Lily to the Rescue: The Misfit Donkey Read online

  “You should go, Bryan,” Maggie Rose said.

  Bryan grinned. “Yeah, okay, cool.”

  Bobby ran toward a house, and the rest of us waited for him to come back. I drank in the smell of the grown-up donkeys that was drifting toward us on the breeze. They were still all watching us, probably amazed at what a good dog I was being.

  The door of the house door banged open, and Bobby came charging back out. He had something in his hands that smelled sweet and juicy. Not as sweet and juicy as chicken, though.

  “Watermelon!” exclaimed Maggie Rose.

  “Donkeys love it,” Kurt said. Bobby handed Maggie Rose and Bryan a couple of pieces, but he did not give any to me, even though I was willing to take a bite to see if I liked it.

  The grown-up donkeys were very interested in the watermelon. They stretched their necks over the fence and made happy snorting sounds. Maggie Rose and Bryan held out dripping hands and the donkeys gobbled down the slices of wet stuff as if they were treats. I sniffed at some splashes of juice that fell on the dirt at our feet, but didn’t lick it.

  “Okay!” Kurt said. “Let Burrito in!”

  Kelly opened a gate in the fence and led little Burrito into the donkey yard.

  The grown-up donkeys all swung around to glare at Burrito. Their ears pointed toward him.

  Burrito took a few steps toward the other donkeys. Then he stopped.

  I have seen dogs do that, when they want to play with some new dogs, but they are not sure that the new dogs want to play with them. Burrito was not sure. He was ready to run if he had to.

  And he did have to! Two of the donkeys charged right at Burrito, while the other two brayed with their loud, squealing voices. Burrito fled in panic.

  “Oh no!” Maggie Rose cried.

  I started to dart forward, ready to protect my friend, but my leash stopped me short. Kurt and Bobby ran into the yard, waving their hands. The grown-up donkeys shied away from the boys, while Kelly quickly led Burrito back out to be with us.

  “What in the world?” Kelly wondered. “Why did they do that?”

  Mom shook her head. “That’s not how donkeys normally behave.”

  I could tell Burrito was sad. His head was low, and he was staring at the other donkeys. Maggie Rose petted his nose, but it did not seem to cheer him up.

  “Poor Burrito,” she murmured.

  “It’s like when you go to a new school and none of the kids like you,” Bryan said.

  Everyone was quiet for a moment. “I had friends the very first day,” Maggie Rose said softly. “You’ll make friends, too, Bryan.”

  Now Bryan seemed as sad as the baby donkey.

  Burrito had backed into thick grass. I walked over to him and touched noses with him to help him calm down.

  The other donkeys were watching Burrito closely. Every now and then, one stomped in his direction.

  This was not fun! I ran in a circle around Burrito to show all the donkeys how we could play if we wanted to. But Burrito did not want to do Chase. He stayed still, watching the other donkeys as closely as they were watching him.

  Meanwhile, Maggie Rose was spinning because my leash was wound all around her now. She reached down and unclicked me.

  I figured it would not hurt if I went to see the other donkeys, since Burrito wasn’t cheering up. I slid in under the fence rail and trotted up to the grown-up donkeys and lifted my nose.

  “Be careful, Lily!” Maggie Rose warned.

  One of the big donkeys put her nose down so we could sniff. Then the others did the same thing.

  I sniffed all the noses. Then I ran a little way into the grass and looked back. Did they know what that meant?

  They did! One trotted forward. I ran more, and she came after me.

  The others seemed to get the idea. They followed, lowering their heads. I ran in a circle, and the donkeys came with me—all but one, a big male. I could smell that he was very old, and maybe (like Brewster) he would rather nap than run. He dropped his head to snatch a mouthful of grass with a dandelion in it.

  I looked up and saw the people and Burrito on the other side of the fence. Burrito was watching us run and chase and chew dandelions. But the little donkey was all by himself.

  That was sad. I had all these donkeys to play with, and Burrito had nobody. I squirmed back under the fence and ran up to Maggie Rose.

  “Good dog, Lily!” she praised.

  I love being told “good dog.” Next, I hurried over to Burrito.

