Django Cleans Up by Pate Cote Robertson

My donkey, Django, is named after the gypsy guitarist Django Reinhart.  We adopted him from The Longhopes Donkey Shelter when we were looking for a companion for our 19 year old pack burro, Max.  Our little gypsy donkey has happily settled in to our high altitude mountain town and a new life.

After teaching Django pack burro basics, we advanced to long hikes on narrow trails exploring the Pike National Forest that surrounds us.  Django proved himself agile and fearless;  a born leader even if he wasn’t quite sure where he was headed.  What he lacked in experience, he made up for in enthusiasm.

The burros have three toys they love, an old black rubber feed bucket, a bright blue Jolly Ball and a red rubber Kong on a rope.  Django delights in slinging them as far out over the fence as possible in order to watch me retrieve them as faithfully as an Labrador.

The other day snow started falling with promise of a really big storm.  I walked around our five acres picking upa shove here, a rake there, and storing them in the barn before they were buried under snow until spring.  Django paced around and called for my attention, but I had hay to cover and firewood to chop so I ignored him.

That evening when I went to feed, the air thick with snow and several inches on the ground, I looked in vain for donkey toys as I walked the fenceline.  I was sure I would see the bright blue ball in the field of white, but no luck.

It was after the boys were happily grinding their oats and munching hay that I glanced in their stall.  Lying neatly next to the blue ball was the shabby old bucket and the rope toy; all stored safely from the storm.