New Girl in Town.

Last Saturday Libby arrived here on our farm. The first few days all I did was go out, hang out with her, offer her a small handful of grain, and try to make friends. A little nose scratching too.

She is almost two years old, and has had at least four homes, including ours, in her short life. Having never had a chance to really bond with anone, I can understand her being hesitant to be very friendly towards anyone.

Today was a bit of a breakthrough for us, I think. My Mom has a large Arab gelding, and he is constantly picking on Libby through the fence. Libby, on the other hand, teases him and eggs him on with the intent of getting a few good kicks in. We put Drifter out back, and clipping the lead on Libby, brought her out to walk around, and explore some of her other surroundings a bit more. She was very curious, and only balked a few times. When she did, I waited, and talked to her, and eventually she came on where I asked her to.

She also allowed me to rub one side of her neck, and shoulder, down to her elbow. Big thing for me because before it was her head or nothing. The side with the large scar on her neck is still completely off limits, but time will fix that, I imagine. Whatever did that to her had to be scary, so I understand her not wanting to be touched there. It's also still healing, so it may be sore.

Overall she is being very good, but after talking with several donkey people, I'm a bit frustrated at how little I really know and how many misconceptions I have about them. As I told one of these kind souls, I'm going to be chanting to myself "She's not a horse!" over and over again to remind myself that horse techniques are not for her.

Today she also exhibited a very intense attitude towards a neighbor's dog, though he was some 150 feet away. Within seconds, she was so worked up she was shaking like a leaf, and trotting back and forth, eyes glued on the dog. When I approacher her area, she trotted to me, and shoved her muzzle into my hand, blew a little, and went back to her attentive watch. According to one of my informants (hehe funny word to use) she was ensuring I was out of harms way. I halfway guessed she was checking on me, so I'm glad to know that I'm not totally misreading her.

Anyway, tomorrow is another day, and will add more then. All I have planned is to sit with her and just hang out for a litle while.