Yes, you read that right. We met a donkey yesterday. Here she (or he) is:
Look at that smile. Look at that coat. Look at that little bit of snot dribbling out the left nostril.
We went for a lil hike over at Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge, out towards Marble Falls. Good spot if you’re in Austin and want to go walk around without a reservation. Not that we’re hating on reservations. You just have to make them in advance in a lot of parks right now. No reservations at Balcones Canyonlands. We drove right up. Parked. Walked. Good Hill Country views.
Anyway, after the NWR (that’s what they call it in the biz, I believe), we decided to explore a little bit, and when we checked Google Maps to see where we were after spending a while on this slow little country road where a motorcyclist tried to splatter himself and his friend on our hood (whiffed) and we saw two deer through a fence (fawn and a buck, pretty neat), we noticed there was a vineyard nearby. Flat Creek Estate. Hadn’t heard of it, but it sounded nice. And it was. They let us walk around while we split a bottle of wine. And that’s how we came to see the donkey.
You see, towards the end of the stroll, we came to a little pond, and it wasn’t a gross pond, so we did what you do when you come upon a little, not-gross pond and you’re holding half a bottle of wine. We sat down and finished the bottle. And while we were doing this, lo and behold, out of the shadows on the other side of the fence stepped this beautiful, hoofed thing out into the sunlight, like some unicorn announcing itself in a cartoon.
And then it announced itself.
And it was a donkey.
A big ol’ bray, with some hee-haw thrown in. It was a full-on song, really. And who were we to say no to the donkey?
We walked over to it. We petted its face (great fur). We put little bits of grass through the fence for it to eat and it looked at how few we were giving it and threw its head back like, “Do these people think I’m a rabbit?” before tearing off big chunks of grass from the ground to show us how it actually eats. It stuck its little nose through the fence for more attention, and it gave a couple little brays, and it stamped its foot a couple times, and finally it walked away, after maybe fifteen minutes or so. It had some attitude. It had a sweet face. I am in love with donkeys now.
I asked the guy at the table, when we got back to toss the bottle and drop off the glasses, whether the donkey was a frequent attraction. And he said no! Although evidently that farm across the fence also has a hog that gets through the fence sometimes and causes problems. I would love to meet that hog. I would love to see a hog running unhindered through a vineyard. I think people would run away.
Anyway, donkey might be new. I love the donkey. I may or may not go back every weekend for the rest of my life in an attempt to see it/eventually steal it and make it be my best friend. If you’re in the area and you stop by, tell it hi for me.
