Our donkey Argenta shares adjoining pastures with neighbor Forrest Robinson's three horses. "Flicka Mustang" and "Patrick Wannabe-Stallion" are a pair. They stand rear-to-front, successfully flicking flies from each other's eyes with their swishing tails. But "Major Horse," who can be described as being a true gentleman, has bonded with "Argenta Burro." Major is a tall, white, horse with a spectacularly long and fulsome tail. Argenta is a sweet, stubby donkey with a skinny and ineffectual tail, as far as fly-flicking goes. Nevertheless, there they stand; Argenta being fanned by the spectacular white tail and Major receiving no relief from heat waves. Love conquers all.
We look out over a billowing quilt of green pastures, stitched with irrigation ditches and dotted with cattle. Learning about the many dairy cows dying in California's central valley, I wondered if our neighboring cattle were suffering in the recent heat spell. I phoned Jan Lopes, local "cowgirl" and irrigator for Ted Bacon's Jubilee Ranch summer pastures.
"They don't mind the heat," she assured me, "They just go under the pine trees."
Linda Merrill's cat, Smoky, will hardly move during hot days.
"She wouldn't let me pet her, and she slouched in silent protest," Merrill said. "My dog Kaiya spent a lot of time in the water. Every chance she got, she'd get wet, and then when it cooled down a bit in the evening, she'd go crazy and run around in circles."
Across the road, "Susie Donkey," "Young Drifter Horse" and "Sweetheart Paint Horse" are spending much of their time in the shelter of sheds.
Asked how her chickens fare in the heat, Karen Robinson replied, "They don't do too well, and they don't lay as many eggs."
The eggs may be scarce, but they're beautifully colored in shades of tan and blue green. Her only rooster, Rocky, is a bantam who thinks he's the cock-of-the-walk, but he hasn't been spending as much time as usual herding the larger hens, Henny Penny, Ebony, Snow White, Cinderella, Silver, Buffy and Penny from one end of the coop to the other.
"When it's really hot, I replenish their fresh water often and sprinkle water over the coop roof in order to cool the air," Robinson said.
Wanda Coyan, who also keeps chickens, said she, too, has noticed a sharp decrease in egg production. But her white goats go out of their way to lie out in direct sun instead of seeking shady spots. Alarmed, she phoned her goat-raising mentor in Fallon.
"Goats normally have temperatures that average 104 degrees, so if the outside temperature is 100 degrees, it seems cool to them," Wanda reported her goat expert said. "Besides, their white coats are reflective, making them heat tolerant."
Rose, the Coyan's German shorthair dog, copes with heat by taking many swims in Markleeville Creek. John Jackson was fishing for trout the other day when he noticed a commotion in the creek. Rose had just caught a big trout. He took it away from her and tossed it back into the creek, unharmed.
"If Rose is as good a hunter as she is a fisher, I want one of her pups!" he told the Coyans.
n Gina Gigli is a Markleeville resident. Reach her at ginagigli@villagigli.com
