Month: February 2014

Adventures Away From the Farm · Farmtastic Stories

Donkey Basketball

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I love small town life for a whole host of reasons. The mom and pop businesses that dot the square and the main drag, the friendly greetings you get as you mosey about town, and neighbors helping neighbors. But who knew my small town would also host donkey basketball?

Yep, it’s true. On a recent weekday night, darn near the whole town turned out at the local school gym for a rousing game of donkey basketball. We all piled into the gym, and the bleachers were a buzz as we watched local leaders, school teachers, and public servants line up as they awaited their wild rides. And in they came. Adorable donkeys of all sizes complete with rubber shoes.

The hooting and hollering ensued as we all rooted for our favorites. Helmets on, the riders mounted their donkeys and began to pace up and down the court dribbling, carrying, and shooting basketballs. And just to be fair, I’m definitely using the word pace quite liberally here. If you’ve never spent much time around donkeys, what you might not know is that while they are smart and can be amazingly sweet, they definitely have minds of their own. This sometimes frustrating trait, made for a great night of entertainment.

Here come the donkeys. This little guy was first to enter to whooping and hollering.
Donkeys start the ceremony by carrying the littlest flag bearers.
The donkeys dribble down the court. The little one was the spunkiest. (Isn’t that always the way.)
Line up under the hoops, the rider takes a shot and the donkey watches on.
Sometimes the donkeys shed their riders. This poor fellow came off more than once but he was determined.

So why in the world were donkeys playing basketball in our little town? Well for a good cause of course. Another part of small town life is the way folks are committed to helping each other, and this night the agenda was focused on kicking cancer (pun intended and emblazond on the t-shirts). The program started out honoring the cancer survivors, then the national anthem (and yes kids riding donkeys paraded around the flag), the pledge of allegiance, the Texas pledge (that’s how we roll around here), and a prayer. You can’t say we don’t take our events seriously. During halftime, a cake auction was held, and homemade goodies fetched hundreds of dollars for a great cause.

It was one of those nights that just made me smile. When I came home and fed the horses and donkeys, I had a little chat with Sweetie Pie, our resident donkey. We talked it over, and while she was supportive of her fellow donkeys, she made it very clear in no uncertain terms that basketball was not in her future. I guess we’ll save the basketball hoops for another day.

Donkey Photo - Sweetie Pie shows off her pearly whites
Sweetie Pie says, “No mam. There will be no donkey basketball at the farm. Smooches!”

 

P.S. – No donkeys were harmed in the making of this blog.

Critter Stories · Farmtastic Stories

My Funny Valentine

My Farmtastic Life1 Comment

Valentine’s Day is a low key holiday around the farm. Cowboy likes to say, “Do you want to celebrate love just one day or wouldn’t you rather celebrate all year long?” And it’s true, he spoils me and vice versa. The farm is a pretty lovable place for people and our four-leggeds.

But this year, Maybelle decided to start the day off by getting in on the act. Truth be told, I was a sleepy girl on Valentine’s morning, as I had been up late the night before reading away. As usual, Maybelle was the first to stir and start the morning by dancing at the backdoor so she could go out and greet the day.

I stumbled to the door in a haze, and crawled back under the covers praying for just five more minutes. (You can ask Cowboy, try as I might, I have not yet mastered the art of being a morning person.) After a few minutes of running around and doing her thing, Maybelle came flying back in.

She had something in her mouth, but since this is the land of a hundred toys, I didn’t pay too much attention. That is until she hopped up in bed and unceremoniously dropped this blob of something right next to my head. At this point, the haze began to clear and my thoughts immediately went to, “Oh no, what in the world has she brought to me?”

I’ll be honest, a horse apple was the first dreaded though that popped into my mind. Please Lord, don’t let it be that. But oh no, Miss Maybelle had something even better. Somewhere she had found a small dead baby bird, feathers covered in dog slobber and little feet sticking straight up. Can we just chime in with one collective eeeeewwwwww?

Not only was I sad that we had somehow lost a baby bird, because let’s face it we love almost any critter around here, but worse it was now taking up residence next to my pillow. The cobwebs now completely out of my head, I scooped up Maybelle’s gift and apologized to the little bird as it made its way into a trash bag burial.

Maybelle was oh so very proud of her Valentine’s gift, which I think she really believed she could lick back to life and have as her latest friend. Let’s just say that we do not want to repeat that little gift all year long, or really ever again. My funny little valentine, next time a morning snuggle will do.

Dog Photo - Maybelle with her tongue out
Maybelle – a lovely Valentine all on her own. (Now to convince her of that!)

P.S. – Best Valentine’s present of the day, Cowboy made sure we had nice fresh sheets and pillow cases!