Truth be told, I was almost glad when the phone
rang. It had been one week
since I was diagnosed with bladder cancer and I had a week to go until
my surgery was scheduled to remove the tumors and find out how advanced
the cancer was. I have
never been any good at waiting and time was dragging by.
The call came from a man who owned a
house near Fresno, CA.
His renters had moved out in the middle of the night leaving him with a
huge mess to clean up.
Aside from being owed several hundred dollars in back rent, the tenants
had destroyed the walls and carpet of the house and left a crippled
donkey in the backyard.
The donkey was so crippled, the man
confided in me, that he had thought about shooting her to put her out of
her misery. When he had
approached the donkey, she laid her head against his chest and closed
her eyes. That’s when he
decided to call us.
I jumped at the chance to trailer up
and get back on the road. I
have been sitting around the California Ranch trying not to feel sorry
for myself and a little action is just what I needed.
It didn’t take long to convince Amy that she and I ought to go
pick up the donkey together and make a day of it.
On the way up I received an email on my iPhone from a lady about
60 miles North of Fresno.
Her next-door neighbors had been foreclosed on and had asked her to keep
their donkey for a few days while they got settled into their new place.
That was two months ago and she hadn’t been able to get in touch
with them since. She lives
alone, doesn’t have any other animals and travels a great deal for her
work. She was desperate to
find the donkey a new home but no one was interested in her because she
was so old.
I called the lady back right away and
told her that not only could we take the old girl but we would be there
in a couple of hours to pick her.
Amy and I quickly decided that we would get this donkey first and
then pick up the crippled donkey on the way back.
That way the crippled donkey wouldn’t have to be in the trailer
any longer than absolutely necessary.
The
first pick up was a piece of cake.
The lady was so happy to see us that she gave us a tin of
homemade cookies and a donation of $200.
The donkey was in good shape but was a little on the thin side.
The lady was surprised when I told her that the jennet was over
30 years old. I also told
her that it was a good thing that we were taking her because her teeth
were in very bad shape and she was going to require a great deal of
dental work so that she would be able to eat properly and get some
weight on her.
Maybell, this is the name that lady had given her,
was a sweet old girl. She
was very friendly but had that sad lonely look in her eyes.
People don’t realize that donkeys are social animals and require
companionship. This old
girl had been living alone for a long time.
I knew right away that she would become a member of our Active
Senior Center and fit right in with that group of donkeys that are all
over 30 years old.
The next pick up was the kind that
tears your heart out.
The place was a mess, I didn’t bother
going into the house, the outside was bad enough.
Baby diapers and beer cans were scattered everywhere, you
couldn’t take a step without stepping on one or the other.
There was a big TV that had been thrown against a tree and then
used for target practice right outside the front door and there were the
remains of at least three cars lying around the front yard as well.
As you can imagine the smell was
terrible. Amy and I did our
best not to gag as we made our way to the rear of the house.
The backyard was bigger than I had first imagined, it wasn’t very
wide but it was long and way in the back were three good- sized trees.
As we struggled past the heaps of trash on the back porch, we
made our way towards the trees.
The donkey was standing behind one of the trees watching our
approach.
The first thing that I noticed was that
the area around the trees was the only clean spot on the entire place.
Apparently this was too far away from the house to be a
convenient spot to throw their garbage.
Aside from a little manure, the donkey had kept her place cleaner
than the people.
At
first glance, the jennet looked in good shape.
She had a really sweet face and her front hooves were in good
shape. I was just about to
ask the man why he thought she was crippled when I got a look at her
rear hooves. I don’t know
why it still affects me after all that I have seen, but it always breaks
my heart to see what people are willing to do to animals.
This poor old sweet donkey had horribly disfigured rear hooves.
They twisted around on themselves in an awful way that made it
really difficult for her to get around.
Well once Amy and I had collected
ourselves and dried our eyes we decided that there was no way that this
donkey could walk all the way to the trailer past all of the trash and
junk. Our only alternative
was to spend the next three hours with shovels and trash bags and help
the owner of the house clear a path so that we could bring the trailer
right up the where the jenny was standing.
Once we had the trailer backed up to her, the old girl walked
right in like she couldn’t wait to be rid of this terrible place.
Our first thought was to keep the two
girls separated for the long ride home, but the way that they touched
noses through the interior gate of the trailer made me change my mind.
I opened the gate and Maybell instantly walked up to Crystal,
that’s the name Amy came up with, and stood next to her allowing Crystal
to lean against her and help keep her balanced.
During the long ride home, I decided to enter our two newest
rescues into our Internet database while Amy took a turn at driving.
We keep track of all of our donkeys this way.
We record their age, sex, rescue circumstances and all medical
data in this system. The
donkeys are all given a microchip that ensures accuracy in the records.
While I was entering Maybell’s information, I realized that she
was the 999th donkey that we have rescued, making Crystal the
1000th. I had
never given it much thought, but we have rescued a lot of donkeys all
across the country and while Amy and I have a lot more help now than we
did when we rescued #1, it was kind of neat to be together for #1000.
Once we arrived back at the
Tehachapi Ranch we had one more surprise.
A new baby girl had been born while we were away.
Her mom was a wild burro from Northern Nevada that Devin had
captured this past winter through our wild burro capture program.
So I guess that makes it 1001!
Peaceful Valley Facts
PVDR began as a backyard hobby by Mark and Amy Meyers, when they
rescued their first domestic donkey from abuse.
PVDR was incorporated in California in 2000
PVDR began capturing wild burros in 2003
PVDR works with Federal and State agencies all across the country on
abuse and neglect cases as well as wild burro capture and relocation
projects.
PVDR has Rescue Ranch facilities in California, Texas and Virginia
staffed by trained professionals.
PVDR has volunteer operated Satellite Adoption/Rescue Centers in OR,
ID, AZ, OK, TX, FL and PA with more coming online soon.
PVDR has been featured on 8 national TV programs and numerous radio
programs and newspapers.
PVDR is 100% donor funded. We do not receive any government
funding.
Aside from the states with an official PVDR location, we have also
performed rescues in NV, NE, WA, NM, GA and TN.
Peaceful Valley has an adoption program.
PVDR does not permit breeding of any of it's donkeys.
