When Simon came to us, and was so sick, I would go out into his pasture – he couldn’t stand up them – and read stories to him. I fell in love with a gentle Spanish classic short story collection called “Platero And I,” stories told by a nameless narrator about his donkey Platero and their meanderings and observations through the countryside. Simon seemed to love this story, and almost visibly drew strength from it, watching me with  his soulful and alert brown eyes.

Somehow, attention and voice pulled him back from the abyss. He still loves to be read to and on Thanksgiving I read one of our favorite stories, “Sweetheart.” In this wistful tale, Platero falls in love with a burro he and his human walk by every day. The man is sad to deny Platero access to his beloved burro but Platero always stops to look.

I read this story to Simon yesterday and you can see for yourself how much he loves to hear them.