It's been a rough start to February.  We lost one of our long time residents, Bennie, when he passed away suddenly on February 2nd.  We believe he may have had a heart attack.  Then Cisco became ill on February 3rd and after a vet exam it was determined that he had in fact sustained a torn abdominal wall when he was kicked in December and was colicking as a result.  He was euthanized the same day, but we are thankful that up until that day he was active and happy.  Teresa was euthanized on February 4th as her front fetlock joints had deteriorated to the point that she was having difficulty standing.  Thank you Janine for caring for Cisco, Debra for sponsoring him, Mary Ellen and Deanna for caring for Teresa during her short stay with us, and Karen for sponsoring Bennie.  Thank you to Bruce from Didsbury Vet and Greg from Just Passing for your compassion.

We had Pat our farrier out for 3 days over the last week and trimmed up 59 horses.  Sadly Pat will be returning to Quebec permanently so we'll be looking for a new farrier here pretty quick.  Thank you Pat for all your hard work over the years -  I'm sure you'll agree that it's been quite the experience working with all the different horses at Bear Valley!

Thank you to our volunteers for the help with all the physical labour over the last while, what with loading and unloading hay and feed and moving it around.  We did pick up another 3 tons of feed yesterday and have a small gang lined up to unload it for us on Sunday.  We also hope to pick up another 200 square bales on Sunday that will need to be loaded and unloaded.

We took in 2 horses and a donkey from the Alberta SPCA earlier this week.  The 2 yearlings are quite thin (and this still after gaining weight over the last couple of weeks while in the care of the SPCA) but the donkey is in good shape, though all three do need to be gelded.  We were told there was also a filly but she died before the animals were able to be seized.  We took in 20 chickens from the Calgary Humane Society that were found abandoned in a garage. They are silkies in a lovely mix of colours and fairly young.

I'm glad to say that I finally got the year end financials finished and to the accountant.  I'd also like to welcome some new sponsors - Eve and Vanessa for Django and Zane, Sophia and Jim for Gunner and Penelope, and Alex for the new sorrel colt whom she's had the honor of naming 'Flame'!

It has been a long, hard winter so far.  We complained about getting so much snow but now that we've had some milder weather we can complain about all the ice!  It is so treacherous out there we have to walk like penguins just to keep from slipping, and even then it doesn't always help as we've taken a few spills. 

We received that sad news that Chance the pony passed away at his foster home.  Chance came to us in very bad shape, a result of extreme neglect.  He was surrendered to the Rescue by a caring individual.  He recovered well though and thank you to his foster family for caring for him for quite a number of years!   Hannah came back from foster temporarily as she had gone completely off her feed.  We had her teeth checked and it turned out she had a very sharp spur sticking out the side of one tooth, causing her to develop some abscesses and sores on the inside of her cheek.  It must have been very painful to chew, which is why she pretty well stopped eating!  Our vet said she'd never seen anything like it as it wasn't a fracture but an actual growth.  Thankfully she was able to grind it down and Hannah is back to eating well and enjoying her mash.  Cisco received a serious kick from Sasha at his foster home that resulted in quite a large swelling in his groin area.  After a round of pain medication he seems to be fine, though the swelling hasn't gone down much yet. 

Torque and Snips are back from foster, unfortunately not in the best shape.  Another instance of someone looking at them from a distance and thinking they're fine, when it's obvious as you run your hand along their sides that they've got no fat on them at all.  They are both doing well now and gaining weight. 

Gracey has been adopted to a wonderful home, thank you Betty!  At the end of December we took in three horses - Ellie, Plume and Tawny.  Ellie is an older (20+) mare, very underweight and louse-infested, with an injury to one leg (we were told she'd gone over a fence).  We had her stifle joint xrayed but it was inconclusive.  It is quite evident however that Ellie has Cushing's Disease as she has the bleached long coat that is indicative of the disease.  We have had her tested to confirm but the results will take a couple of weeks to come back.  Plume and Tawny are weanlings, both very pretty, though wormy.  They were pretty well un-handled but are starting to settle in.  Plume had her first butt and chest scratching session with me today.  Tawny is a bit more shy still. 

