Dear Friends,
It is about time
I write, since I have had several inquiries about my puppy.
I am proud and happy to report that we have a new little one,
who is eight weeks old now. He is a half brother or grand nephew
to Wolfie (we cannot decide on how this works). Wolfie's father
was our new puppy's
grandfather!!! So, how lucky can we be to have located this
new member of our family.
He is taking to
us rather well, and has only managed a few accidents in the
house. He is like a baby, so dependent, but gaining confidence
each and every day and his personality is really coming out!
Pictures should be enclosed with this farm update for your enjoyment.
We have encountered
a few problems this year which force us to take a good hard
look at the future of horses and ASAP. On Saturday, yet another
horse (a wonderful mare by the name of Donna Jean Direct) came
back to our farm unannounced. Craig was not in a mood to be
taken advantage of last Saturday, as he ruptured a disk in his
neck and to this day is in an enormous amount of pain. He made
it clear that this pattern better cease, as we cannot afford
to take horses without planning for them. We need to be able
to adequately care for and feed each animal, and when an adopter
is discourteous enough not to call or write and just "dumps"
off a horse at our doorstep, it is not in my nature to send
them back home with the horse. I know Craig would, but I cannot.
Craig gave the adopters a good talking to and sent them on their
way. The good news is that Donna is in wonderful condition,
sweet, easy to handle, and will be easy to adopt.
The bad news is
that many people who adopt horses need to make arrangements
for shipping their animals to their home state or a new stable.
The vet must come, sometimes blood is drawn, and interstate
health certificates issued. The shipper must plan a trip to
Wisconsin, or our farm. The last horse that was adopted on January
8 just left yesterday for his new home in Wyoming, but this
left ASAP with feed bills for almost a full month that we had
not budgeted for. It was not the adopters' fault, as they had
looked for the quickest available trailer coming our way.............but
how can ASAP avoid these circumstances in the future? These
are all issues to be addressed on a monthly basis. We also have
to cross the bridge where we are releasing ownership of some
horses whose adopters have been tried, true, and faithful in
getting their health checks in and remaining in good standing
with ASAP. This will happen on a case-by-case basis beginning
this spring if we get unanimous board approval.
We have an urgent
case that needs investigating in the Camp Douglas, Wisconsin
area. If you, a humane officer, or anyone you know lives near
Camp Douglas or are able to travel to Camp Douglas to check
on three adopted horses boarded there in exchange for gas money,
please give us a call. We want to try to convince adopters to
release possession of three horses before we take legal action,
and going there is the only way to do this, since phone calls
and letters have been ineffective at this point. We are assured
that the horses are in adequate conditon, but there are other
issues that make this case urgent. We simpy lack the man power
to be all places at all times, and need to ask for help in these
situations a little more often.
This past week
I have been wearing a lot of different hats, and continue to
bear with me as Bonnie is on vacation and Marisa is sliding
into her new role in helping qualified applicants find the right
horses. We have horse expos to plan for (Illinois Horse Fair
the first weekend of March, then Mid West Horse Fair, then Iowa
Horse Fair, and Minnesota Horse Fair so far for 2004), scripts
to write, decorations to put together, and a clinic to work
on for March 20 and 21. I want to ask that all people who have
committed to coming to the clinic contact me as soon as possible
about payment. The way it looks, Spring Grove (Sundance Stables)
is charging us $250 per day for use of their indoor arena and
stalls. In addition, Ray Waters is charging ASAP $500 for two
days, or $250 for one day for appearing as the presentor. So,
if we can get enough people to participate at $125 for the weekend,
we can do a two day event. If we only get 5-7 people signed
up we may have to limit the clinic to one day. The Sundance
Stables staff would like a check by Monday of next week, which
is February 9 to hold the facility. That means that I need to
hear from all of you if you still plan to come, since ASAP does
not have the funds to pay these people up front. If you plan
to come, please specify if you would like a one day or two day
clinic, and if we end up having a one day clinic we will need
$75 per person and have 10 people signed up in order to meet
our expenses. Call me at 608-689-2296 or email me at asapinc@mwt.net
to RSVP about this wonderful event. If you wish to use Pay Pal,
please remember that Pay Pal keeps part of the money you send,
so plan on donating $5-$10 more than what the event will cost
to cover expenses.
Please pray for
Craig as he continues to have excruciating pain which is limiting
his daily routine. Pray for us to continue to have the enthusiasm
and strength to continue serving the horses and pray for God's
blessing and protection over all of the horses and people involved
in our endeavors!
Until next week,
Susan
