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Hello
and Welcome to Blue Agave Ranch. We made this website so that people who
are interested could become acquainted with donkeys, an animal who has
been beside us much longer than the horse. Many people are familiar with
the 'BLM burros'. a medium sized feral donkey that was released by old
time gold and silver prospectors and early Spaniards from Mexico and other
travelers in the American West. They are adopted out along with wild horses
at regular auctions. If you talk to the caretakers of these feral donkeys
before they are adopted, and also to the people who adopt them, you will
find they have developed a great affection and respect for donkeys, as
do almost everyone else who gets to know them. When people get to know
their first donkey, you will hear them exclaim how sweet and smart and
gentle this donkey is, thinking it is unusual, until they find out that
they are almost ALL like that.
You
can easily see wild burros if you travel to Arizona. They live in the
bottom of the Grand Canyon, around dependable water sources here and in
many other states of the west.
Some
people do not know that Mammoth donkeys or Miniature Mediterranean donkeys
exist so we have photographed them and will tell you more about them.
We do not breed 'standard' sized donkeys, as there is no shortage of them,
but we breed the sizes bigger and smaller. It is interesting, though,
that both miniature and mammoth donkey's spots seem to have been borrowed
from the standard sized ones, and then they have to work to get the spots
back into the size they want. We also have our share of cats and dogs,
many of whom are rescued. Animal lovers enjoy looking at other people's
animals so we put up some pictures and stories about our pets. One of
our dogs, Grudge, had an especially difficult start in life, and was rescued
from a house with over 100 dogs INSIDE. I will put his story on the 'rescued
animals' page, along with Daisy the starved pony-sized mule.
We
do not keep any animals besides domestic animals on our little ranch,
and nothing but dogs, cats and equines. We rarely offer a litter of Papillon
puppies, usually 1 to 3 puppies, because they are usually sold to selected
retired people who like small, happy, healthy and easy to care for dogs.
I spent 5 years as an animal control officer on the ' welfare squad ',
so I am aware of the severe dog and cat overpopulation that is caused
by NOT spaying and neutering dogs and cats, as well as (in my opinion),
veterinarians who DO NOT offer low cost spay and neuter surgery, especially
in poorer areas such as small rural towns. We try to do our part to pull
some unwanted pets off the streets and offer them health and a good home.
We
relocated from the Phoenix, Arizona area a couple of years ago where we
gathered wild kittens and tamed them, gave them shots and adopted them
out, using the funds to trap, fix, vaccinate and re-release the healthy
adult wild cats in our neighborhood. Sometimes we had as many as 20 kittens
at a time, up to half being bottle fed. The rural area we live in now
has more coyotes, owls, and bobcats and therefore no viable feral cat
population.
I
have worked as a veterinary surgical nurse, technician and now as an RN,
so I am not intimidated by caring for large numbers of animals. My children
are also very experienced in animal care.
Nancy Casurella, Owner
Blue Agave Ranch
Benson, Arizona
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