In January we took in another older mare.  Emmy is a Peruvian Paso, 19 years old.  We were contacted by her owner as she was in a perilous personal situation and she feared for the safety of her horse.  Thank you to Greg from Just Passing for doing the quick save by driving down to pick her up for us on short notice.  Emmy does seem to have suspensory ligament issues in her back end.  Our vet feels it may be related to Emmy's poor physical condition (lack of protein) as she is quite underweight and had been nursing a foal.  We've started Emmy on weekly acupunture treatments and she seems not to mind it.   Joanie is still not healing up properly from her original injury that she had when she came in several years ago.  Carmen who fostered her for most of 2013 had a fair bit of success cleaning it up but after coming back to the Rescue Joanie developed more infection in the wound.  We have started a regimen of injecting antibiotic directly into her leg to try to clear it up.  If this doesn't work, come spring we may look at debriding the leg completely and starting over.  This morning, after the first injection yesterday, Joanie's leg seemed very itchy!  I hope that means it is working.  Thankfully Joanie has remained sound in spite of this injury.

I had Dr. Erickson take a quick look at Torque when she was out for Emmy, Ellie, and Joanie, as Torque has always had one eye that is 'weepy'.  Surprisingly (or not!) his eye didn't look that bad when she was here, but we'll keep a watch on it and may do a tear duct flush on him in the spring.  Django has developed a small sarcoid on his chest so we've started treating it with Xxterra. 

Bailey and Jax were returned to the Rescue due to a relationship breakdown of their adopters.  They both look great but do still need a lot of work as they didn't get that much handling as far as I can tell.  Preston was supposed to be coming back to the Rescue but his adopter found him a good new home.  Sundance, who was adopted out 9 years ago, will be coming back to the Rescue in a couple of months, due to divorce.

I hope to get the new horses posted on the website soon.  Tawny, Plume, Jax and Bailey will be up for adoption while Emmy and Ellie will most likely be available for fostering only.

I have posted our latest newsletter, check the 'newsletters' tab for the link.

Our annual general meeting is being held here at the Rescue on February 8th.  Check the 'events' tab for more information.  Please RSVP if you can attend.

Thank you to Janna So for sponsoring Tulip the pig, and to Jadwiga and Vanessa for sponsoring Django and Zane!  Thank you to the Greygates Foundation of the Vancouver Foundation for the $1,000 grant.

Please let us know if you find any missing links or other errors on the website as you navigate through the pages.  We're still ironing out the wrinkles of the new site!

We would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a safe and happy holiday season! 

We are thankful that the weather has settled down a bit, we've had so much snow it seems all Mike has been doing is plowing (which is taking a toll on the old tractor, it now needs a new clutch!).  The horses don't seem to mind the snow, even when it's bitter cold, as they've all got lots to eat.  We moved the goats into the barn when it was too cold outside for Izzy, and Waffle got to keep her company  They didn't seem to really enjoy being inside but better that they were warm. 

Sadly, we lost Hitch on Dec 20th.  She was down in the morning and in spite of our best efforts we were unable to get her standing.  She was euthanized early that afternoon.  Our thanks to Dr. Noeline Erickson and her husband Brent for coming out on short notice and helping to try and get her up.  NOeline felt that Hitch had some sort of problem with her heart as her pulse was very weak and irregular, though thankfully Hitch did not seem to be in pain or distress.  Our condolences to Janine, who was fostering Hitch, for losing her and so soon after losing Brandy in much the same way.  I am glad that Janine received some comfort from her conversation with Greg, of 'Just Passing', who came to pick up Hitch's body on Monday: "... as I was talking about with Greg (nice man!) this morning, it's not only likely that the ones here will die here--the whole plan is let them live out their lives and die as peacefully as possible, when they are ready, and not in the slaughter plant.  So as you'd said, she was indeed a "good save," and I'm really grateful that you trusted me to give her the care that she needed and deserved.  Also, I was so touched by all the supportive comments on the facebook page; thanks for posting the pictures."

