Monday, July 1, 2013

Welcome Baby!

So last year, when the hubs and I embarked on our mini-donkey buying experience (he would say he followed along--lol) we bought Charlotte to go with Lucky in November.  The breeder said she was not bred/pregnant.  Well Lucky was young enough that he couldn't be able to or not know what was going on for another year.  We figured we had a good 2 years before baby would be possible.  Mini-donkeys gestate for a year!  Can you imagine?!?!  Well a couple of months later, I noticed she was getting a little chunky in the mid-section.  So I call the breeder back and ask if she could be pregnant.  No, she hadn't been exposed, blah blah blah.  Fine fine.  And how do you really preg-check a donkey anyway--have her pee on a stick?  LOL.  So we just went along with she was just a chunky-monkey.   Until....I noticed her udders starting to bag a couple of weeks ago.  (Bag or bagging is a term with cows, donkeys, probably horses and tons of other mammals where the udders fill and look swollen).  Hmmm--suspicious!  Then I noticed her teats getting longer!  Hmmm--double suspicious!!  Well I consulted the good ol' Donkey dictionary and it said that after a Jennie (girl donkey) starts to bag, expect baby in 4-6 weeks.  So the hubs says we have another 2-4 weeks.  Well guess who got a surprise when I went to do chores this morning! Hello baby!

I run in and tell Jeremy she had her baby!!! Baby had somehow managed to get on the outside of the pen.  The others in the pen were Arnold (bottle calf) and Lucky.  Arnold was all bouncing around trying to figure out what was going on and Lucky was wondering what the thing was.  So I pulled those 2 into a separate pen and lifted baby up and put it into the pen with Charlotte.  Yes, I keep saying "it" because I don't know whether its a boy or girl.  I looked underneath and I didn't see anything identifying boy/girl.  Baby is about 18" tall and weighs about 30 pounds, and has 4 hooves and 2 big ears.

So I like to think that Charlotte was a BOGO, buy one get one free  :-)  Yes, we will never know who the Daddy was (sad commentary on our times really), but at least it has a good home now  :-)



How cute!?!?  Yes that's my finger...was trying to get it to pose.
 

 
Charlotte and baby....so cute!

 


Seriously...too cute!