For some years, we woke up in the morning to our donkey Simon’s “call to life,” his great and joyous bray when he saw me. Now we  wake up to a different sound, to Chloe’s gusty whinny and brat, like Simon, she hears us stirring in the farmhouse and calls out to us. We are used to this now, the best alarm clock in the world. This morning, we were especially grateful for it.