Thank you to everyone who has made our first 'Christmas Tree' fundraiser a great success.  We will be picking up 5 tonnes of feed on Friday, the 27th, so if you're looking for something to do involving exercise and the outdoors, it all has to be unloaded here at the Rescue on Saturday!

I don't know how I managed to miss posting about this, but we had our casino fundraiser volunteering on November 27th and 28th at Cash Casino in Red Deer.  To those of you who aren't familiar with the way casinos work in Alberta, all casinos need to 'share' their profits with not-for-profits, societies and charities in Alberta.  The not-for-profit or charity registers for a casino and once the dates are selected the group has to provide a number of volunteers over 2 days to 'work' at the casino.  Casino profits are pooled over 3 months (I believe there are several different sectors in the province that are lumped together) and then shared with the groups who worked the casinos during that period.  Thank you to Janine for being our casino chairperson, and to Kathleen and her stand-in Brenda who were our casino advisers (people you hire to help you figure out what you're doing!).  Thank you to everyone who volunteered to work the casino - Janine, Mike D., Charlotte, Peter, Randi, Kendra, Dot, Tracey, Michelle, Terri, Janneane, Theresa, Jen, Mike M., Alison, Ben, Darla and Katelyn.  From the feedback it seems everyone had a great time once again! 

We are allowed to have a casino approximately once every 3 years (not sure why, but urban Calgary and Edmonton sectors are allowed to have one every 18 months, plus their pooling is about 3 times as much $$, but our request for an urban centre has been denied).  We've already been scheduled for early 2017 for our next casino, though as with this last one I'll put in for an earlier date in case they have a cancellation so hopefully we'll be able to move up the date to some time in 2016, or maybe even late 2015.  Information on the next casino will be posted on the website closer to those dates.

Sorry for the delay in updating everyone on what has been happening at the Rescue.  As mentioned previously, we lost access to our website in July due to problems with our domain host and were unable to make any changes or post anything new.  We are so thankful to finally have that straightened out!  We were seriously concerned that we may have had to start over again from scratch with our website, and perhaps even change our domain name.  It worked out great in the end that we were able to retain our domain name and save the content from the old site.

First off, a HUGE thank you to Krista for creating our new website!  She donated all her efforts to create our new site, which must have been very time-consuming and a bit of a learning curve as well for her.  If you're looking for help with website design, we highly recommend her (her email is [email protected]).  I'll have to learn how to navigate the new site now myself so I might still be a little lax in updating items but I'll try to keep on top of it.

I tried to keep notes as to what was happening during the lapse but will probably miss a few things, so I apologize ahead of time if I miss thanking anyone or forget to mention something important.

On the boring, paper-shuffling side of things, in August/September we had both a federal Charities Commission audit and a provincial fundraising audit.  Both went well, thankfully.  Our Charities auditor, Cynthia, was very nice.  She grew up on a farm, so she was happy to be able to come out and see the animals!

I also knuckled down and spent a fair bit of time doing grant-writing in late summer and we were successful on several fronts.  Thanks go out to the Totem Foundation, Harry & Martha Cohen Foundation, Nickle Family Foundation, and Four Feet Companions Foundation!  Also our sincere appreciation to the continued support of the Donner Canadian Foundation.  We also received donations from Cenovus Employee Foundation, the United Way and Team Telus Cares.  Thank you to the employees who support us through these employee foundations and the United Way.  We also participated in 'Giving Tuesday', December 3rd, and would like to thank everyone who made donations at that time.  Donations made on Canada Helps through Interac were matched by Interac up to $25 per donation.  Right now, approaching Christmas, through donations we're decorating the tree on our home page and have almost filled up the tree already!

