you have any photographs of yours playing in the snow why don't you email them to me.
3rd February 2007
Have you had your Donkey magazine yet? I have and there is a special junior page this time - page 35, as well as some more about juniors at the Championship on page 33. I thought it was so nice to have special page for us that I sent my human shopping for a treat for the editor - I'm thoughtful like that, and you do have to encourage these people.
Anyway guess what? I am famous - well you knew that already because I told you, but I am going to be even more famous soon ...........
As you know all donkeys and horses have to have passports and then the information about where we were born, our age and where we live and our Identity Number are sent to something called the National Equine Database.
Well the 'NED' get it............ National Equine Database will be going on the internet soon and you will be able to log on and check to see if a donkey or horse you want to buy has a passport, or if it is a special horse what shows it has been to and if it won.
To make sure that all you humans get to know about NED they are producing leaflets to go into equine magazines and to go to your vet's surgery and feed merchants and I am going to be on it - yes me - how about that - but then you saw me here first...................................................................
