Animal Crackers - ITS ALL ABOUT DARLENE!!

Howdy 

This week it's all about Darlene! Our old girl is officially 30 years old! 

 I know I talked about her 30th a couple of weeks ago here... but yesterday was the big day! It just felt like it had to be celebrated and talked about again - 30 and still beautiful! I spent some time going through old photographs of her yesterday. And remembering the day we bought her. I remember it like it was yesterday - standing in that field loving on this pregnant donkey - Hubby was trying to tell me that she was over ten and maybe we should think about a younger female. I just kept coming back to Darlene. She was so calm and so sweet and seemed to be a leader in pasture. I knew she would be a good fit for our family and she would take care of the younger donkeys in our pastures. And she has all these years. 

Looking back through the photos there are so many of her that I love!

She has given us some fabulous babies over the years - She is a fabulous Mom and she loves being pregnant and having babies. 

Yes... very pregnant. LOL She would get SO WIDE I would think she really would pop. But she was such a great pregnant girl, always delivered her babies with ease and then was super attentive and raised great baby donkeys. 

Adorable right? 

Now here is where I should probably talk about just how much she loved being a Momma... as she got older we didn't breed her as often and then we decided it was time for her to retire. She didn't like that and decided that if she couldn't have a baby.. she would take them. Yep... We had to watch her in pens with other Mom's and Babies as she would steer the babies away from their Moms and try and take over their duties. It was cute, but the younger Mom's did not like their babies stolen. Or borrowed? Ha. 

Today she gets her special treatment from "Dad" and every evening taken in to her special private area for her special feed loaded up magic geriatric powder with extra vitamin and minerals to keep her moving around good and healthy. I think she loves the special time with "Dad" and especially loves being able to eat her bowl of goodies and snort over towards the other girls making sure they know she has the good stuff and they don't. 

We love this old lady so much -

It is so hard to believe we have had her so long - it really does seem like yesterday she came into our lives and she has taught and led all our donkeys to be sweet friendly members of our family. I don't think we will get 30 more from her... but we are blessed for each day and year with this beautiful girl! 

Hope you enjoyed celebrating Darlene today - and have a smile.. maybe not as big as Darlene's but a smile! :0)

Hugs and have a very blessed weekend -