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Last month I
started telling you about the ever growing animal
population, but that was only the beginning. Christmas
of 2004 found us taking on perhaps our most difficult
new addition – a new born baby goat! Holly, as we named
her, was rescued from a local farm as she had failed to
suckle and the farmer had left her to die. I was asked
if I would have her and like a fool said yes.
She was a tiny little scrap, and could barely drink. I
had to force her to take 1oz at a time from a baby’s
bottle. She just about stayed alive though, surviving
pneumonia over Christmas and to my relief gradually
becoming stronger and drinking more. She thought she was
my baby and had to be cuddled to sleep on my lap and
followed me around calling muuuum, muuum. She slept in
front of the fire with Suzy and Buffy – all curled up
together, and tried to suckle from Suzy, who very
bravely tolerated it! Eventually she turned the corner
and got stronger every day, soon guzzling down a whole
bottle of milk in minutes. Just when we thought her
problems were over she managed to get trampled by one of
the horses, having followed me down to the field.
Luckily she survived with just a bad limp, so off I went
to the vet to find out if anything was broken. The vet
could not believe that she was doing an x-ray on a goat!
There were no bones broken but she came home with a full
leg bandage. I certainly got some funny looks, carrying
a goat with a bandaged leg through the streets of
Antequerra. Of course, once her leg was better and she
became more lively it was obvious that her life living
in the kitchen would have to stop – but how? She was
becoming a menace and could jump up onto the table if
anyone left a chair out. The problem was that she
thought she was half human, half dog and did not take
lightly to being put in a stable. The fact that goats
never live alone was another problem – only one solution
– we had to get another goat! We soon acquired Fudge and
now they are the best of friends and living outside at
last!
We seem to be destined to rescue birds too. Our most
interesting was a Little owl that was on the road
outside the house. It most likely had been knocked
slightly by a car as it was not hurt but was in shock.
We kept it in a cat box over night and fed it worms
which it loved, then luckily it was able to fly away the
next day.
Less interesting are the pigeons that we seem destined
to rescue – we have now had two, one with a broken wing
and one a broken leg. They live in the tack room, pooing
everywhere, until they have mended and can fly away.
Buffy hangs around outside the tack room door ever
hopeful that I will let her in!
On a bigger scale, we started collecting and rescuing
horses. Unfortunately rescuing still meant paying for
them, but when you have seen a horse in a sad situation
it is hard to walk away.
With Polly, Carretta and Blackie already, we did hope
that one day we would have a couple more so that the
whole family could ride together. Sadly, Carretta died a
year after we bought her from a tumor on her kidney. She
had got very thin and had lost her appetite. We had her
put to sleep, all of us having a last cuddle, and our
last memories are of her standing amidst a blanket of
poppies.
 We replaced her with Lucy (Andalusia) who was
pregnant when we bought her, though we had no idea when
the foal was due. Typically, she had her foal in the
early hours of the morning and when we went in to feed
her, there he was, already standing up and suckling –
what an amazing sight. His birthday was such a happy day,
with our neighbours and family coming to visit the new
born. Lucy was an amazing mum and seemed quite happy to
show him off. She remains an incredible mum – the cheeky
Leo, at nearly four still suckles from her occasionally
– we wanted her to wean him naturally but she seems to
have other ideas!
Our first rescue horse was Morena, a little bay horse
who had been left in a field without enough food. She is
a funny little character and to this day is possessive
over her food, making a noise like a dinosaur if another
horse goes to close! She is a great favourite with
children.
Next we bought Bracken, a Shetland pony. She is ideal
for small children to ride and is a cheeky little thing.
She is an amazing escape artist and often gets out of
the field. One day she disappeared. We suddenly heard a
neigh and found her in the pool pump house – she had
gone in and somehow closed the door behind her! We have
had to put a padlock on the feed room and keep it locked
– if you just loop the padlock through she can get it
out and open the bolt! One morning I went down to find
the horses having a party in the feed room – Bracken had
opened the door! What a mess – there was poo everywhere
and most of the food had either been eaten or spilt on
the floor. We make sure we keep the door padlocked at
all times now!
What with the pigeons and the horses our poor tack room
is destined to be a mess. Another problem we have to
deal with is mice. If left to their own devices they can
be very destructive. Sadly we have to resort to putting
poison down which I hate as I actually find mice very
appealing. Ironically I will go to great lengths to save
them if I find them drowning in water buckets. Once I
rescued one poor mouse that had almost drowned and put
him up on top of some straw bales to dry in the sun. In
the blink of an eye Buffy was there and before I could
stop her had knocked the mouse to the ground, where one
of the hens promptly speared it with its beak! (if you
knew what went into your free range eggs they might not
seem so good!)
That poor mouse just wasn’t meant to live!
When you buy a horse in Spain they come with a green
card. This card is issued when the horse is a year old
and each time the horse goes on to a new owner the card
has to be updated with the new details. In typically
Spanish fashion this involves a trip to the ministry of
agriculture in Antequerra with the previous owner and
n.i.e cards, to have the new information transferred.
Beware any of you that own horses. The Ministry of
Agriculture send out an annual letter informing you of
the need to take your cards to the office to have them
stamped. This has to be done between April and June and
if you fail to do so, your card is cancelled. This I
found out the hard way! Unfortunately, I did not know
anything about this rule and did not receive any letters
until 2003. (I have not received any since either, it is
lucky that I now know what to do!) I duly took the
letter and the cards along to the office, only to be
informed that since I had not had the cards stamped in
previous years the cards would be cancelled. This then
involved employing a vet to come out and issue new cards
for all the horses, at 30€ each! I did try to explain
that since I had not received a letter in previous years
I couldn’t possibly have known what I had to do, but to
no avail.
I have just found out that this year the law has changed
and all horses have to be micro chipped. When the cards
are taken to be stamped, if you don’t have a certificate
for the microchip, the cards are cancelled. Of course,
they haven’t bothered to inform me of this either,
luckily my vet told me.
To be continued…………………………
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