  Burrito put his head down to meet me and sniffed me all over. I thought he probably liked the smell of donkey that was painted on my fur, just as I loved the smell of pig that was painted on his.

  “The donkeys are friendly to Lily,” Maggie Rose said. “Why don’t they like Burrito?”

  “I don’t know,” Mom said, shaking her head. “I really don’t know what’s going on.”

  “Lily likes Burrito,” Maggie Rose pointed out.

  “Poor little Burrito!” Kelly said, stroking Burrito’s nose and rubbing him behind his ears. “First Ringo didn’t like him, and now these other donkeys don’t like him, either. What am I going to do?”

  “I guess it’s time to go get my dad,” Kurt said. He looked at Bryan. “You ready?”

  8

  What happened next was something a dog could never understand. Maggie Rose and the boys took me over to another pen, while Kelly and Mom stayed behind with Burrito. I did not slide under the rails of this fence, because there were horses in there.

  In my opinion, horses are too big for their own good. A donkey is about the right size to play with, but a horse is gigantic. They have heads that are bigger than some dogs I have known! Why does any animal need a head that big?

  And horses don’t seem to play much, either. Mostly they just stand and stare, the way Burrito was gazing at the grown-up donkeys. Maybe that means that horses are sad. But if they are, I don’t feel sorry for them, because I’ve never met one who was friendly to a dog. They don’t hum and spit, but they’re not going to cuddle up with me, either.

  I was absolutely astounded when Kurt and Bobby led Bryan over to a horse and, with a heave, helped him climb on the giant beast’s back!

  I didn’t know if I should bark or whine or snarl, so I just watched in amazement. He couldn’t be happy up there on such a huge creature’s back! But he was grinning down at us.

  Then Kurt swung himself up on another horse. I glanced up at my girl in alarm. Were we going to get on a horse?

  Bobby pulled open a gate and the boys on their horses stepped through it. I backed away from those hard hooves.

  “It’s okay, Lily,” Maggie Rose said. I heard my name and thought she was probably saying she did not understand why her brother and Kurt were sitting on top of horses.

  “Takes us about an hour to get out to where my dad’s tending to the cattle,” Kurt told us.

  “We’ll be fine,” Mom assured him.

  “My dad’s pretty much an expert on donkeys. He’ll figure out what’s going on here,” Bobby said as the horses turned their big butts toward us and wandered off.

  Poor Bryan, stuck up on a horse.

  We returned to Mom and Kelly and Burrito. “Maybe your father will have an idea how to introduce Burrito to the other animals that won’t cause so much stress,” Mom told Bobby.

  “Burrito seems really sad,” Maggie Rose said. She sat down in the grass with a sigh.

  Nobody was very happy. The farm was such a delightful place, with donkeys and big piles of poop. It was too bad there had to be horses around, but I guessed without the horses, there would not be any horse poop—and horse poop was pretty amazing. So why were the humans so quiet? I pushed against Maggie Rose to soak up the comfort of being near her.

  “Ugh, Lily! You stink!” Maggie Rose said. “You smell like a donkey!”

  I snuggled closer. I knew she was telling me how much she loved being with me.

  Mom leaned down and sniffed. “Actually, Lily smells like a pig,
” she said. “Very much so. Definitely bath time when we get home.”

  “Oh, Lily, you’re going to make me smell like pig, too.” Maggie Rose scratched gently at the back of my neck.

  Then her fingers stopped.

  I looked up at her to see why the scratching was no longer happening.

  “Mom,” she said. “Mom?”

  “What is it, honey?” Mom asked.

  “Lily smells like a pig?”

  “She really does. Can’t you smell it?”

  “I sure can,” Bobby agreed.

  “What if Burrito does, too?” Maggie Rose went on. “He likes to play with the baby pigs. He was playing with them all morning. What if the grown-up donkeys don’t like him because he doesn’t smell right to them? He’s a baby donkey, but he doesn’t smell like one!”

  Mom blinked. “Maggie Rose, that’s an idea!”

  “We’ve got a hose on the side of the house and some shampoo right there,” Bobby said. He sounded hopeful.

