Now for a lot of catchup over the last week. Jason and Tawnee headed down to Fresno City Central Police Academy to finish up their training necessary for becoming Humane Officers. Early Sunday morning, we got a call in regards to getting a double decker truck and trailer load of 38-40 horses straight from the slaughter pipeline. We would need to raise $10,000 for their rescue and initial care. The deadline for the fundraiser was on Wednesday as they were scheduled to come Thursday. This left us only 3 days to raise $10,000, but we knew that if everyone pitched in and did what they could, the funds could be raised that quickly. Every dollar helped!
The horses really couldn’t come at a worse time, Tawnee was disappointed that she was unable to be there when the horses arrived. We knew the shelter managers and volunteers were capable of handling it, but Tawnee felt left out. Thankfully it was moved to the 13th, giving us a little more time to get prepared for these special horses.
Thanks to the overwhelming support from our E-News and Facebook groups, the funds were raised! This is very exciting, we want to thank all of you who stepped forward to do what you could. Somebody donated $2, someone else donated $5, on and on it went. We would like to thank Fenton’s Creamery for finishing the fundraiser! We would like to send a special thanks to All Roads Communication who pledged $5,000 for their initial care if we could raise the bail. The bail was raised, and they made good on their word and the initial care fund has also been filled. The full $10,000 was raised thanks to everyone pitching in.
Sunday the 3rd of October at the shelter, the sun peeked through the clouds and beamed down in such a special way. The horses were waiting for their breakfast.
Buttercup was hanging out in the Hay Wagon saying “I want to ride on the hay wagon when it’s feeding time.” Buttercup didn’t know it, but other plans had been made for him.
Jason had picked up 2 elderly donkeys on Friday the 1st and they were going to be heading to Home at Last. Their owner was no longer able to keep them due to moving, and it had been arranged for them to spend out their lives at Home at Last.
They were two very cute elderly donkeys who looked like the perfect pair.
Home at Last had generously offered to take Daytime Sparkle, Reise Creek, Precious Butler and the wildy little mule. The loading began.
Buttercup was also loaded up and was a little disappointed that he didn’t get his hay wagon ride. Betsy, the little goat at the vet, needed a companion.
At Home at Last, it was so neat to see all the familiar faces of the horses that have such a wonderful sanctuary there. The donkey’s and horses were unloaded, settled in, and then Jason and Tawnee headed back to the shelter.
We were very excited that Sassy was being adopted into a very loving home. She is such a beautiful girl and her new mommy was so excited to have her for her very own.
After working at the shelter, Jason and Tawnee headed out to officer training in Fresno. On the way down, a little pigeon on a busy street went running toward the vehicle they were driving in. The brakes were slammed on, and they came to a skidding stop. Was the little bird still alive or was it squashed? Tawnee jumped out and looked under the vehicle. Sure enough, there was a poor little baby pigeon looking very confused and bewildered. She tried to catch it on one side, so it ran to the other side. Finally she was able to catch it and it spent the rest of the trip sleeping in comfort.
Thankfully some volunteers stepped forward to care for the little guy while Jason and Tawnee were at training. The folks on Facebook offered name suggestions, and Skids just stuck. Meet Skids!
Every morning early Jason and Tawnee headed down to the academy. As you know, Tawnee loves sunsets, well, she got to see a lot of sunrises last week.
The training was very intense. Lots of laws, codes, policies, hands on, it was just all around a very intense week. Thursday Jason and Tawnee passed the physical skills test, showing they know how to physically restrain and arrest an individual.
Tawnee was sweating out the test part as it was a 2 hour test with 85 questions. In the end, everybody in the class passed, and the instructor told Tawnee she did exceptionally well. What a busy week, but so wonderful to have the certificates in hand, knowing that this part of the training is over.
Sunday morning the 10th, one of the volunteers headed out early to feed, and was quite surprised when a dog started barking on the hay wagon. She called up the shelter manager and asked “Will this dog bite? What’s it’s name?” The shelter manager had to admit they knew nothing of such dog. What dog? Where’d he come from? Listening on the phone, they could hear the dog defending the hay wagon from the stranger. Someone apparently dumped him at the shelter and he decided to take full possession of it before a goat or anyone else claimed it. Soon the volunteer made friends, and the dog enjoyed riding around feeding the horses.
The first horse surrendered was an elderly Appaloosa named Captain. He’s said to be in his late 20’s or early 30’s. He sure is a beautiful guy. He is looking for a nice home where he can sit back and spend his senior days in luxury and leisure.
A dude ranch brought in 3 horses that no longer fit into their dude string. Notice the sorrel in the middle.
Meet Blaze, he got too old for the dude string. He is nicely trained to ride. He is about 20 years old and would make an A+ kids or beginners horse we are told.
Meet Hank. He is a QH gelding who is extremely well trained to ride. He is 18 years old. Sadly, he just can’t go on 2 hour trail rides anymore, he may have some arthritis in his shoulder. He is fine for light riding though.
Here is the sorrel again, his name is Captain Kid. (Two Captains in one day, so we called this one Captain Kid to keep the confusion down.). He is a 16 year old TB who is trained to ride. He is too tall and and a bit too much horse for the dude string.
When Hank was unloading from the trailer, Tawnee said “That horse looks so familiar.”
Tawnee seems to have an uncanny ability to recognize horses she has come in contact with before. It turns out the dude string bought this horse from the Roseville Livestock Auction about 4 years ago, which Tawnee was attending every sale. Somehow he just stuck in her head.
The next little horse who was surrendered is Blackberry. He is a 9 year old 14 hand Welsh, Cob, Morgan cross. He grew up in Amish country and was trained by the Amish for driving. He was in a 6 horse team.
He is a really cute little guy who is just the perfect size for pulling a buggy.
His owner who surrendered him didn’t have a picture of him pulling a buggy that she could bring, but she had a picture of his brother, who was in the same 6 horse team as him, pulling a buggy. She says that Blackberry is great in harness and will do anything with the buggy. He is not trained to ride however. Sadly she could not keep him due to the economy.
It turned out that while Blackberry was being signed over, she stated that she is a small animal vet. Tawnee said “Well then, we got this little dog that needs being checked over.” By this time the little dog’s name had been selected: Dingo. It was nice to have a vet look at him. She says he is about a year old and in pretty good shape, but he needs some care. We cannot adopt out this dog, we have to hold him to make sure he was abandoned and not a stray.
Rascal was taking advantage of the pond. He just splashed and slashed and splashed. It is so nice to have enough water where the horses can play.
Skids is a very lucky pigeon. We were able to get him to a pigeon sanctuary where he will live with expert pigeon people who know everything about taking care of orphan pigeons. After his quarantine he will be able to join the aviary with lots of other pigeons.
Buttercup and Betsy are doing great, the vet has given the OK for Betsy to be adopted. She is all better now. Just look at these two cute little goats, they are buddies and would love to join your family and spend their days with you. Adoption fee is $25 each. Won’t you give them a loving home?
The shelter challenge is still going, we still need your votes every day! We moved down the ranks last week, we went down to 49th overall, but we are still 4th in California! Please vote every day, it does make a difference. Click here every day to vote. The name is still NorCal Equine Rescue, so please enter that to vote for us until further notice.
We would like to send a huge “Thank you” to everyone who donated last week. We will start putting peoples names in the blog again, the list is just too long for this blog. We are extremely grateful to each of you, those little donations added up so quickly.