I was window shopping on Craigslist a while back and in my favorite section, Farm and Garden, I saw a donkey that I had to have! Always wanted a donkey ever since reading Brighty of the Grand Canyon. My husband loves to hike and discover waterfalls. I’d love to go but I don’t want to carry anything. So one day I looked at that cute donkey standing out in my pasture and told her she had a new future!
Now, after much research and a custom fit, I have a donkey sized sawbuck pack saddle. She proudly wears it each time I take her for training in the Salinas River bed. She does need training. These things don’t happen automatically. I fitted her with her pack saddle, tied some old grain bags on to the saddle and off we went to collect trash in the riverbed. I figured I could help clean up our beautiful river bed while training this donkey, and she could learn to carry “stuff” for me! Only thing is I forgot Lesson #1!
The riverbed somehow has losts of old tires that need to be hauled out. So as I picked up a tire and was hefting it up on the pack, Donkey wasn’t so sure of that thing so nearby. She took a couple of jogging steps ahead and suddenly all of the cans and bottles and metal trash I had loaded in her bags started to jiggle, she decided to exit stage left as soon as possible and unfortunately carried all that jiggling trash with her! I had forgotten Lesson #1! Make sure your donkey is not afraid of the sound of trash jiggling around her!
I managed to reclaim my four legged friend some 300 yards away and from then on, I let her smell each piece of trash that I collected. I’m sure we’ll have more lessons ahead, and I’ll have to try and think like a donkey first. Next lesson….what is a tire and is it going to kill me?
