Journey’s End Ranch Animal Sanctuary May 4, 2013 Newsletter

We’ve had another busy month. Several weeks ago, our Vice President, Bonnie, set a trap in her rural area to catch 2 dogs which had been running loose in the desert for more than a month. She caught one, which was a pup, and found it a home with one of her friends. It was very shy at first, but is becoming socialized. A week later, she caught an emaciated, sweet little poodle/schnauzer mix female dog who is about a year old. We took her here for a week, vaccinated and dewormed her and got a few pounds on her. We are thankful to our local networking friends, because “Emma” found a fantastic home where she is loved and has 2 doggie “siblings”, a large yard & gets to sleep on the bed with her people. She was spayed this week.

Here she is before & after being groomed.

Emma

Emma after grooming

One of our other board members, Darcy, just found this beautiful dog in Las Vegas yesterday and was able to get her into a foster home. They hope to reunite her with her owner, as she looks as if she has been well cared for.

beautiful dog found in Las Vegas

Our veterinarian was out on the 23rd to geld little Julio. All went well. He also drew blood from 3 dogs who needed their thyroid levels checked and we did a blood draw on Big Rusty to see if he might have Lyme disease, as he had lived in areas with ticks several years ago. Because he has a lot of soreness and vague lameness, we wanted to rule Lyme out. The test was negative.

Big Rusty

The day the vet was out, Mocha was showing symptoms of pain in the morning and we were not sure if it was a gut problem or perhaps a back injury from running the evening before. It ended up being a spinal injury and she is now on  course of prednisone which has made her feel a lot better by reducing the inflammation while she heals.

Mochaloca

Julio

Anne, who does hoof trimming and body work, was out to work on Rusty and he is feeling much better after 3 sessions. He is more comfortable & has gained weight, too. She also trimmed Knickers’ feet, as he is a a two person job. The rest of the horses I can do myself. She also did some body work on Knicky and loosened up his front end. So many horses are in pain from old injuries or misuse and, because they are prey animals, they hide their pain and people are not aware they have problems. At the 2000 American Farrier’s Convention, it was said that 90% of the worlds horses are really unsound, although only 10 % are “dead lame”.  They felt that only 10% are truly sound. That is a sad testimony to poor horse care. JERAS practices natural horse care, natural barefoot trimming, gives them lots of room to roam, companionship and proper feeding. Many of the traditional ways of keeping horses- in stalls, with metal shoes and fed grain-are really not what Nature intended and there is now a huge movement to care for horses in a way which respects their natural evolutionary requirements. Even thought most of our horses have old injuries, they have blossomed here because of natural horse-keeping. http://www.jersanctuary.org/natural-and-organic-care/horse-health/

Julio has recovered from his surgery and it back to playing with Florencia. Here is a short video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzL5WV-ScSM&feature=share&list=UUtBd65iat7_EgdgMfQ46brQ

We received enough favorable new reviews to receive a Top-Rated Nonprofits 2013 status from Great Nonprofits. Thank you to everyone who took the time to write a review! Additional reviews are welcomed, too.

http://greatnonprofits.org/org/journeys-end-ranch-animal-sanctuary

April was a busy month and also found us with about $800 in vet bills. As always, we are very grateful for our supporters. Thank you!

Love,

Cathy & The Gang