True Story by Arlie

Oct 13, 2011
Kathy and I had a few hours before she and Gil would be leaving town,
so we decided to go for a drive to Red Rock Canyon, not far from the hospital. It was breathtaking,
The extremely rugged, multicolored mountains filled our views in front and on both sides of us. There was a valley filled with desert plants, the air was crisp and clean. The sky a vivid blue. The mountains were so close we could see slot canyon openings that were practically calling for us to come and explore.

We could imagine ourselves in a western, and behind those rocks were unknown treasures and hidden hide outs. Kathy even let out a whoopee. It was that kind of a day.

We decided to check out a road that was supposed to lead to a springs. As we were coming up out of a dry stream wash, we saw up ahead of a us a seemingly youthful donkey (burro) standing in the middle of the road.

I stopped the truck so we could take pictures. Kathy took the first picture and got a great view of it's back side. The donkey turned, and at this point, we two sisters who had previously been of one mind, had decidedly different reactions.

I said; "it has been hurt" and my focus zoomed in to it's hooves. The donkey's right hoof was moving in an awkward angle. I watched it come forward and I tried to figure out how the donkey could walk, or run or...

meanwhile, Kathy couldn't help but notice that the donkey was favoring her side of the truck, and before she could get the words lets move out of her mouth, it was by her side, and (before I could roll up the window) it even stuck it's big head all the way into the window, forcing her to flatten herself against the seat! (flatten -smash- try to push the seat from the front seat into the back seat)

I looked at the donkey head and in a fraction of a second saw amazing detail. There were some kinds of scars perhaps from whatever accident it was in, complete with small circular spots with no hair
Kathy saw an animal with mange. (what ever mange is - it also had a sore or callus on its lower lip - do you think it has ticks?)
and then the donkey smiled, with those great big donkey teeth, it's head still two inches away from Kathy's belly. (boobs) It rolled his eyes in a calculated pleading way- there was no doubt that it was hoping against hope that we would offer it food.
Think of the donkey from Shrek smiling combined with the cat from Shrek's expressive eyes. And he didn't move his head away. (If he had been any taller, or had hands, it would have climbed into the car with us.)

Kathy is still trying to stay away from his ever looming head. kîeeping fear out of her voice, she tried to get me to feel her urgency and said Go (more like "ewwweeewww" I couldn't roll up the window)
I didn't respond to her plea. I had come under the spell of the animal, and reached for our food bag
.In this moment in which time slowed down to eternity, Kathy watched my slow motion movements searching through the whole bag and finally finding an apple at the bottom of it.
I handed it to Kathy who said "what do you want me to do with that? (Arlee said "feed it". I said "no, YOU do it" Arlee said: "ME???? No way! YOU do it")
She fumbled the apple in her hands, trying to find a safe way to get the apple into the wild animals mouth. She tried to hold the stem of the apple-(perhaps that way she could save her fingers)
The donkey saw her dilemma, and tried to help her out by manipulating it's teeth in assorted ways.
In this "catch the apple "sequence, the apple flips out of the window and rolls under the truck. Kathy said' GO FAST. (really "Oh Rats" the critter turned it's head but didn't take it out of the window- it's still looking at us with those huge big eyes "feed me" "feed me" "please")
But I can't.
I can't bear the the thought of disappointing the animal, and if I move the truck I might run over the apple. (and I am thinking why doesn't the dumb animal move it's head and get the apple. Can't it smell it? Can't it see it? Is it blind too?") So, I searched through the bag for another apple. Not finding that, I looked for a sandwich- not just any sandwich, it had to be the one with the thickest crust. I found it, broke it in half, ( the sandwich was for us too)

And we tossed it out the window. The beast turned his head, and we made our get away.

Was Kathy traumatized? Maybe, but by this time she had already given her "pet" a name,
Clem (Clementine -if a girl).

So, if you are Traveling on a Gravel road that you have not been on before, and get stopped by a donkey, please call Kathy so she will know where her darling Clementine has gone. Do you know they actually have road signs with burro's on them- like "watch out for loose roaming burros" and we truly did experience one.