Louise, the BLM Burro

I have another post about Estes, covering the market and all the great things I learned and bought, but it will have to wait until tomorrow, for today's post is in honor of Louise. Regular followers will recognize that she is one of my five burros ... or was. I came home yesterday evening to learn that she died sometime while we were away at work. Although by a rough calculation, she was somewhere around 30 years old ("ancient for a horse", as my burro-expert buddy Ginny said), I am still deeply saddened. While feeding yesterday morning, she came up to show me that part of her tongue was swollen. Her sight has dimmed a bit in the two years we have had her, and apparently she managed to get stung by a bee on the tongue twice in the past two weeks. The first one, ten days ago was much more severe, and treatment with benedryl had reduced the swelling to near normal in only an hour, so I gave her a dose and watched to see that she was eating with the rest before leaving. However, her age put her at risk as well as the high 90s heat... although my animals have lots of deep shade within their pasture, it is still WAY hot here. We will never really know, but suspect anaphylactic shock.


Louise, grazing in the sun.

Louise came to me in March 2004, when I learned through one of my animal lists about a man who was searching for a home for two jennets because his health was failing and he could no longer care for them. His plight immediately resonated with me, as my day would at some point as well. We only had one burro, Rose, at that point and somehow I persuaded DH to let me take the two girls in... Glenn, Ginny and I hauled them here in her stock trailer and although Rita was 22 and Louise 25 at the time, they were still pretty lively.

According to her records, Louise had been captured off an unidentified BLM range at an estimated 9-10 years old. Mac had gotten her to keep Rita company, and they have lived together for 12 years... it was Rita who came up to Glenn yesterday evening while he was feeding, trying her best to tell him that something was wrong; she led him out to where Louise lay, on the shady point at the farthest east boundary of our place. I have learned that burros have an alert understanding of certain things, much like dogs.


Louise in foreground, with Rita behind her, taken this winter

I went out in the dusk to visit the animals, and then walked to where Glenn and a neighbor had buried Louise... Rita came and joined me. I had promised Mac I would keep them together, and I had succeeded, until now. Louise had the chance to roam in a very large, wooded pasture her last few years. We stared out into the woods together and I had no better idea than Rita where our Louisey had gone.