Sary the Spotted Donkey

Getting a new donkey, especially where there are already donkeys in the pasture, usually means keeping him separate from the others for a day or two to get him accustomed to them and them to him. We put Sary into an enclosed area, petted him and gave him a carrot then left.

Shortly after we had gone into the house and turned on the TV we heard a loud noise. It sounded like the bray of a donkey but no donkey could be that loud, to almost drowned out the TV, and besides they were all a distance away. We ran outside to get the full effect of Sary's hee-haw!

After a few days we let Sary out into the pasture and he immediately ran to the other donkeys and started kicking up his heels. He was glad to get out of the confinement but then he started biting the necks and ears of the others. We decided that it would just take him a little while to settle down.

In this photo I think Sary looks a little like a unicorn.

A couple of days later my husband came into the house and said that one of the donkeys had a spot on her neck where he guessed Sary had bitten her. Next it was Andy, the male born on our place, who had an ear chewed. I began if Sary would never settle down.

Amy is our alpha donkey. She is, I believe, a crossbreed between a mustang horse and donkey. Normally these animals would be called mules but I tended to believe Amy's ancestry went back further than one generation. She looked just like a donkey but she was a little larger and the mane, which stood straight up on the others, was long enough to lay on her neck. She is very smart. When Sary would try to bite her she would give him a good kick. It was loud enough to make us wonder how Sary kept standing but, you may have heard, donkeys are stubborn and he wasn't going to let this female get the better of him. This went on for a week or so and finally Sary gave up. He no longer tried to bother Amy and if he bothered the others by biting, Amy would step in and he'd back off.

We began to feel a little sorry for Sary because he was basically an outcast, except as my husband said, when they wanted to make babies. My husband gives sweet feed to the donkeys and horses in the morning and he has to give Sary his separate from the others. He is a sweet donkey and loves petting. When we go out to the pasture he'll come up to us and we'll put him. Then we move on to pet someone else and he runs around in front of us to head us off and ask for more. He knows to nose around in our pockets too to see if we have treats. Sary is the best anniversary present I've ever received.

The ancestors of the modern donkey are the Nubian and Somalian subspecies of African wild ass.The African Wild Ass was domesticated around 4000 BC. The donkey became an important pack animal for people living in the Egyptian and Nubian regions as they can easily carry 20% to 30% of their own body weight and can also be used as a farming and dairy animal. By 1800 BC, the ass had reached the Middle East, where the trading city of Damascus was referred to as the "City of Asses" in cuneiform texts. Syria produced at least three breeds of donkeys, including a saddle breed with a graceful, easy gait. These were favored by women.

For the Greeks, the donkey was associated with the Syrian god of wine, Dionysus. The Romans also valued the ass and would use it as a sacrificial animal.

Equines had become extinct in the Western Hemisphere at the end of the last Ice Age. However, horses and donkeys were brought back to the Americas by the Conquistadors. In 1495,the ass first appeared in the New World when Christopher Columbus brought four jacks and two jennys. It is from this bloodline that many of the mules which the Conquistadors used while they explored the Americas were produced. Shortly after America became independent, President George Washington imported the first mammoth jack stock into the country. Because the existing Jack donkeys in the New World at the time lacked the size and strength he sought to produce quality work mules, he imported donkeys from Spain and France, some standing over 1.63 m tall. One of the donkeys Washington received from the Marquis de Lafayette, named "Knight of Malta", stood 1.43 m and thus was regarded as a great disappointment. Viewing this donkey as unfit for producing mules, Washington instead bred Knight of Malta to his jennys and, in doing so, created an American line of Mammoth Jacks (a breed name that includes both males and females).

Despite early appearances of donkeys in America, the donkey did not find widespread distribution in America until it was found useful as a pack animal by miners, particularly the gold prospectors, of the mid-1800s. Miners preferred this animal due to its ability to carry tools, supplies, and ore. Their sociable disposition and adaptation to human companionship allowed many miners to lead their donkeys without ropes. They simply followed behind their owner. As mining became less an occupation of the individual prospector and more of an industrial underground operation, the miners' donkeys lost their jobs, and many were simply turned loose into the American deserts. Descendants of these donkeys, now feral, can still be seen roaming the Southwest today.

By the early 20th century, donkeys began to be used less as working animals and instead kept as pets in the United States and other wealthier nations, while remaining an important work animal in many poorer regions. The donkey as a pet is best portrayed by the appearance of the miniature donkey in 1929. Robert Green imported miniature donkeys to the United States and was a lifetime advocate of the breed. Mr. Green is perhaps best quoted when he said "Miniature Donkeys possess the affectionate nature of a Newfoundland, the resignation of a cow, the durability of a mule, the courage of a tiger, and the intellectual capability only slightly inferior to man's." Standing only 32-40 inches, many families recognized the potential of miniature donkeys as pets and companions for their children.

Although the donkey fell from public notice and became viewed as a comical, stubborn beast which was considered "cute" at best, the donkey has recently regained some popularity in North America as a mount, for pulling wagons, and even as a guard animal. Some standard species are ideal for guarding herds of sheep against predators, since most donkeys have a natural wariness toward coyotes and other canines and will keep them away from the herd.