(Submitted to   M.D.T.)

 ED GETS A JOB

 Poor Ed. He looked like a skeleton with skin stretched tightly over the bones.  He was horribly swollen from a backyard castration gone awry and his right rear fetlock was lacerated all the way around from the rope used to tie it up to perform said castration.  All this was nothing compared to his front feet.  Foundered and abscessed they looked like someone had just chopped them off with an ax, leaving 2 inches of deformed hoof on the end of each leg.  I ended up giving $125.00 for him and loaded him on the truck. I'm sure everyone at the sale could see a little cloud over my head; in it was the word "SUCKER"!  They were right too, I am a sucker for a pitiful donkey.

 I wasn't planning to buy that day and had some errands to run so 100 miles and a few hours later Ed finally got home.  By then Ed was a lot sicker and rocking around in the back of the truck had taken its toll on his front feet.  He wouldn't or couldn't walk off the truck.  Ed is 48 inches tall and even as a sick bone rack we couldn't push him around.  We managed to get him off the mats and onto the oak floor of the truck.  Bev pushed while I pulled and we slid him into the barn alleyway.  There he stood, front legs stretched out, back legs tucked under, a position he would spend a lot of time in over the next month.

 I put hay and water within reach and gave him a little grain with some corn oil and biotin; he was really hungry.  Then began the doctoring of Ed.  First he got ˝ a bute and 12cc of penicillin in the neck.  That was the only place he had enough meat to give a shot.  He got a shot of penicillin twice a day for the next 15 days.  I really felt bad for the poor guy, his neck got swollen and sore but I never once had to restrain him.  He let me examine his privates or what was left of them.  I knew he needed hosed down but I had to settle for cold compresses until I could get him closer to a spigot.  I cleaned him up as best I could under there then went to examine the front feet.

 Those feet were so awful looking I knew he would never be 100% again.  Along with the founder he also had abscesses in both front feet.  There was nothing left to pare or trim so I knew they had to be soaked out.  The back feet were in good shape but it was a month before he would give me the right rear; he still remembered long after the rope burns had healed.  I left him in the barn alley for the night.

 The next morning Ed got his grain, penicillin and another ˝ of bute. I left the barn doors open and went about doing my morning chores hoping Ed would hobble outside.  He did and was eating grass in that horrible awkward position trying to relieve the pressure on his feet.

 Once again we double teamed him.  We pushed, pulled and yahooed him another 20 feet so I could reach him with the hose.  A painful process for all of us. He stood quiet while I hosed, cleaned, and examined him in the daylight.  It was worse than I originally thought and it felt like there was still a testicle in there too!! 

 That taken care of for the time being, I returned to the front feet, still my main concern.  Ed was not going to stand with his feet in buckets; we established that fact rather quickly.  Being a poor single woman I couldn't afford those fancy soaker boots so a little hillbilly ingenuity was in order.  I cut an old inner tube in half, slipped half of the half up his leg and folded the other half up and held it while I filled it up with warm water and Epson salts then tied a bailing twine around it to hold it on.  Ed didn't mind this as long as I stayed with him and loved him up.

 This established the routine; ˝ a bute, a shot and a soak in the morning, an apple and a soak in the afternoon, another shot and a soak in the evening, along with a wash down of his privates whenever he wandered in reach of the hose.

 Several days later my vet, the handsome Dr. Ron and his assistant, sweet Sue, arrived at the farm for some routine vet work.  I had them look at Ed.  I could see they were appalled that I had bought this wreck of an animal.  Dr. Ron said that what felt like a testicle was part of the infection (called a water seed around here) and that it would eventually go away and it did.  They didn't have any encouraging things to say about his feet or anything else for that matter.  I decided to give Ed a years recovery time and if he didn't come around then I would put him down with dignity.

 Ed was so crippled we just left him loose around the house and storage barns.  There was lots of grass to eat and huge old Maples for shade.  Ed made the tractor shed his home each day exploring a little further.

 After about three weeks his privates were healing well.  The penicillin shots had stopped and the abscesses started draining out the bulbs of his heals and all along the coranary bands.  That relieved the pressure and he started walking better.  Ed slowly went from shuffling to mincing to walking almost normal but real slow and careful. His eyes weren't filled with pain anymore.

 Ed was still loose hanging around the house and driveway.  It did my heart good to see him be able to walk downhill and visit the other critters.  He would meander slowly down to the bridge, eating grass and sniffing noses as he went.  Then he would work his way back up to spend the afternoon in the deep cool shade up the hollow, coming back down to the house for evening grain.

