It seems every post starts the same way - wondering where the time has gone, and how busy we've been!
There's been so much happening, I'm not sure where to start. We'd like to thank the Telus employees who came out for Telus Day of Giving; they worked hard all day here at the Rescue, and also built a new climbing structure for the goats. Thank you to Kittyhawk Foundation for the grant, and to Linda for doing a press release for us (about the need for hay and donations) and to everyone who responded to the press release by donating.
We had some very sad events over the last few weeks, including the loss of Gimper the pig, Shamrock the orphan foal, and Tinsel the mare, all three of which were very difficult to deal with. With the added stress of having horses go missing from 2 different pastures a week apart (not to worry though, they were all found safe and sound and returned to their proper places!), and dealing with a bad adoption & foster situation (again, thankfully we were able to get the horses back, though not without one being injured prior to us getting it back), and having to cover many miles picking up horses and dealing with intakes from difficult situations, we are really in need of a break!
The weather lately has been less than ideal. After a mild winter and beautiful spring (for which we are eternally grateful for) I suppose it was inevitable that we were in for a change, and though the temperatures have been good, the amount of rain and storms we've had lately is incredible. At least the pastures are doing well with all the rain we've had! Last Saturday, I and two of our dedicated volunteers spent the afternoon in a torrential thunderstorm slogging through a bog looking for one of the groups of missing horses. We didn't find the horses but at least we didn't get hit by lightening though there were some pretty close calls! What a relief that Mike found the horses today, fat and happy in a neighbouring quarter.
We would like to thank those who made donations in memory of Pamela Thomas; Christine Lo's sponsorship of our horse Sylvia in memory of her mom Sylvia; and in memory of Terry Forrest.
There have been quite a few adoptions of late, including America, Chloe & her foal Cricket, foster-fail Davey, Denali, Primula, Amulet, Shadow#3 (with Delphi fostered), Roche and Stoney. Dallas, who was adopted out, came back with a minor injury. Chaplain and Simba came back, with Simba having a serious injury. Charger, Finn and Rose Red are still out for handling. Rose Red is progressing really well. Finn has his good days but he is still having days where he is more reactive.
Merlin, Sylvia, Monkey, Wynn, Slinky, Terry, Tuffy and Missy have new sponsors! Our sponsorship program is a great way to support the Rescue and the horses. Thank you to everyone who sponsors one of our animals.
We have had a few interesting intake situations over the past month. One intake involved 3 young, untouched Morgan horses, along with an old grey gelding with huge melanomas, and a draft-cross gelding. The location was several hours away and the horses were pretty well feral (except the old grey gelding), and they were getting out onto the roads and into neighbours' fields. We were able to corral and load all the horses though it took several hours. The mosquitoes were horrendous and the place the horses were located was filled with LOTS of junk that made for quite an obstacle course, on top of there being missing gates and poor fences.
Another intake was a couple of hours away and involved the temporary surrender of a horse whose owner is battling cancer. Unbeknownst to the owner, he had entrusted the care of his horse to a person who is well know in this area as an unscrupulous horse dealer. After havng the horse for a while, the horse dealer told the owner he had to pay a large amount of money for board and unsubstantiated vet costs in order to get his horse back or the horse would be sold at auction. The horse did get sold at auction but fortunately the owner was able to buy his horse back at the last minute before it went to the slaughterplant, so we had to rush up to the auctionhouse to pick up the horse for him. We have agreed to look after the horse for the owner until he has completed his cancer treatment. The same day we picked up this horse, we also picked up a surrendered little mini mare that has fear issues. The mini mare has gone to a great foster home where they will work with her to help her overcome her fear issues.
We also took in 6 rabbits from the Red Deer SPCA. They have an overabundance of rabbits as they took in over 150 of them from a feral situation. If you are looking for a bunny companion please contact them! All the rabbits are fixed and vetted, and many of them are very young.
Warrior, a paint gelding we took in a couple of months ago, had hooves that were in very bad shape. He had an active abscess in one front hoof that had also broken off very short, and he had long, overgrown back feet. Unfortunately due to his background Warrior had never had his feet handled, making working with his feet quite a challenge. With our vet and our farrier, we had Warrior sedated so that his feet could be trimmed and the abscess treated. We were dismayed to find that his feet were is worse shape than we'd expected. HIs soles crumbled apart and his back feet had huge holes in the bottoms from old abscesses (we assume). Neither our vet nor our farrier could understand how he had be standing, let alone moving around, without obvious pain or distress. We had to seriously consider euthanizing Warrior on the spot as no one felt that he would be able to stand once he came out of the sedation since his soles had disintegrated for the most part and the holes in his feet were so severe. However we decided to give him a chance, based on the fact that prior to sedation he had been moving just fine. We packed his hooves with antibiotic cream and wrapped them up. Both our vet and our farrier were amazed when Warrior was then able to get up and walk and trot without any discomfort. He is a medical miracle.! He has continued to stand and move without trouble. We will be sedating him for another look at his feet at the next visit with the farrier.
 The new goat playground |  Amira the mini mare |
The 3 unhandled Morgans
 Warrior |  One of Warrior's hooves. |
We received an update on Rene, the very thin thoroughbred mare we took in last year from her foster home. She looks fantastic! Rene had been discarded by her owner because she was thin and had lost her foal and they decided she was not worth looking after any longer.
 Rene when she arrived. |  Rene now! |
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