All the Creatures

Back in 2007, you might recall the saga of Snowball the deer. A fawn that was injured and found by a family in Oregon and then nursed back to health by them. I first wrote about Snowball in 2007 and you can read that post here. Then came my update on the court battle (as you remember, the state of Oregon took possession of Snowball and her son Bucky) where over $39,000 was spend by the state (at that time) to keep Snowball out of the hands of those awful animal lovers and deliver her and her son to state fish and game. If you missed that post, you can read it here. The last I had heard about the court battle, the family that found Snowball had won their case and the state of Oregon was to turn over Snowball to them - that did not happen. The state ushered Snowball away into “protective” custody. The Aardvark’s Tongue also wrote about Snowball and gives a time line that ends in 2008, here is a link to that (with a photo of Snowball). So now it is almost 3 years later and I thought I would check up on Snowball. There is almost nothing on line about the court action going on. But I do know where Snowball is being held.

In mid 2008, Snowball was handed over to a for profit zoo. There she is in a petting zoo, where she gets lots of poking and prodding by little kids all day long. Here is a link to that part of the saga, you’ll want to read all the comments over the public outrage about that little part of the Snowball the deer story. So what has happened since 2008?

It so happens that just a month ago, my daughter was invited with some friends of hers to visit one of those drive through wildlife parks. This one is called Wildlife Safari in Winston Oregon. That is the same zoo that Snowball is located at. My daughter along with all the other visitors saw Snowball, not in the petting zoo but just in a small pen where you can reach over and touch her. She is located in an area where she can run like other deer. She is in fact another zoo animal. The zoo website, Wildlife Safari, mentions Snowball at the bottom of this page. The family that first took care of her allowed her the full freedom of their farm, which was acres of land not square feet of a pen.

To me, it is so sad to know that this saga has not had a happy ending for Snowball. I still don’t know if there is any news on Bucky, her son.

All the Creatures

Is it too early to talk about kids halloween costumes? I am not talking about costumes for human children but our friends, the goats. It is summer now and county fairs are in full swing along with 4-H shows and just plain fun get togethers. We always hear about doggy dress-up and if you go to some of the larger horse shows you can witness costume classes where the horse and rider dress up in non-traditional horse outfits. I thought I would just gather a few photos of goats that have been dressed up. I hope you enjoy them -

Cute photos aren’t they? As a side note, my neighbor has a few goats and one of the females gave birth to triplets a few weeks back. They are Boar goats, the all white with a brown head colored ones. Boars are meat goats. They grow pretty big and I have not asked him if he plans on eating them or not. Most of the time he just sells them. I use to have 2 Nubian/Boar cross female goats almost 10 years ago. I got them as 5 month olds. We had them for about 5 years and then sold them to a breeder who loved that cross.

Goats are fun and do make great pets. They also make good companions for horses.

All the Creatures

A long time ago I figured out that I had to keep medications, shampoos and first aid ointments that are used for my pets, separate from the human stuff in the house. This was not to keep anything from getting contaminated, no, this was so I could find it. Dog shampoos were notorious for going missing. I remember once leaving out a skin cream for a dog that my mom had years ago on my mother’s bathroom counter and she mistook it for one of her wrinkle creams and used it. No harm done but that dog skin cream cost a fortune back then and she used most of it on her face. That was when I learned to seperate the pet supplies from the human ones.

I have a pantry that has a closet with shelves. One entire shelf is devoted to pet supplies and nothing else. I can find what I need and when I need it for my pets right there. I just have to remind myself to put it back once I have finished using it.

All the Creatures