Wiley “needed a job” that sounded like work for us so we kept looking. After several trips, Kathy said, “what about Wiley and Coco, it doesn’t get better than this”. They moved in a few days later in June 2006. Now Wiley has a job, supervising the jobs he gives us!
When Kathy delivered Wiley and Coco she said there was a problem. Our barn and pasture were too big for just 2 donkeys. She was right, of course, so Sandee and Suzee joined them in September 2007.
Wiley was born at Longhopes and was used to interacting with humans. It is a real treat when he rolls over on his back, spreads his legs and lets us rub his belly while he makes an indescribable humming sound that must mean happy donkey. Wiley loves to watch us work in the barn, especially if we’re working in a stall or the paddock where he can actually lean his head over our shoulder and look at what we’re doing. It always takes longer to work on things when Wiley is “helping” but it is also worth a lot of laughs.
The winter of 2006-2007 was pretty bad as far as snow goes. More than one time we had to snowshoe uphill to the barn. It was also a winter of bonding. Coco and Wiley seemed to understand they depended on us to be fed and they seemed to appreciate it. When the snow cleared from the paddock Wiley would run in circles then run directly at us cutting to the side at the last minute and kick his heels. It took Coco a while to warm up to being handled. We watched Chuck Rinkor’s DVD on de-Spooking donkeys, then we ran both Wiley and Coco through the routine as the Spring of 2007 started to arrive. Wiley didn’t really need it, but he thought it was fun. Coco surprised us from the beginning with how well she did and it really helped her trust us and warm up to us. Soon Coco was looking for a hug every time we came to the barn.
One day, our dog Rusty escaped and ran to the barn. He took a long detour through the area so we beat him to the paddock by a few seconds. Rusty was fond of chasing our deer and elk so he went into the paddock to chase Wiley and Coco. The look on his face was priceless when, instead of running like a deer, Coco turned and charged him. Rusty was out of the paddock standing behind us in a second and hasn’t headed that way again.
In late summer of 2007 we went to an event at Longhopes and met Suzee and Sandee. They were much younger than Coco and Wiley and weighing 500-600 pounds or so each were much smaller than the 900-1000 pounds that Wiley and Coco each weigh. They also looked like twins. Being young and recently adopted from the wild Kathy made sure we were ready for the more challenging pair. They arrived a few days later and within hours were romping in the pasture with Coco and Wiley as if they knew each other from years past. When they are in the pasture we check them several times a day sometimes marveling how getting donkeys legitimized an adult jumping on an ATV and racing around the pasture several times a day. When Wiley is feeling his oats he’ll chase the ATV resulting in all 4 of them racing around the field much to the delight of anyone on the ATV.
The people who originally owned our ranch put the barn in a very picturesque place. Unfortunately it is about ¼ mile from the pasture and there isn’t a safe fenced area to walk in between. As the Fall of 2007 approached we started to be concerned about walking all of them to the barn from the pasture for the winter. Coco and Wiley had done it several times, but Suzee and Sandee were new and we hadn’t put them on a lead yet. We practiced putting on a harness and leading Sandee and Suzee in a controlled area. When we got into the larger open pasture Suzee taught Mark how to fly one day. His landing wasn’t very good so he didn’t move well for weeks.
A few days later Mark was driving home and noticed Coco off in the distance hiding under a tree. Something drew him to her and he found she had injured her eye. We walked Coco and Wiley to the barn while the vet drove to meet us. We left Sandee and Suzee in the field alone. The vet said that Coco needed eye drops three times a day and an eye patch so we knew they were in the barn and paddock for the winter.
The next day we decided trying to walk Sandee and Suzee to the barn was a problem so we decided to see if we could get them in the trailer for a ride to the barn. With Coco and Wiley this is a long job involving ropes, halters, ginger snaps, patience and a lot of pushing. As we readied the trailer we were surprised to see Suzee jump in on her own and even more shocked to see Sandee follow her! Now Mark was standing in the trailer with the two of them and with ropes and tack everyplace wondering how to get the doors closed before we lost them. We managed to do it and everyone was reunited in the barn a few minutes later.
We were amazed that we could walk up to a huge animal like Coco, take off her eye patch, tilt her head and put in eye drops then put her eye patch back on 3 times a day. She seemed to know we were helping her and after a few days she would tilt her head on her own. A week later the vet thought he was looking at the wrong eye since her cooperation made every drop count. She has healed completely and the ordeal has made her almost as friendly as Wiley. If you ignore her she will walk up and rub her head on you for attention.
We are now repeating the cycle with Sandee and Suzee. Suzee is very friendly and loves to be hugged. She frequently arrives where the humans are before Wiley does. Sandee is more like Coco originally was. When approached she used to stand behind Suzee and only recently started to come up for hugs and to have her head and ears rubbed. They all line up when it is time for carrots and generally behave as the treasures are handed out. As Spring approaches we’ll brush up on Chuck‘s DVD and we believe Sandee will progress even faster than Coco did.
When we go to feed them in the morning they are usually all laying down in “nativity pose” waiting for my arrival. It is a great way to start the day.
We’ve all learned a lot, but one question still haunts us. If you have two large donkeys and you get two smaller donkeys, why do you have more than twice the amount of donkey poo?
Raising Wiley
It Doesn’t Get Better Than This
By Mark & Pat Endry
Our journey into becoming donkey owners started with llamas. They’re cute, we used to drive by some near our house and they looked so peaceful in the field. We went to some county fairs, the stock show, some llama shows, searched the Internet and we read some books. We heard about kicking, spitting and people would describe llamas for sale as “usually being easy to catch”. None of this may be true, but we got to wondering if they were friendly enough to add as pets. An acquaintance who had llamas adopted 2 donkeys from Longhopes and thought they were wonderful so we decided to drive to Longhopes one day.
We were hooked from the first trip, but it took a lot of trips to decide which ones wanted us as parents. We met Wiley and Coco on the first trip. Wiley was described as needing a job to stay out of trouble. If