It is so heartwarming to have the support of so many people in looking after the horses (and other animals).   Thanks to: Wendy Poirier for covering Winnie's expenses (she is getting joint injections in her front foot); Janine Falck for contributing towards Prince's and Hitch's expenses (acupuncture, joint injections & chiro); Kerry Busby for contributing towards Chanel's care expenses (farrier, etc, plus antibiotics for her pneumonia); Elaine Smith for the used tack donation; donations in memory of Harvey Poffenroth; donations in memory of Jim Fry;  and Robin Johnston & David Swick for the donation is Ed's memory.

We had a couple of other special donations (sorry, I know they're all special!!).  Thanks to: Olivia for the donation for your birthday towards sponsoring first Sheba, then Story; Cristina for the donation in lieu of presents for your 13th birthday; and thank you so much once again Laura Day and John Garner for the feed donation from the Spruce Meadows Masters.  I also want to thank Mary Ellen Lickfold for her continuous hard work on our behalf, cleaning up and selling the used tack. It's amazing how it adds up!  Thanks once again to everyone who is sponsoring or fostering for us as well, and to the Hoffmans, Morgans and Hewitts for the summer pasture!  And thank you to Terri Bodell for donating a lot of square bales!  It's been a lifesaver, especially as we still haven't found someone to come through will hauling over the square bales we bought this fall.

We haven't taken in any new equine additions as we still have so many lovely horses waiting for their forever homes.  However we did take in 4 piglets (Penny, Boris, Stella and Spot) rescued during the flood, 1 llama (Ramalama) who has already been rehomed, and 11 poultry from the Calgary Humane Society (some really lovely roosters and 2 hens) and 2 more hens, Princess and Charlotte.  Shiner, Tacoma and Thor have come back to the rescue, Shiner already being readopted and Tacoma and Thor up for adoption.   Soda, Monkey, Joanie, Torque and Snips are back from foster.  Valentino will be coming back from foster shortly as well.  Cecil, Quill, Twobits, Macie and Kahlua, Story, Timber, and the cows Charlotte, Olive and Norman have gone out on foster.  Adopted out since our last update are Zoey, Jackpot, Milo (still here, won't leave til spring), Venus, Samia, Nina, Freya, Emily, Karma, Faith, Burl, Sheba, Tigger, Nanoon, Jax, Bailey, Odyssey, Shiner, Chanel, Cheeks, and Early Hank.  So we've certainly had a lot of comings and goings!

We of course had a lot of hauling to do in the fall, bringing back the herd from Water Valley (10 horses), the Crammond herd (19 horses) and the Hoffmans' herd (26 horses).  Most of it went without a hitch, except that Annie went missing from the Crammond herd the day we were picking them up!  That was scary - I ran around that quarter section at least twice trying to find her or looking for a broken section of fence, not knowing if she was dead or got out somewhere.  It was an amazing stroke of luck that someone driving by saw us and stopped and asked if we were missing a horse as their father (uncle?) a few miles down the road had found one!  Never did figure out how she got out or what caused her to leave the other horses, but boy, were we ever glad she was okay.  Thank you to the people who corralled her and got her off the road.  A super thanks to Colette for helping haul the Crammond herd back with her truck and trailer.  It saved us a lot of time having the extra trailer!  Bringing the horses back from our neighbours', the Hoffmans, I managed to snag the trailer leg on a chain lying across the road and wrecked it good.  So glad Mike was able to fix it, though not without causing a fair bit of hassle in the meantime, between having to leave the trailer on the truck as it had no leg, to having to unhook the trailer once when we got stuck, as it is difficult to unhook a trailer with no leg! (We were picking up firewood - that's another big thank you, to Anne and Glen for the firewood!)  

