So this is what life is like, truly, and I can either be stunned by it or in awe of it. A few months ago – it seems like years ago – Simon helped me launched the book tour for my new book about him, “Saving Simon: How a Rescue Donkey Taught Me The Meaning Of Compassion.” Connie Brooks of Battenkill Books got hold of hundreds of these book bags and gave the to every person who bought the book at her store. Simon sold more than 1,100 books there.

Simon had a gleam in his eye when I asked him to pose with the book bags, he did have a sense of humor, as many donkeys do. He seemed to get things, and he loved human attention. Then, one Saturday morning, I looked out of the bedroom window and saw him standing oddly near the feeder while the other animals ate – I’d never seen him ignore food before.

His head was shaking, and the second I looked at him, I knew he was having a stroke. I messaged a video to our farrier Ken Norman and he cried the second he saw it. He knew also. Two hours later Simon was dead.

So that’s life in a nutshell, really. Light and dark, triumph and loss, connection and emptiness. The challenge lies in how I respond, not in how much I lament, mourn or complain. Every time I look at a photo of Simon I smile. He was a piece of work, I am grateful for every minute of our great ride together. I had always wanted to be one of those strange writers who hung out with donkeys, and Simon gave me the chance, too short a time, perhaps, but I’ll take it.

(Connie Brooks is still selling copies of “Saving Simon” and I am still signing and personalizing them (517 677-2515). We have run out of things to give away, I think, but the book and the story lives on, as it should. In a week or so I will be resuming the “Saving Simon” Orphans Book tour, going to libraries in the Northeast. I’ll keep you posted.)