I've only had Betsy a few months. If you'd like to know a little more about her, read the threads titled "Donkey/Mule Voices" and "Teach an Old Mule New Tricks?" on page 2 of this forum. She isn't registered, but I understand she could be. I've heard we have a Mule Days celebration here in North Carolina, but I don't know anyone who's attended. Betsy has been entered in our local fair twice. Both times, she has come in third behind an ancient Belgian mule and his equally decrepit standard donkey buddy. I'm sure Jack was magnificent in his day, but at 30+ years of age, he now looks more like a horsehide draped on a clothes drying rack! I look on the placement as a salute to Jack and Sugar's longevity, but I told Betsy I think she's being seriously dissed coming in third behind those two.
We don't have a lot of animals entered at our fair, so I look on it more as an exhibition rather than a competition anyway.
Betsy knows the sound of my Explorer's engine. My husband tells me he knows when I get home, because he hears "Eine Kleine Mule Musik" from the pen when I drive up. Interesting, because she can't see the driveway from there.
A couple of days ago, I was putting some water in the chicken runs. I had the hose threaded through the wire of the gate, so I could have the gate closed. Betsy gets a handful of chicken scratch grain when I get done with the chickens, and she was clearly getting tired of waiting. You'd really have to hear her, but it went something like this:
"EEEEEeeeeeeooooowheeeeeEEEEeeeeuhuhuhuhooowheeee?"
"Betsy, I know what you want, but you're just going to have to wait!"
"eeeeeeEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEoooooooooo."
When I didn't respond to that, she must have decided to take a more direct approach. She began nosing and mouthing the hose ("eeeeeeeemmmmmmmmmmmeeeeeeooommmm!") and then digging at it with her hoof. She hooked her leg around it and gave a couple of good tugs, but didn't seem to know where to go from there. I was laughing too hard to scold her.
No, life with Betsy is never dull!