We were outside playing with our new donkey baby when I got the call. It was Dayle Haworth and in her very concerned voice she said, “Theresa, a baby needs our help.” Dayle went on the explain to me that she had just gotten a phone call from a man whose donkey had rejected it’s foal and as luck would have it, he lived very close to me. I called the man and he told me that it had been 36 hours and the mom had just again thrown the baby to the back of the stall. He said that the other lady (Dayle) had told him that he would have to bottle feed this baby. He went on to tell me that they were packed and ready to leave for Florida. I asked him if I could come over to see the baby and he said please. Dayle had told me that the baby was going to need someone to bottle feed it. If the man would let me, could I do it? Dayle had already done 3 this year and said she just didn’t think she could do another. As I was telling her that I would have no idea where to even start she said she would teach me. As I hung up the phone I looked over as my husband Brian and his head was shaking a very adamant NO!! He said that he would not be able to help me with this and that he felt it was a bad idea because I get too attached to things and if the baby didn’t make it I would be devastated. I then turned to the other man in my life, Zach, who had just graduated from high school the day before, and I said “Will you help me son?” and he smiled and said yes. So off we went to see the baby.
We arrived at the man’s house and as he had said the motor home was loaded and pointed out of the driveway. He greeted us as we got out of the car and said “I just don’t know what to do”. As I looked over the door of the stall, I saw the sweetest little girl huddled tight in the back corner. The man said he had been reading and that in some instances a mom could still accept a baby after up to 48 hours. He asked me if I thought that if he just left them together she might still take the baby. I said that after 36 hours she was not going to change her mind, and if he left them alone he would come back to a dead baby. The baby, to our surprise, looked in much better shape than we figured she would. The man had held the mom down a few times so the baby could get some milk but the mom had hurt his back and he didn’t think he could even do that any longer. I then told him that if he wanted I would take the baby and bottle feed it, but that if I did this the baby would be mine. He agreed without hesitation, he said he wanted to give her the best chance of surviving. So the 3 of us held the mom tight and gave the baby one last chance to nurse. I then scooped the little girl up in my arms and headed home.
Once home I called Dayle and told her to get over here and tell me what to do. I sent Zach to Tractor Supply to pick up the list of supplies that Dayle said I needed. I then sat with the baby in my arms waiting for my first bottle feeding lesson hoping that I hadn’t bitten off more than I could chew. Dayle arrived and I was schooled in the art of bottle making which didn’t seem too hard. Once the bottle was ready Dayle and I went to feed the baby but every time we tried to put the bottle in the baby’s month she would jerk her head away. It was going on 3 hours since she had nursed from her mom so we knew she was hungry. Dayle said that she had never had one that wouldn’t take the bottle and we were starting to get panicked. Then I noticed how she was sticking her head between our legs or under our arms every chance she got. We were sitting on the front steps, Dayle in front of me and when the baby stuck her nose under Dayles arm I quickly stuck the nipple in her mouth and she started nursing like there was no tomorrow. I can’t tell you how excited we were! She had jumped the first big hurdle.
Then I had to break the 2 hour feeding schedule to Zach, that was fun, but we worked that out without any trouble. To make things a little easier we built a pen in the garage so that in the middle of the night all we had to do was step out the back door. Brian had just done a major clean out of the garage so we could get 2 cars in it for a change and he said he knew that wouldn’t last long. We got the pen built and the bedding down, everything was nice and cozy for the baby. Then I put her in and oh my god she started squealing like a little pig when we walked away, spoiled after only one day! So with a little maneuvering a second pen went in right beside her and Beaujolais got to keep the baby company.
The next day we took the baby on a little trip. Zach and she got in the back of his Tracker and off we went to the equine vet. When we arrived instead of pulling around back to the trailer area we parked out front and she followed me in the front door and the girls in the office went nuts. They had never had a patient come through the front door before and she was such a little lady she started flipping her little tail to say “I need to go potty” so I took her out to the grass and she took care of business. Once she stopped showing out for everyone the vet pulled blood and checked to see if she had gotten enough colostrum from her mom and she got a big thumbs up on that. The part of the visit that Zach liked was the vet said with her colostrum levels that he felt that feeding every 3 hours through the night and 2 hours through the day would be good. She had managed to make it over our second big hurdle.
Kahlua and Cream sleeping between my legs after her first full belly
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Dayle had also told me that the baby needed a donkey buddy, someone to teach her to be a donkey. After the forced addition of Beaujolais to the garage this became perfectly clear. Dayle had said a young donkey that wasn’t bonded to someone else in the herd already, but I didn’t have any one like that. The first thought was to see if I could borrow a young donkey from someone, through this idea I found a young donkey that I purchased to buddy with the baby. They bonded immediately which was good because with show season coming up Beaujolais needed to be free to show. We named the new donkey Amicus which is Latin for friend.
As we were preparing to go to Shelbyville we had to figure out what to do with the baby while we were gone. The couple that keeps the house and farm while we are gone were both working, so the only alternative was to take her with us. Once we figured out how to get everyone safely in the trailer without having to make two trips we were off. Brian came up with a good way to heat the bottle by using solar heated bottles of water to mix her milk with. I can tell you one, thing we had the most popular barn at the show. I believe she was out of the stall more than she was in. We had at least 2 little girls that came by 2 or 3 times a day. Other people would say the people at the office said to come by or someone else had sent them. My favorite one was a car full of teenage girls pulled up and they wanted to know where the baby was. She didn’t even need to go into the show ring to be the most talked about animal on the grounds and after that the most spoiled.
Once home again she has settled into her daily routine which consists of days in the back yard with Amicus and the other babies and their moms. Learning all the fun things like how dirty can I get if I get wet then go roll in the dust bowl and who can run the most circles around the backyard without getting dizzy. But when night rolls around she is at the gate ready to go in the garage for the night. At 3 months old, the feedings are getting less frequent but that doesn’t stop her from running from the farthest reaches of the back yard at the slightest noise that may mean it is bottle time. In about a month or so the baby will be faced with her third and final hurdle, weaning we will have to wait and see how that goes, but I have faith. This has been a richly rewarding task for me, Zach and yes Brian. I also need to thank Zach because he more than pulled his weight during those late night feedings. This is a task I hope none of you ever have to do, but if you do, know that there are people out there ready and willing to help you get started.
