Photo by Bree. Taken at the Barrett Farm with my Canon 5 D. She’s a natural photographer. I don’t put many photos of me up on the site, but Maria said I should put this one up, and it’s only fair.

So an emotional day. The last thing I imagined coming into my life last week on book tour was a 14-year-old donkey with a ton of health problems, barely able to walk or stand on his own. I feel for him. I feel for the farmer that could not take care of him. Maria and I both fell in love with him, he is a gentle old soul, so here we go, for another ride.

I am very wary of the whole rescue thing. It is sometimes wonderful, sometimes disturbing and sometimes unhealthy. I have met so many rescue people who seem to love rescue more than the animals they take in, and who use the love animals to attack or diminish people. I don’t want to be one of them.  So I’m careful about it, as are many of the people who do it. You have to be able to say no. You have to be able to say yes.

Simon is an unusual animal. He loves people, especially children.  He is coming tomorrow. He will need a lot of care, grooming, medication, hoof and teeth work, good fresh food. He will have to be acclimated to the other animals, especially Lulu and Fanny, who are much more headstrong and strong-willed than he appears to be. Maria will take good care of him. And so will I. I love donkeys, have a real connection to them, going all the way back to Carol, an old donkey taken off a farm. I used to take a boombox into the barn and play Willie Nelson to Carol. She died of a stroke up on the hill. She had some good years with me. Donkeys are remarkable animals, intelligent, spiritual, protective.

I was shocked by Simon’s condition. But I will not trash the farmer who let this happen. I will consider him and pray for him, and hopefully, offer him some help as well, as we often rescue animals in America, but rarely rescue people. And he must be in awful trouble. I think one kind of love without the other is incomplete and leads to loss of perspective.

Anyway, Simon is coming tomorrow afternoon. Maria and I went out into the barn, moved some straw in, filled up the water. And of course the great thing about my life – and I acknowledge that fully and freely – is that Simon gets to be a story, a photo, a video. Maybe one day, even a kid’s or adult book. It does feel good to think of him getting healthy here. Bedlam Farm is a good place for a donkey.