We made a trek down to Standoff a few weeks ago to try and find 2 emaciated horses that were reportedly hanging around someone's house.  Along with RJ, Clarissa, and Deanna from AARCS/Pound Rescue, who had initially found out about the horses, we spent most of the day trying to locate the horses but couldn't find them anywhere.  We did find some a sickly little weanling at the impound lot that we tried to save but sadly he died before we could get back down there to bail him out.  And we struck a deer on the way home (I think/hope the deer survived!) which demolished the front of our truck.  Fortunately we were able to drive the rest of the way home but it was pretty wrecked and not going anywhere after that.  Once again, Mike to the rescue!  He was able to repair the truck for probably 1/3 of what it would have cost to send it out to be fixed, but we were without a truck for several weeks.  And somehow we ended up with 3 new kittens (Nelson, Stanley & Amelia) on the trip!

We had bloodwork done on Russa this summer and as we suspected, she has Cushings, so she is on daily medication for that and doing well.  We had x-rays done of Cosmo, Prince, Twenty and Winnie, with corrective shoeing for Cosmo and Prince, and cortisone shots for Prince, Twenty and Winnie.  Winnie is now getting alcohol injections in her joint to fuse it and Prince and Twenty get cortisone and HA injections.  Munsie keeps developing abscesses, she has really thin soles, but we've got her up at the house on limited movement and we're seeing some improvement.  Chanel had pneumonia (twice) but that  cleared up after a regimen of antibiotics and she's gone to her new home.  We had an outbreak of strangles brought in by the new arrivals from the auction in July.  Fortunately we were able to contain it to the group of youngsters at the house.  Very sadly, little Napoleon the pony recovered from the initial strangles but then became ill again a couple of weeks later.  We took him in to Moore's but they were unable to stabilize him and we had to make the decision to have him euthanized that evening.  They did a postmortem on him and found a large abscess (bastard strangles) in his gut.   Poor little guy, he was such a character, so cute and all personality.    Poor Milo had strangles for about 6 weeks but he recovered completely so that was a relief.  We lost quite a few older horses over the last few months.  Shandra passed away in the field at her foster home, cause unknown.   Old Red became ill and was not responding to treatment and was euthanized quietly here at the rescue.  Cosmo developed neurological problems, perhaps a tumor pressing on his spine, and we had to make the decision to have him euthanized as well.  Sarcee's lymphangitis became worse and flared up constantly. inhibiting her movement and she also was euthanized here at the Rescue.  Most recently (last week), Brandy went down and had to be euthanized at Janine's.   Each of these decisions are so hard to make but come with the territory.  We miss every horse that leaves us and we try to make their passing as easy as possible.  Zora the yearling had a colic episode a few weeks ago but thankfully recovered quickly and with minimal intervention.  Dallas got a wire cut on her hind leg a couple of months ago and it is healing up well.

Lastly, we have a new intern, Janneane, helping out at the Rescue!  She's been a big help and has even learned to drive the tractor.

I'll try and get some updated pictures on the website of the youngsters.  They grow and change so much that it's hard to keep up and they don't look the same, even taking into account the winter fuzzy coats they now have.

Sorry to all our supporters for the lack of communication over the last few months! Due to issues with our website hosting (the owner of the hosting company was apparently arrested in Scotland on internet pornography charges!) we lost access to our website so I haven't been able to do any updates to the website since July. Thankfully, after a lot of hassle and crash-course learning about internet hosting and domain registration, we've got our website back.

July 17/13 - Due to circumstances beyond our control (ie, we can't say NO), we ended up at the Innisfail auction on July 4th and picked up 24 head of horses, along with another horse from a horse dealer the following day. There are some really lovely horses in this bunch - more examples of the nice horses that end up at slaughter through no fault of their own. Several of them have already been adopted. I've got them all posted and will add pictures as I find the time.