  And then something truly ridiculous happened.

  A bath! Maggie Rose gave me a bath!

  Sometimes she does this at home, and I do not appreciate it. I only let her because I love her so much. Usually she does it in the tub, and I have to run around the house afterward and roll on all the rugs and carpets until my fur smells right again.

  But this time there wasn’t even a tub. She tied my leash to a fence and got me wet with water from a hose and rubbed soap into my fur. I wiggled and squirmed and tried to let her know that this was obviously playtime, not bath time.

  It looked like Burrito was getting the same treatment. Mom and Kelly held him while Bobby worked soap and water into his skin.

  Poor Burrito. First the spitting, moaning horse-creature was angry with him, and then he didn’t get to play with the other donkeys, and now a bath! If I could be in charge of farms, there would be no spitting and no moaning and no horses (but still horse poop, of course) and no baths. But dogs don’t get to make decisions about things like that, which is very sad.

  “Stop wiggling, Lily. You have to get clean!” Maggie Rose told me, rubbing soap along my back. “No, stop it! No!”

  I wish I knew why humans are so fond of that word “No.” I have never met a person who didn’t say “No!” at one time or another. It never makes anything better.

  Finally, Maggie Rose squirted clean water over me, and I shook and shook until the tags on my collar rang. I looked around for a rug to roll on, but I did not see one. Maggie Rose untied my leash from the fencepost.

  It looked like Burrito’s bath was over, too. His fur was damp, and he seemed even gloomier than before.

  “Well, that’s as clean as we’re going to get this little guy, I guess,” Kelly said.

  “Lily’s all clean, too!” Maggie Rose beamed. I gave her a sour look. Why was she so happy? Didn’t she realize that I’d just had a bath and it had been dreadful?

  “So,” Mom said, “let’s take Burrito back and see if he’s any more welcome, now that he no longer smells like a pig!”

  9

  Things were looking better. Maggie Rose led me, and Bobby led Burrito, away from the bath area and toward a marvelously fragrant pile of horse poop, so fresh it was buzzing with flies. A quick roll in that, I knew, would get this awful soapy stink off of my fur. And when I was done, Burrito would probably want to take a turn.

  “No, Lily!”

  That word again, accompanied by a swift tug on my leash. I didn’t even get to put my nose to the dark lumps in the dirt before I was dragged away.

  Even though I love my girl, she just doesn’t understand some things. Like horse poop.

  Soon we were all back at the fence with the older donkeys milling around on the other side. Their ears came up at our approach. Everybody on our side seemed excited and a little nervous. I couldn’t tell what the donkeys were feeling, though.

  “Okay, let’s give it another try,” Mom said. She led Burrito on his leash toward the fence. “I hope this works!”

  Mom opened the gate and Burrito stepped hesitantly into the donkey yard. He still seemed pretty glum. I thought I knew the reason why—the other donkeys hadn’t liked Burrito earlier. And if they didn’t like him, they wouldn’t play with him. And nothing is fun when there’s no playing.

  Why was Mom trying this again? Why didn’t we all go back to the pigs and wrestle in the mud? Then Burrito and I could both get rid of the bath smells and have some fun with animals that actually liked baby donkeys.

  Maggie Rose bent down and unsnapped my leash. “Go and help, Lily,” she whispered to me.

  Since Burrito was still on Mom’s leash and couldn’t play, I decided to join the grown-up donkeys. They might not like a Burrito very much, but they liked a Lily! I crawled under the fence and dashed up to my donkey friends, ready for fun.

  But they did not seem very interested in me. They had all turned to look right at Burrito and Mom. Their ears swiveled toward the littler donkey. The oldest one stomped and let out a challenging bray.

  Burrito backed up a few steps. He looked sad and also nervous.

  This was silly. I liked to run. The donkeys liked to run. Burrito liked to run. Why didn’t we all do some running right now? Why stomp and stare? I jumped and bowed and wagged so that the donkeys would get the message that there was a dog in their yard who was ready for some serious playing.

  The donkeys ignored me. The oldest one brayed again, more loudly. He glared at Burrito.

