This probably won’t be much of a newsletter as I am too saddened by the fire in Paradise, Ca. I lived 20 miles south of that beautiful town from 1978-93 and have many memories of days spent up there. As of now, >70 are confirmed dead and > 1200 missing people and many animals dead, injured and missing. There are groups on Facebook sharing info & I am spending a lot of time doing that. It is gut-wrenching.
I was also able to wean Buddy off Elavil after starting just 2-3 drops a day of Medterra CBD oil. He is calmer, happier and less anxiety. Much thanks to our friends who recommended it last month!
We found out that Apple does not support the video camera we have, thus the on & off ability to use I-Movie. It worked for a few months but then got worse and finally quit. We have been able to take short clips with the Canon camera we use for still pics.
Poco was happy to be able to share his songs again.
The colder weather has all the wild birds very hungry.
The horses are more active, too. This is 3 of the seniors, aged 19-24.
Warrior is now our most senior horse, and will be turning 30. He is a formerly wild mustang, seized by the authorities for abuse in 2012 and then ended up at a municipal shelter & was about to be euthanized. He has a bad knee, narcolepsy and has survived 3 strokes. He still lives up to his name.
We got 256 bales of Bermuda hay which will last > 3 months.
Many thanks to our donors and to all our Facebook friends who did Birthday Fundraisers for us! Thank you to our wonderful benefactor who matched donations, too!
You can check out our affiliates page for Holiday gifts which sales benefit us, too. http://www.jersanctuary.org/available-merchandise/.
We want to thank everyone who helped with our matching funds hay drive by sharing & donating. We received or will receive approximately $4000 between mid August and the end of September, which will be matched. Donations made through Facebook Birthday fundraisers and the Fb donate button are slow to come in, but they will be included. We also do not get the donor names on most of the Fb donations, as Fb issues a receipt, but THANK YOU to all!
We received a phone call from Cerbat Dental Group http://www.lowrydentistry.com/ in Kingman saying they have chosen us as their “Charity of the Month” and will send us a donation. It was a surprise & is greatly appreciated. They found us through our website.
Our weather turned from summer to winter overnight. We have gone into the 40s at night and 60s to low 70s in the afternoons. The rabbits are thrilled and my personal pet rats have a heat mat at night. Every species has different temperature tolerances. I am very happy not to have to be watering so much. The horses and burros are enjoying the coolness.
Buddy has a heated bed and wears a coat at night. As much as I don’t like medicating anyone, I decided to try him on low dose elavil for his fear and anxiety. It has made a big difference and our vet agreed it was worth a try. Hopefully, he can wean off it over time, but for now, it is enabling us to do behavior modification. Now that he is not terrified of being leashed, we are taking a morning walk. He really looks forward to it. I use a 26 foot Flexi which gives him the space he needs to feel relaxed. Between a chronically swollen right foot and some “foot drop” with my left foot from Valley Fever and spinal arthritis, walking can be difficult for me. However, as they say, “use it or lose it!” Forcing myself to walk this extra 1/2 to 1 mile a day seems to be helping me.
I used my own funds to get a small shed and build a platform to use as a big house for Buddy. So far, he prefers his quonset shelter. There is no way to know what happened in his past, but he sure does not want to be confined. I left the doors off for now. If he becomes comfortable with it, I can add a dog door, window and then a small A/C that I already have next summer.
We have a pair of roadrunners who visit and then a juvenile started showing up alone, and seemed to be begging for food. We put out bird seed for the birds and a little dog food for the ravens, but roadrunners mostly eat lizards, snakes and carrion. This young bird was waiting on my doorstep one morning. I got a bit of raw chicken and he gobbled it up. He had another piece that evening. It seems to be what he needed to “recharge” as I saw him foraging a day later.
I moved onto this acreage 16 years ago this month, arriving with 2 horses, 2 goats, 4 dogs, a pig, 5 guinea pigs and a rabbit. Two weeks after moving in, my 13 year old basenji became separated from the group on a walk and I never found him. It was the most heartbreaking, tragic event in my entire life. It was then I vowed to devote the rest of my life to helping as many animals as I could. We became a Non Profit in fall of 2009. October is a hard month for me still, but life goes on.