Why is my icon a donkey? Before I sold my Shenandoah Valley horse farm and moved to the beaches of North Carolina we were a rescue haven for abused donkeys through the Cheers For Ears program. We gave shelter and care to up to 6 donkeys at a time before they were taken to another farm for adoption. We could not have the added traffic from potential adopters as our Hunter/Jumpers were too high strung.
Our farm was the first stop after rescue. Many of the donkeys could not walk when they arrived. They were placed into their stalls using a padded forklift. We named all our donkeys after Beatles Songs/Albums. The icon I use is a photo of Sargent Pepper. As we began to run out of Beatles song/album titles we switched to The Who songs - e.g. Lilly from Pictures of Lilly. [Photos of Sgt. Pepper & Lilly below]
BTW: My penname Birddogthecat was taken from one of our barn cats who would retrieve a small rubber balls.
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Great story.
=D> :-bd
Delicious fun. I like "Cheers For Ears."
I had a cat which would retrieve as well. It is amusingly unexpected.
Another of life’s great mysteries revealed! O:-)
Donkeys are fun but I guess I’ve always been more of an ass man myself. >:)
Oh God, Gordon… I haven’t laughed since I passed a kidney stone yesterday morning! :)) :)) :))
@gordon Good one Gordon - comes as no surprise.
Many people think owning a donkey is a fun and cute way to amuse the kids. However, they do not realize that donkeys can live over 65 years. Yes, you read that correctly - 65+ years.
So, now that kids are off to college or jail or wherever and you still have this donkey. All too often these donkeys are relegated to a field or pen on the back 40 or 10 or what acreage you may own and forgotten about. Eventually their hoofs curl up like Chinese slippers and they can no longer walk. That’s when we would get them.
birddogthecat said: However, they do not realize that donkeys can live over 65 years.
So can the kids - perhaps they could be life partners
We had a cat that would fetch. birddogthecat is a great name.
We at Rancho Vacca Loca are fond of rescues. We have or have had horses, dogs, goats, sheep, a cow and some cats. Eight cats, which we cleverly (haha) named “#1-#7” plus Ocho, who walked up to us in the parking lot of a Mexican restaurant looking matted and forlorn. He turned out to be a magnificent Norwegian forest cat and much more dog-like than expected. He’ll let you scratch his belly. He even hops the gate and strolls unworried past the dogs and eats their food. Let’s just say the dogs tried to stop him, once… X_X
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@wglenn Love it! Ocho, muy bien amigo.
We at Rancho Vacca Loca are fond of rescues. We have or have had horses, dogs, goats, sheep, a cow and some cats. Eight cats, which we cleverly (haha) named "#1-#7" plus Ocho, who walked up to us in the parking lot of a Mexican restaurant looking matted and forlorn. He turned out to be a magnificent Norwegian forest cat and much more dog-like than expected. He'll let you scratch his belly. He even hops the gate and strolls unworried past the dogs and eats their food. Let's just say the dogs tried to stop him, once... X_X
Viking blood ;)
Yes! He is small for a Norwegian and the smallest of our cats but is unquestionably the alpha cat. Here are Ocho and I listening to music… Typical cat attention. He just dropped the PWD remote.
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wglenn said: He is small for a Norwegian
He sure looks like one however. They are not common cats.
Llamas, alpacas and cats here - plus the outside critters I enjoy feeding.
@birddogthecat - Respect dude! Plenty of respect for all who live animal rescue (it’s certainly more than just ‘do’).
@wglenn - numero Ocho is a beautiful cat. I had a cat who I would say had some Norwegian forest cat in him, he certainly had some of the characteristics. He was also the sweetest and friendliest cat I ever met. He never met a human that he didn’t like… He would walk right up to any stranger without hesitation with his Hi, who are you? Pet me! 
Made an impression on everyone he met. Another amusing anecdote: I had to be careful when using power tools. Whenever I would use power tools - particularly the Dremel, Christopher and his brother would come and watch, curious about what I was doing. Gotta watch for flying debris, I had a scrape on a set of glasses to attest to that.
J.P.
@JP- That’s a Norwegian. Others in the area have acquired Norwegians just the way we did and they have the same personality traits. They are perfectly capable of survival in the wild (even in Dayton! ;))). He often just turns and “eyeballs” things that would make other cats run up a tree. Maybe we should have named him Chuck Norris.
Maine Coons have a similar bullet-proof personality. They look similar as well. Perhaps a large ruff denotes bravery.
Maybe we should have named him Chuck Norris.
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@stereophilus
I love this Forum. Only here can a donkey based thread morph into fighting/kick-boxing cats. Love it!
Now, where shall we go next. Back to math problems? The meaning of “Felina” in the final episode of Breaking Bad? Why Walt left his expensive wristwatch on top of the payphone booth?
Can’t wait to see.
How about here. George Harrison and Billy Preston leading into…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIbp5C-5WXM