Walk About

Chippy on Trillium Path

They’re turning purple already!

The ‘Walk Abouts’ become ‘Lay Abouts’.

Fast food – donkey style.

Isn’t is amazing how donkey legs curl up when they lay down?

Darby enjoying the breeze.

Rosie curled up in the hay bed.

Again … look at those curled up front legs.

Hmmm… Rosie discovers she can eat while she rests.

The ‘Lay About’ version continues.

I didn’t know how quickly I could jump from pj’s to jeans … or from bed to the front door until this morning. We were anticipating sleeping in after staying up late for important sporting events last night. That plan was aborted when the telephone woke me up. Do you have one of those portable phones near your bed? At times like this I miss the kind of phone that you only have to pick up to ‘activate’!!  When I finally managed to stab the right button before the answering machine kicked in our neighbour’s droll voice couldn’t resist a good chuckle. “How are YOU this morning? Are you lonely over there? I think you might be missing a few offspring… hahahahahaha!” Darby and Rosie were helping themselves to his vegetable garden! (Thank goodness it is still too early for them to discover a land of tasty greens over there!) WHAT?!?! I grabbed a pail of grain while Ede raced for halters and lead ropes. We both ran into Bella coming around the back of the house braying at the top of her lungs. It seemed like she was equally ‘in the dark’ about where her sisters were. I popped her back into the paddock, noticing the small gate was open (?) and headed down the road to our neighbours (a country neighbour distance away). Apparently they had been having breakfast and looked up to see the donkeys ambling in their direction. Mel headed to grab some carrots and Darryl sprinted like there was no tomorrow to herd the jennies away from the road. I found them out behind their barns … They looked just as surprised to find me there as I was to find them! Wowser! The good news was that they were amazingly cooperative about walking with me back home. No halters or ropes required. Just lots of reinforcement with grain treats for following me along. Rosie is incredibly cute at times like these. She ends up carrying her head so high it is like she is a prancing trick horse. She looks all around and practically bobs along beside me while in my head I can hear a Disney character dawdling along saying, “Ooooooh… look at that! What’s over there? Can we go there? Can we? Huh? Come on Mom! Let’s go this way? Or that way!” I was SOME HAPPY to have them safely back in the paddock. I guess I know now that if I had to it would be possible to walk them somewhere all together. Although – I am curious about how Bella got left behind… Note to self: check the gates regularly – and then some more. 😉