Pat our farrier was out at the beginning of June and we were able to sedate Slinky and trim her up nicely, along with Tilly who had a badly cracked heel. We've had a few major health issues to deal with, including Moritz who injured his shoulder, Gizmo who had a huge abscess over his eye, Salsa who got a really bad wire cut to one back leg, Prince who has a bad abscess, Sarcee with her lymphangitis flaring up, and Mercy who cut her leg and went on a cross-country jaunt in the middle of the night. Very sadly, we had to euthanize Lucky, who had been with us for many years, as he started to develop issues with not being able to get up. Pet and Russa both really miss him. We've done quite a few geldings, including 2 crypt surgeries. Aric had one testicle removed, it was a 3 hour surgery just to find the one (it was up by his rectum!). We may have to go back if it seems he still has one more. That's a biggest problem with unethical people who will geld a horse with only one testicle showing. You have no way of knowing if there's one left behind. One of the horses that we just purchased at auction, Nanook, was sold as a gelding but he had a fresh surgery scar, on one side only, so I think that's a pretty good indication that they only found one testicle and that's also probably why they dumped him at the auction.

We've had quite a few horses go out on foster, including Zaz, Rose Red, Titus, Simba, Tigger, Percy, Royal and her foal Diamond, Taylor, Scoops, Moritz, Zoey, Spark, and on Friday, Cecil. Cisco, Shandra, Dan and Old Red also went to new foster homes from Janine's. Nikki, Venus, Karma, Emily, Ronin, Athena, Early Hank, Chanel, and a sorrel gelding who left before we could name him, all went to new homes. Amazingly enough, it turns out Nikki's adopter also owns Nikki's 5 year old son! Samia and Nina are leaving for their new home on Friday.

Thank you Robin McKay for coming out and doing Jin Shin Jyutsu on some of the animals. A big thanks to Mary Ellen and Dot and all their helpers for the 2 fundraising garage sales held to benefit Bear Valley in June. Almost $800 was raised! Thank you Riley for your donation - Riley sold lemonade and cookies to raise money for the horses! We received a small grant from Alberta Outdoor Sportsman Association, it is much appreciated! Thank you to Adrienne of Livestock Identification Services for helping us revamp our adoption contract/bill of sale. Thank you to the students of Niton Central School who did a fundraiser for the Rescue, holding a Mother's Day sale and restaurant!

We have new pasture closer to the Rescue, thank you very much to Roy and Amber Hoffman! We hauled all the horses back from Westbrook (blew a fuel line in the truck in the process, but Mr. Fixit Mike was able to repair it pretty quick!) and now they're just a short walk to the east. Thank you Janine and Janneane for helping with the move. We also moved the 3 rescue calves, Olive, Charlotte and Norman, to a nice paddock at our cattle lease, and today we moved the oldest cow Ester up with them. We weren't affected by the flooding in Alberta but we did take in 17 poultry that were rescued from the flood and we also took in 6 rabbits that were surrendered during one of the Spay/Neuter Task Force clinics in Sask. (I think).

There is a new June newsletter posted if you haven't read it yet. We have some pretty amazing numbers happening!

It has been a VERY busy couple of weeks. We've moved 19 horses up to a pasture lease north of Bowden, and we've moved 35 horses to pasture by Westbrook. The 4 youngsters who were supposed to go out for summer foster are now not going due to health issues at the foster home. However Nina, Samia, Emily, Tivio and Freya have gone to another foster home for the summer that's very close to us (and are still available for adoption). Thank you Colette and Melodie for fostering them. Thanks also to Jen for fostering Maydie and Mary Ellen for fostering Teresa. For adoptions, Atticus and Flicka have been adopted, and they along with Rouge have gone to their new homes. Smudge and Lucky have come back; Smudge for financial reasons and Lucky due to behavioural issues. Cheyenne finally went up to her new home, thank you Becki. Daddy, Annie, Roxy#2 and Fuzzy, along with Bolt and Cody who were here temporarily, all went up to Paul and Sue Peyto of Timberline Tours in Lake Louise. There was a deposit made on Karma but sadly circumstances changed and her adoption didn't go through, so she's now available again for adoption.

We've been waiting months to be able to retest Aric for testosterone and finally we've done it, we just have to wait for the results to come back. Depending on what those results are we'll have to make some decisions as to how to handle his 'manliness' issues. We took Ronin in for xrays and he does have some mild arthritis developing in one front foot. With supplements and shoeing he should still be sound for light riding. He is such a nice gentleman!

