Donkeys are hardy desert and mountain animals, they thrive in all kinds of weather. But my donkeys, Lulu and Fanny, trained me a decade ago to feed them privately, away from the other animals, when we are experiencing high winds and heavy snow.

They are clever creatures. When these two came to the first Bedlam Farm, and it snowed heavily, they went into the barn and brayed piteously when it snowed heavily.  When donkeys bray piteously, it can melt an icy heart, or mine for sure. It is a piercing sound.

I thought something was wrong, perhaps they were sick or had slipped on the ice.

Donkeys are like border collies. Once is an experiment, twice is an addiction. More than that, they will own you. For two days I brought them their own supply of fresh hay in the dry barn. Every since, they simply stay in the barn and bray for me to come and serve them, out of the mud, wind, ice and snow.

It isn’t that they couldn’t come out to eat, of course they could. They just don’t want to, and now, they know they don’t have to. They know there is a sap of a human who will bring them their own private collection of hay.

Maria saw them waiting for me in the barn and she laughed. “What a mush you are.” Coming from my wife, that is a statement to consider. I am a sucker for my donkeys, they know it, they can bring me out of the house often with some carrots by sounding the right bray. I like them dry and warm in the barn.