Jethro escapes, twice!

My ex-husband and I owned 28 acres in the neighborhood, and after we split up we also split the property - he built a house at one end and I built mine at the other. My deerfence runs along the property line which separates us; his side is wooded, ranging behind the strip of houses along our neighborhood road.

Our son Ezra is still using the path through the woods, so he has to untie and re-tie the gate often. For some reason, he forgot on Wednesday, and when I came home Jethro the donkey was gone. I put out a panicked email on our neighborhood Yahoo group, got a phone call, and set out with Jethro's halter and lead line.

As it started to rain, I spotted him (even though he's sort of forest-colored) lollygagging around in the woods. He came to me willingly and we went home.

But yesterday he escaped again. Ezra denies leaving the gate open again, leaving me only the hypothesis that Jethro untied the string. I got a dry message from my ex: "Your donkey's over here." I followed the sound of hysterical dog barking (dogs usually hate Jethro) and found Jethro eating my ex's decorative bamboo as fast as he could choke it down as my ex's little kid looked on in astonishment. Not good.

A decade's detente has been rather attenuated lately, but in the interests of getting Jethro out of his bamboo, my ex gave me a giant carrot, a successful lure.

(Picture: Jethro in a more malleable mood.)

Wild and drunk with freedom, he made the trip home hard on both of us. I'm really banged up, each of us fell in quite a few rotted holes in the woods, my hands are a mess; add this to the huge Warner-Brothers-cartoon bump I have on the back of my head from falling backwards HARD on the concrete a few days ago when we had a difference of opinion about the direction our walk should take - and the numerous times I banged that very same place building a shelf under the stairs - well, I've had enough. I'd like a day in bed.

Owning a big opinionated donkey is not for the faint-hearted.

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