It's been a real battle lately finding enough hay for the horses as we wait for the grass to start growing. We are also looking for pasture in our area for the summer, if anyone knows of any available. We do have one pasture available up by Bowden, where we will be moving 20 of the horses. We are also trying to negotiate a good rate on some other pasture close to Westbrook but haven't heard back on that yet. We don't have the budget to pay boarding rates to put the horses on pasture, so we're hoping we can get a better lease-type rate. We have several horses going out on foster for the summer as well, we just have to find the time to get them all moved. We've started gelding some of the colts - Voodoo, Moritz, Sirius, Atticus, Zane and Jax have been gelded. Yesterday we had cryptorchid surgery done on Flint, who was adopted out last year as a colt (one of his testicles didn't drop). Monkey and Joanie, who went to a foster up by Edmonton, had xrays and debriding done on their leg injuries. The vet determined they have dystrophic calcification. He will be consulting with another vet to determine the next step in treatment. I was kind of hoping the debriding would be the solution, as the vet bill is already at $1200! Reba, Cisco, Hitch and Twenty had their teeth floated.

Ruby and Ronin are back from foster, thank you Linda for looking after them for 5 years and 4 years respectively. Ruby, a bay roan mare who came to us pregnant from the Stavely auction in 2006, will be again available for fostering. Ronin, a big bay TB gelding who originally came to us with an injury that required him to be off for at least a year, we were told became lame in his other front foot this past December, so we'll have to have that looked at, and if he is sound he will be available for adoption. Busty and Girl have been adopted, along with Rouge, Fresno, Sirius, and Karma. Only Busty and Girl have left yet though. Moritz, Stina, Zoey and Flicka will be going out for summer foster next week, but they will still be available for adoption. It will be a good opportunity to wean Flicka. Cisco and Hitch have gone to Janine's for fostering, where they've joined 6 other of our seniors. Thank you Janneane and Krista, for fostering Raffy, Reba, Twenty, and Mercy. Janneane and Krista also took 5 hens and a rooster, which I'm told are being spoiled with smoothies and fresh veggies for breakfast!

We took in some more horses and other animals, this time as a result of the closing of another rescue/sanctuary by Calgary, The Forgotten Farm. We took in 3 pig(lets), 3 calves/heifers, 2 chickens and 11 horses. Thank you, Tara, for donating a large number of items from the Farm, including gates, troughs, etc., to Bear Valley Rescue. Of the horses we took in, 2 were already committed to another home so they will be leaving shortly. One of the horses, Royal, a dun paint mare, was very pregnant and foaled yesterday as 12:30 am. She had a beautiful dun filly, who looks just like mom. Macie, another mare from the Farm, has heaves and has been under treatment for a few days. She was checked today by our vet and is much improved.

Over the last two weeks we've lost two more of our non-equine residents - Ella, one of our old cows (she was 18) and yesterday, Kiwi, the sheep. We have to remember even though we're sad when we lose an animal, it's the fact that we've made their lives better while they were with us that counts.

Thank you to all our volunteers who've been helping out lately. We do appreciate everyone's help.  We would also like to thank everyone who has contributed to helping save a lot of our recent rescues from the feedlot and auctions.

I forgot to mention a big thank you to Build-A-Bear Workshop Bear Hugs Foundation, for the $2000 grant we received in April. The Build-A-Bear Workshop Bear Hugs Foundation is committed to making life more bearable for children, families and pets, in need of a helping paw. With the sale of each full-sized Bearemy's Kennel Pals(reg.TM) - a collection of Build-A-Bear Workshop(reg.TM) plush dogs - one dollar is donated to domestic pet programs including local animal shelters, stray pet rescue and rehabilitation organizations, and pet education programs around the country. These funds are available to qualified non-profit organizations in the United States and Canada. Visit www.buildabear.com for more information.