  “That’s Spud,” Bobby called. “He’s the most grumpy of them all.”

  “I don’t think this is working,” Kelly added. She sounded worried.

  Mom shook her head and pulled on Burrito’s leash. She led the little donkey back through the gate. “I’m so sorry, Maggie Rose. It was a good idea. I’m surprised that it didn’t work.”

  “Oh, poor Burrito!” Maggie Rose said. She hugged the little donkey’s neck.

  The bigger donkeys in the field with me seemed to relax once Burrito was on the other side of the fence. I ran in a little circle and back to them. Did they get the hint? Were they ready to do Chase-Me?

  It was hard to tell. I ran in a bigger circle so they would definitely be able to see what I wanted.

  Two donkeys settled down, grabbing mouthfuls of grass and munching it. But the other two, who seemed younger, lowered their heads and trotted after me. Then, once they got the idea of running into their heads, they decided they liked it! They took off at a gallop, dashing all the way around the field. They were fast! I could not keep up, although I tried my best.

  After a big circle around the fence, we came back to where we had started. I was panting. The two Chase-Me donkeys both sniffed at me, and the big old donkey huffed out a long breath before he went back to munching.

  “Spud’s not so angry now,” Bobby observed.

  I glanced over to see Maggie Rose still hugging Burrito. I didn’t mind other animals getting affection, as long as they knew Maggie Rose was my girl. But I thought she would have more fun if she were with me in the donkey yard. And Burrito was a donkey. He should come and play with the other donkeys.

  This farm was wonderful, but it had some very strange rules. Baths for no reason. People stuck up on horses. Nobody allowed to roll in horse poop, which is obviously what it is for. Baby donkeys not allowed to play with grown-up donkeys.

  But people make rules and dogs follow them. That’s how it has always been, even though the rules might not always make sense.

  I wiggled back under the fence and trotted up to Maggie Rose. I sniffed at her shoes and licked her knee.

  “Oh, Silly Lily,” she said. She reached down to pat me.

  Burrito lowered his nose to touch mine. I bowed low and wiggled my rump up high. Then I ran in a circle again.

  “Mom, let go of his rope. I think Burrito wants to play with Lily!”

  Burrito did Chase-Me! We didn’t get very far, though, before he came to a halt and gazed at me with his big, mournful eyes. But at least he�
�d tried. He followed me back to my girl, who petted him. Bobby petted him, too.

  “Look, Mom!” Maggie Rose said softly. “All the donkeys are watching Lily and Burrito play!”

  “They’re certainly interested,” Mom agreed.

  “They’re not pointing their ears at us,” Bobby said. “See? So they’re just watching now.”

  Kelly put a hand out and stroked Burrito. “Do you think that means they might be getting used to this little guy?”

  10

  Burrito was certainly getting a lot of attention from people, but being petted didn’t seem to cheer him up the way it would a dog.

  “They’re seeing that Lily is friends with Burrito,” Maggie Rose said. “And they’re friends with Lily. So maybe they’ll get the idea that Burrito should be their friend, too.”

  “Maybe,” Mom replied thoughtfully.

  Maggie Rose shook her head. “No, Mom, it’s true. You know how all the animals at the rescue like Lily so much? I bet those big donkeys do, too. And they’re thinking that if they like Lily, and Lily likes Burrito, then maybe the baby donkey is okay.”

  Bobby grinned. “That could be right! Whenever we get a new horse, we put it on one side of the fence and leave the rest of the herd corralled on the other side. That way, they get used to each other with a fence between them. And then my Dad will give apples to the old horses, and an apple to the new one. He’ll go back and forth, handing out apples and carrots, and then when he opens the corral, the new horse is accepted as part of the family!”

  “Lily! Go back inside with the donkeys!” Maggie Rose urged.

  She obviously wanted me to do something, so I did Sit. That didn’t seem to be the right thing, though. Maggie Rose went to the fence, patted her legs, and pointed to the place where I’d been crawling under the rails. “Go, Lily!”

  I hesitated. “Go” sounded a little like “no.” But there was no horse poop around for her to get all worked up again. So maybe she was saying something else.…