The more I care for these animals the more I think how heartbreaking it will be to leave them. Donkeys are seriously the most Zen animals I have ever been around. And so affectionate. Like they really really crave pets and being around you. Could be because I give them a lot of carrots but even when I don’t they all gather around and just want attention. I’m happy to say I brushed all the months and months of neglect right out of their coats and they look quite fancy now. Their big eyes melt ya. So calm and soulful. They are just so interesting and chill. Then there is Lucky. This horse is so smart. He will open a gate if you don’t secure it properly. He talks to me all the time now. Tells me he is ready to come up from pasture. Even comes to get me sometimes and stands at the far end of the pasture near my apt waiting. If he had a watch he would be pointing at it telling me “umm you are like 3 mins late dude”. When I come out he talks to me all the way to the other end where I get him out at. Maybe telling me about his day. Maybe telling me how he is bored being in the pasture by himself now. He has a ritual when I put him in his stall where he walks through to the outside fenced in area..looks to his left…looks to his right…looking for his friends who are no longer there. He sighs or blows air out his nose in disgust…then comes back to wait for me to give him his dinner hay.
It’s really quite amazing to know he really is looking for his friends. Animals DO have emotions. They do feel things. They do miss each other. They do make real connections. I feel privileged to witness this and to know this. It makes all the “people stuff” silly nonsense. There is so much more going on in this world than all the many things humans worry and stress out about and corrupt. There is a purity of simply living out there and surviving with just basic needs. How we complicate things. Being quiet and watching and listening and being around these animals is so good. In the same way the ocean brings me back to what is real…these animals do too.
You Had To Be There… 