(Fairyland animal caretaker Jamie Hammer
introduces the park’s new miniature horses to young Adrian, 4, and his family.
Photo by Maria Rodriguez.)
Almost all the animals at
Children's Fairyland in Oakland live well beyond their normal life expectancy
because of the TLC they receive. But there comes a time when they get too old
or too frail to play with kids anymore, so they're eased into a luxurious
retirement.
For Coco the pony and Bobo the
sheep, that time came seven years ago when Coco developed arthritis. And when
she retired, Bobo had to retire, too, because he was blind and totally
dependent on her.
Fortunately, they found the ideal
home at a way cool ranch in Orinda called Goats R Us. (It hires out goats to
public agencies and private property owners to remove unwanted undergrowth and
undesirable plant species.) And they lived there happily for the rest of their
lives.
Coco's successor was a pony named
Dori, and Bobo was succeeded by two sheep named Oatmeal and Raisin. Over the
last seven years Dori has been petted by more than a million children, but for
the last few months it's been apparent that her time to retire had come, too.
So last Thursday Fairyland's animal
caretaker, Jamie Hammer, drove her to Goats R Us. As they got close they could
hear the horses in the stable whinnying. They were calling to Dori, who was
whinnying right back.
As soon as Hammer let her out of
her trailer she pranced over to the stable, head and tail held high, whinnying
all the way. Once inside the stable she moved from stall to stall, nuzzling
noses with each horse in turn. When she got to her stall, there was a bag of alfalfa
– her favorite munchie – waiting for her.
I guess you could say her
retirement is a success.
Meanwhile, back at Fairyland,
Dori's successors arrived the next day.
They are two miniature horses named
Pixie and Scamp, and I'm not kidding about the miniature part. They're no
bigger than a Saint Bernard.
"They're
Fairyland-sized!" exclaimed Fairyland's executive director, C.J.
Hirschfield, when she saw them.
They are sweet as can be and
terrific with kids, especially Pixie, who used to be a therapy horse. She runs
right up to the fence when she sees them and nuzzles noses with them.
This is also going to be great news
for Chiquita the miniature donkey. She has her own companion, another miniature
donkey named Gideon. But she's only five, and he's a staid 27, and he's too old
to play the games she loves, like kicking up her heels and running and playing
chase.
But Pixie loves exactly that sort
of thing, so everyone is excited to see how they react to each other when they
meet sometime next week. (Hammer is sensibly breaking the newcomers in
gradually to their new surroundings over the next few weeks.)
Providing medical care for the
animals is part of Fairyland's budget, but there's always the occasional
emergency that can't be foreseen, such as the time last summer when Oatmeal and
Raisin got hold of some acorns, which are toxic for sheep, and had to be rushed
to U.C. Davis.
So Fairyland is establishing a
rainy day fund to cover such emergencies. If you'd like to contribute, visit
fairyland.org or send a check to Children's Fairyland, 699 Bellevue Ave.,
Oakland 94610, with "Animal Fund" on the subject line.
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