Donkey

Here's our new donkey, named Java, but for some reason I always want to call her Mocha. She's Karen and Ed Sherwood's old donkey. Apparently she liked to nurse on the milk cows so they had to sell her, which was just when we were looking for a donkey.

I realized we needed a guard animal one day when we got out there and there were three dogs and a goat running about on the driveway in. The guy who owned them came and got them saying, "The goat's the best dog of all of them." He also mentioned it was the only goat he had left after the coyotes ate all the others.

This was the second time a neighbor has told me about coyotes eating all their goats. There was even an old coyote burrow on the property. After what we went through with the chickens I just couldn't bear the thought of getting out there with my children and finding Ellie or Nougat devoured by a pack of coyotes. So we HAD to get a guard animal.

After looking around online I noticed donkeys were cheaper than Pyrenees dogs, and Karen just happened to be selling Java, so it all worked out.

We are very pleased with all the manure, which she makes little piles of and it is easy to collect and compost. She is very docile and loves the children. The other day she followed Mirin all over the place because he had a handful of alfalfa. We are wondering if we can train her and use her for draft. It would be nice to have a donkey to lug the feed out to the chickens.

It took her awhile to warm up to the goats. Today is the first day she is out with them. Before she has always tried to kick or bite them. Hopefully they are all there tommorrow.