We had a great time at the Mane Event this past weekend, and I'm told everyone manning the booth at the Pet Expo also enjoyed themselves. Thank you to everyone who donated their time at both events! We had a raffle at the Mane Event and the winners were Marnie Matthews and Wendy Freedman. Also thank you to everyone who stopped by the booths to say hello and thank you to everyone who made a donation or purchased raffle tickets or bought cookies (hugs to Mary Ellen and Debbie for making the cookies!) or notecards.

Further to the notecards, I'll try and get them posted on the website for sale. These are notecards in sets of 5 different pictures of Bear Valley horses (photography by Sheena of Blinking Cow Photography). They are blank inside and perfect for thank you notes or short letters for any occasion. We have 3 different sets of cards and they are $10 per set, plus $1 for mailing.

Since the last update we have taken in some more horses from the feedlot. I'm only speculating but I think the feedlot guy we deal with may own or have an interest in the Lacombe slaughter plant. We took in 19 weanlings in one big load on the 15th, and then 4 more horses from the same guy on the 17th. The four from the 17th were 2 scrawny, tick-infested weanlings, and 2 emaciated Thoroughbred mares. We were contacted by the feedlot owner because he figured we could rehab the TB mares and that they'd make good horses once they were in better shape. We were able to track down the mares' information through their lip tattoos. It turns out they both came from the Langley, BC area, and were owned/sold to a gentleman who because ill soon after he received them back in November. He passed away in mid-April and the horses were shipped out here for slaughter, though they obviously had been neglected for months as they are literally just skin and bones. The one mare is Nikki's Secert (no typo), an 11 year old mare who had raced and since had 3 foals. The other mare is Ready in Rouge, a 5 year old mare who raced as recently as last summer. We have already been in contact with a previous owner of Nikki's and have received her papers. Nikki's previous owner was heartbroken to learn of her condition and almost-terrible fate. She believes she may be able to track down Rouge's papers for us as well. The 19 weanlings include some very nice youngsters - a grulla, 3 buckskin/dun colts, some bigger boned babies and a cute pony-type filly. I'll get these guys posted on the website as soon as I can. We also took in an old crippled gelding through Clarissa of AARCS. His name is Twenty. He came from east of Calgary where they'd come across him in a field. Seems he was turned out last fall to die, but didn't. Good save, Clarissa! If nothing else he'll have a nice relaxing summer here at the rescue and if need be we'll euthanize him quietly in the fall.

Joker, Duchess, and Raffles were adopted/fostered and left for their new homes. Summer, Mellow and Nicki left for their new homes as well, along with Monkey and Joanie to foster with a lady who has lots of experience dealing with troublesome leg injuries. Hopefully with her expertise we will be able to finally heal their legs up. They are already booked in for x-rays at her vet next week and if there are underlying issues with the bone we will get them cleaned up so they can begin healing properly. Kahlua, Farrah and Gemma went out on summer foster to where the minis are. I think they're happy to be out of the mud and on some grass, slow as it may be to grow with all this cold we are still having.

Jara's weight hasn't been great so she's now up at the house getting special feed. We also separated out the thinnest of the new horses for special feed and so they don't have to compete with the stronger horses. Rose Red, Tigger, Simba and Percy are below the barn in their own paddock. Percy (the crooked palomino) had a bit of a colic-type episode so we had him on meds for that, and he also has a bit on congestion in one lung so he's on meds for that as well. Rose Red is just very underweight and Tigger and Simba are the 2 that came in with the Thoroughbreds. They are so very thin and covered in huge ticks. I've never had to deal with ticks on horses before and I have to say they are pretty disgusting! We moved Shiloh (Mike's horse), Shay and Graycey back down to the herd (Graycey had mastitis and was up at the house for doctoring). Cecil was also up at the house for a few days as he seemed to be developing an abscess but it cleared up (if that's what it was) and he decided to take himself back down to the herd this morning! 

We ran out of large round bales, (I think we went through about 800 so far this winter/spring!) but thankfully we've found some more and as a result Mike has been pretty busy hauling hay home.