frosty morning

Yesterday was pretty chilly at the sanctuary. Frost everywhere. I have yet to find my hat and gloves from last year, so I had to make do with one of those headband type of ear warmer things. I find this amusing – this is an article of clothing I’ve somehow kept ahold of since my skiing days…growing up…the thing is like 20 years old, and has stuck to me like a burr, somehow. And I’ve moved a lot! And it looks brand new. It is either charmed, or possessed. It did keep my ears nice and warm though.

The hat I got off etsy last year, though? No idea where it is. With my gloves, presumably.

The goats and sheep don’t seem to mind the cold all that much. They hate rain, but straight up cold doesn’t seem to bother them so much. This is unsurprising for the sheep, given all their wool!

Lola doesn’t seem to hang out in the middle of the sheep crowd, though she does like to be somewhat near them. I went to the upper part of the lower goat/sheep yard to give a couple of the arthritic goats some meds, and to open the upper gate so they’d have run of the place. (And in case this makes you think I know more about running the sanctuary than I do, these are exactly the kind of tasks that I’d never do other than when explicitly told by Terry or Dave. I’m a poop and water bowl expert, the rest requires constant direction.)

Lola was in the lower part of the lower goat/sheep yard, probably a little out of sight, given the hill, of the rest of the sheep. She baa-aah’d a couple times, and since I was near the rest of the sheep, I baa-aah’d back to encourage her to find her way up there. She did, but maintained her distance from the herd.

lola

I think she just likes to be within sight of them, but maybe finds it overwhelming to be in the crowd of them. Maybe she’d be somewhat independent regardless, or maybe her mobility difference makes her integration into the herd take that much longer.

Betty, the mom to Billy and Butch, only recently seemed to become fully integrated into the herd. She was hanging out right in the middle of them yesterday, and that’s become more normal in the past month or so. It wasn’t sudden, it was a slow process. Some of that was likely due to having the two lambs, and perhaps the special needs of a nursing mom.

betty (with billy and butch in the background)

It is hard to know for sure, of course. We make our best guesses, and that’s all. They have each other, and that’s what they really need anyway.

The horses and mules also seemed undaunted by the chill. This makes sense when you think of their history, having come evolutionarily from the cold and dry steppes. They certainly don’t like the rain, but were not at all hesitant in going out into the cold.

hal, gloria, and didi

And then there were the bunnies, snuggling together. Given that Pinky, the white bunny with lighter-colored spots, is not usually so amenable to the snuggling, I’d have to guess that this was a chill-induced love fest. And who could blame them? It was tempting to join them!

allison, pinky, and twinkle