Jenny Girl, the Loss of a Donkey

Day before yesterday Pud'nin and I were filling the water trough in all the ice and snow when we noticed something very saddening in the side shed. Our mama donkey was dead...laying there frozen to the ground. I was heartbroken! I know she was old, probably 22 years old at least. But I was not prepared for her to leave, and certainly not in such a manner! I have beat myself up over and over again for not doing "something" to prevent this from happening. Maybe if she were warmer, in a stall, something..But I know in my heart that we have done all that is possible to make these animals as safe and comfortable in this horrid weather. But it is still sad, and I still feel that I let her down. She was one of the first animals we had here on the farm, living here for close to 10 years. I thought I would share a bit about how she came to be here on the Backwards Homestead. Here she is with her last baby, Stilts!

Way back in the day we used to go to a guys little roadside animal sale. He had goats, ponies, donkeys, well, at one time or another he had just about every animal you can imagine. Sadly, most of the animals he had were living in pretty bad conditions. So whenever we could we would bring one home, but many times we just could not...and it was hard. But one day we went there was the cutest little pony, white with blue eyes. Lee just had to have her, so home she came to live here on the farm. So, we now had a pony, how does that explain the donkey? Well, when we brought Princess home, we had to leave a donkey, and it was hard. So, after talking about it we had to go back and get her. She was not as happy as I would have imagined to be going to a new home. Loading her was an ordeal! She kicked, flapped and had to be forced into the trailer. I was a nervous wreck along with her! We barely had fences,no barn and had not been here all that long, but now we had 2 donkeys, and a pony! Let the games begin!
Little did we know, Jenny was pregnant, but that was not to be..She lost a little colt within a week of being here on the farm. Maybe from the move, combined with her bad physical condition.Either way, it was not meant to be! But, before too long she has added several little long ears to the farm. She was the bestest mommy, always keeping her little ones safe from harm!
The years passed and she went from black to gray, kinda like me. But she never failed to be the same sweet Jenny. Here are a few of the last pictures I have of her, she will be missed!

Here she is with her little family.