Beth and the animal kingdom

Ken and I both worked Saturday. I got home first; he arrived, pounded on the door, and called "I need you." "What the heck has he got that I need to help him bring in?" I wondered. I got onto the stoop and Ken, in full National Park Service dress regalia, pointed behind me. There, in the nearby stand of trees, was one of our landlords/neighbors' miniature donkeys! Of course, Scott and Joyce were away for the weekend.

"Let me go upstairs and get an apple" I called to Ken, running up to cut up an apple to use as a bribe to get the donkey back in the corral where he belonged. (We later deduced he was the male donkey, Sweet William--he's only a couple of inches shorter than Pansy, his mother).

I tried cajoling Sweet William with words and by holding out the apple slices, which seemed to work at first but I must have been to far away because he shied back and galloped a short distance away. Ken gradually succeeded in herding Sweet William near the barn, where I stood, holding the apple out, and slowly backing him away to get inside. Ken stayed behind him to keep him in the barn, while I tried unsuccessfully to figure out how to open the gate to the corral, where Pansy and Awesome (the pony) were whinnying and galloping around, very agitated. Don't know whether it was a "what's he doing out there? we're worried" reaction or a "we want to get out too!" reaction. Or they may have smelled the apple pieces and wanted some too!

We decided to get Sweet William into the most secure stall in the barn. I almost got him in with apple bribes, but not quite. Finally I left Ken to watch him while I slid the barn doors nearly shut. I gave Sweet William a slice of apple to keep him occupied while Ken and I slipped out and called another neighbor, Mac.

We waited by the barn for Mac, who arrived soon enough, slipped in, and sent Sweet William into his stall with some soft words and a gentle slap on his rump. Then I fed the other two the remaining apple slices (Sweet William shouldn't get a special reward for being "bad"!) and Mac brought the other two in and gave them all dinner. Sweet William got out again the next day, but Scott figured out how he did it and fixed the problem.

Incidentally, I was wearing the same slippers I wore when I found the live squirrel in my toilet (a story for another time) and Mac was the neighbor who helped out by rescuing the squirrel (not to mention me), too!

I'll post photos of Sweet William once I get Ken to help.