This is Mocha, our female Jerusalem donkey. She came along with her daughter, Chip, from some friends of ours who breed and rescue all kinds of animals.
When Mocha and Chip first arrived, we put them in the same paddock as our other donkey family – Chocolate, Vanilla, and Turtle (the goat who think’s he’s a donkey). As soon as Chocolate realized that he had two new female “friends,” he started singing. Well, at least it looked like he was trying to serenade them. He started “hee-hawing” and “getting really friendly” with the new girls, if you know what I mean. (Sure wish we had the video camera running. It was quite entertaining.)
After a couple of minutes, Vanilla, Chocolate’s life-long female friend – who happens to be at least a foot taller than Chocolate, making certain activities darn near impossible – let out a groaning song…sort of as if to say, “How dare you!” And then she lit out after Chocolate – who was chasing Mocha and Chip around the paddock.
At that point, I guess Turtle felt left out, so he joined in the fray…and we had a galloping, singing, groaning train of donkeys (with a goat-caboose) running around the paddock for a good 10 minutes. Again, wish we had the video camera handy.
They eventually all settled down, and are getting along quite nicely. Vanilla is still stand-offish, but Chocolate, Mocha and Chip are friendly and affectionate, and love to eat treats right out of your hand.
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