The Mule Moves On

Pockets might have thought something was off when I stalled him Sunday morning. But he laid down for his usual nap while I worked through morning chores.

And a few extras. 

I cleared off the truck the night before and started on the trailer before my gloves soaked through. I don't think it's safe to leave potential slabs of ice when driving, so I finished the job while Carrie prepped the inside.

Carrie prettied up and prepped the mule, too. He was a little wary about getting on the trailer by himself, but it didn't take too long.

Laura and Amy arrived in time to watch all the festivities and wrap up chores. Grandma arrived next to play co-pilot and we had a veritable farewell party in the snow!

Pockets wasn't sure about it all, but he's going to a fantastic home.

Hopefully, he never finds out, but the boys threw their own farewell party after he was gone

So I can't guarantee that the boys were all singings "Ding-dong, the mule is gone!" They had been in their stalls for a while and they could've just been in a rare mood doing a snow dance...

Yeah, they were probably celebrating the mule was gone. Don't tell, Pockets.

They went at it for a while, too! I only started filming around the tail end. It's probably been my most requested video by boarders.  

Carrie and Grandma trailered Pockets up without issue. He stepped off the trailer to a kinder spirited welcoming party hosted by his new mom, Jacqui.

Carrie and Jacqui have been trading texts and researching Pockets' entire life story. He's something of an outcast from a line of gaited mule royalty. His brother was bought and flown to Austria. Pockets doesn't have his lineage's trademark gait and lost an eye as a youngster and found himself at an auction instead.

Carrie and Grandma didn't turn around and come home after they delivered Pockets to his party. Instead, they kept on driving up to Pennsylvania for reasons that will soon become apparent.

I stayed behind to deal with the muck and grime! Sunday's supposed to be my day off, but I spent a lot of time in the mud.

Carrie wanted the mini-lot cleaned up, so that it could revert to Maddy-land. That meant I had to clean up loose hay, scoop poop, and all that jazz.

Boarder only deal with routine chores. Special tasks are designated for me. And I preferred to take care of it when I didn't have to content with my actual paying job.

And so Pockets' time with us came to an end. He was a surprise from the get-go and stayed for ~7 months. We had one night of less poop production at the barn, but Carrie and Grandma were scheduled to return Monday with another surprise.