Monday, August 2, 2010

JuJu Across The Water (continued story...)

RECAP: JuJu Bean the donkey was terrified of water and we were stuck at the creek well into the dark of night when a neighbor pulled up and let me take JuJu to her barn and put her in a nice roomy horse stall for the night --- till we could figure out during daylight hours how to get her across!
It wasn't just creeks she hated, even a big puddle would bring her to a sudden hault ... and we had two rushing creeks to get across in order to get to my cabin, her new home. The first creek which was putting the absolute terror into her, there are no pictures of... that one was the first and hardest and here is how we had to do it....
At the first creek she knew she was stronger then me and when she saw an opportunity, she made a turn, pulled the rope from my hands and began trotting uphill, back towards the neighbor's barn -- with me and Bort walking swiftly behind her, then me finally getting close enough to her to start to run and grab the rope... she had a glint in her eye as we both ran side by side and she eventually let me catch her. Once I got her back down to the creek, we quickly had her tied to the hitch on a car so that she couldnt run away again....
Then we had to coax JuJu with these things:::::
1. apples
2. eye contact
3. spankings with a thin stick
4. pulling the rope over the creek

Two men pulled the rope (also tied to the car), one lady spanked with the stick, and I called JuJu to me from the other side of the creek- till she finally gave in after ALOT of heart breaking resistance.
The terrible thing was, right after she made it over the first creek, we had a second one to go over only 100 feet down the road! (I've got a really rugged driveway!) You can see as I am pulling the rope I am making a pout face for JuJu Bean cause I felt so bad for her!
But after the drama from the first creek, the memory of being spanked, the reward of the apple after she crosses, tug from the car and some serious trust/eye contact convincing she made it across the second body of water easier and we were on our way home FINallY! YAY!!! Go JuJu!
Proud! My neighbors and friends rock out wit' der' socks out! I love them and could not have done it alone.....
I made it easily up the road after that and got JuJu the donkey into her gated area, where she nibbled on hay, corn on the cob and tree sapling leaves... and started to LUv me!
She already HEE HAW's when she sees me out of excitment and follows me around her fenced area! I can't wait till I can take her hiking and she won't mind the water anymore. :)))
PS - (the title of this post is a play on this Paul McCartney song.)
Xoxoxo