 The inevitable eventually happened.  Ed didn't come down for dinner.  I went up the hollow looking for him and calling his name.  Ed wasn't much of a talker and I didn't know if he would bray to me if he was in trouble.  "Up the hollow" is just the gateway to several hundred acres of woods with just a few overgrown logging roads through it.  I gave up at dark not wanting to get lost myself.  It was some pretty rough terrain up there.  Part of me in a panic thinking about all the trouble a half crippled donkey could get into up there, another part thinking that #!@@&**xx# donkey is probably behind a tree laughing at me (Ed has never been a real grateful kind of guy) another part thinking he'll be back for breakfast. Come morning Ed was in the tractor shed waiting for his grain.

 Needless to say this was the end of Ed's free range around the farm.  He was moved to the old petting zoo barn area to continue his recuperation in a more controlled environment.  There we could introduce him to the goats to see if he had a potential career as a goat guard.  By this time he had been wormed several times, had gotten all his shots and was still getting ˝ a bute in the morning.

 Ed had really come around in a month, now it was just a waiting game; waiting for Ed to grow enough hoof to be able to start trimming them back into shape.  It was another month before we could trim him, one trim didn't make much of a difference but it was a start.

 Now all Ed had to do was hang out with the goats and eat.  All was peaceful.  Ed and the goats were getting along fine until the cold weather set in!!

 The first really inclement day we locked Ed and the goats in the barn all hell broke loose. So much for Ed's career as a goat guard!

 Next, we put Ed in with Goober, a just been castrated gelding.  Ed's feet were still too sore for him to defend himself from Goober's attacks of rambunctious playfulness.  They were separated.  Ed spent most of the winter in a large stall in the petting zoo being turned out in a paddock on nice days.

 Ed was really coming along gaining weight and getting around better and better.

 In the meantime on another routine visit from Dr. Ron and Sue, I had them x-ray Ed's feet.  Since Ed was going to be a permanent resident here I wanted to know exactly how much damage there was. Ed had some rotation but his soles hadn't dropped. Dr. Ron said with good care Ed could live a comfortable life and even do some light duty work.

 By February Ed could trot, lope, and jump the creeks.  Feeling he was able to defend himself I tried him back in with Goober.  Ed quickly and gently taught Goober some respect.  They are now best of friends.

 Also in February we had the long awaited delivery of two bred Jennets, one with a foal at her side from High Hopes Farm.  The foal "Dygmy Danials High Hopes" at four months old was a real pistol!  "Danny" was only staying until June when he would return to High Hopes Farm to be shown and used in the Dygmy breeding project for two years.

 Judy and I wanted him to stay with his mother for a few more months developing muscle running up and down the mountain pastures here.  Alas, this was not to be.  At 5 months old Danny had more libido than J.R, my six year old herdsire.  He was driving all the Jennets crazy and trying to breed my two 50 inch standard girls (talk about "High Hopes"!!).  Even though the big girls are gentle giants they  would look at Danny as if to say, "where's the rest of your legs, little boy?"  I still feared for his safety.  Danny said goodbye to mom and hello to Ed and Goober. They got along great.  Danny had a playmate and a mentor.  My poor Jennets all laid down for two days after Danny left.

 In April I made a trip to Maryland to pick up "Poco Bandito" my spotted Bandito baby.  It was a long 8 hours home.  I worried about Poco being stressed out being just weaned and traveling all alone.  Poco took the trip like a trooper. Not to worry, whenever I stopped to check on him he was calm, alert and glad to see me.  Got home at dusk and unloaded him.  He walked past curious goat girls, stinky bucks, sheep, donkeys, a llama then treaded his way through a flock of peafowl with the aplomb of a veteran traveler to reach his new quarters.  Put him in a small pen next to Ed, Goober and Danny so they could get acquainted but Poco would have the private space to crash out in after his long trip.

 After settling Poco in I headed to the house to crash out myself.  Halfway up the drive I turned around just in time to see Poco jump the fence and go politely to introduce himself to "the boys".  Within two hours it was like he had always been here.  It was obvious Poco took the trip much better than me!

 Ed's job is to be Poco's buddy so Poco will always have a companion and will never have to spend part of the year alone as J.R. does.

 Ed has been here 10 months now.  His feet look great, his attitude is good, he no longer thinks he is a jack and now we are trying to keep him from getting too fat!  It's even hard for me to believe that slick, shiny, healthy beautiful looking gelding standing in the field was such a pitiful case just 10 short months ago.

                               The End

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