Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Town Donkey

Did my title fool you? Did you think maybe I had made an a$$ of myself somehow and was now the talk of the town? Well, thankfully, no. We really do have a Town Donkey. The other day the girls wanted to ride their bikes down to visit her (as we do a few times a month) and I thought, how cool is it that our town has a donkey for the kids to go visit?

When we have visitors and I ask if they'd like to take a walk and see our town donkey, they think I'm kidding, and they are usually surprised to see that there really is a donkey, and even a specified "Burro Parking" area near her corral.

The girls love to pick fresh grass for her in addition to bringing her a carrot or two. Clara is very sweet and likes to be petted or brushed with the brush that hangs on the fence. She was born right here in 1982, and I remember back when we had 2 town donkeys - Clara and her mother. I think her mother died about 10 years ago.

Clara gets lots of attention from visitors and although she has no official owner, several people take care of her on a daily basis. One of the local wineries even donates part of their profit for her upkeep.

I love this town, and our sweet donkey.

2 comments:

Momza said...

What a sweet community--to have your own mascot of sorts...I love small towns.
Clara looks so sweet.

Rose said...

Seeing that cute little donkey reminded me of when we first bought our farm in Citrus Heights when I was 4. We were on a tour of the back acreage and barn area, when I spotted these tall ears through the barn window. All I could see were the ears. So, naturally, I kept pointing and saying, "look at the rabbit!" My parents kept saying "that's not a rabbit, it's a donkey!" Which I just didn't believe. So, my mom finally lifted me up so I could see the rest of the animal belonging to the ears! Yes, it WAS a donkey!! LOL