Good Morning DollyCali!
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Miniature donkey dodges capture at Spotsylvania battlefield
Escaped miniature donkey kicks up her hooves in national park
By ELIZABETH PEZZULLO
WAYWARD DONKEY is being a real horse's patooty as rangers from the National Park Service try to reunite her with her owner.
Since May, Sidekick, as the brownish burro is known, has frolicked freely within a remote section of the Spotsylvania Court House Battlefield. The 18-month-old has been spotted hoofing around the Bloody Angle area of the battlefield.
Since she went missing, Ranger Chuck Lochart has tried a variety of creative strategies to capture the Equus asinus, as she's scientifically known.
"I try to talk to her" as he inches closer, said Lochart, who's patrolled Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park for the past 17 years. He's been able to get no closer than about 25 yards from the miniature donkey, who stands about 3 to 4 feet high.
Sidekick's owner, Glenna Tompkins, tried to lure her pet out of the woods with carrots. So far, no luck.
"They can be pretty hard to catch," she said.
Tompkins, who now lives in Louisa County, is eager to get her baby--and possibly a future grandbaby--back.
"We know she's OK," she said. "Our concern is she could possibly be pregnant."
If Sidekick is expecting, she's likely to give birth in February or March, Tompkins said.
The burro--who gets her name from a pony her family once owned--made her great escape in May by slipping through an opening in a fence used to pen horses. Once free, she made a beeline for the park.
She's been staying healthy by dining on a buffet of grass and water from nearby rivers and streams. She's even been spotted absorbing history, listening in as tour groups learn about the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House in 1864. (Perhaps she's trying to shed that jackass moniker once and for all.)
But Sidekick's freewheeling days may be coming to an end as soon as this weekend. That's when the Park Service hopes to capture her with a spring-loaded cage.
The daring donkey's foray into the forest is part of a larger Park Service problem, Lochart said. In recent years, it has become a dumping ground for unwanted pets and a sanctuary for animals squeezed from their natural habitats.
About a year ago, an emu showed up at the park. A nearby resident, whose land was sold for a subdivision, was packing up his flightless birds and one or possibly two got away, Lochart said.
"Last fall, we saw it standing in the middle of the road," Lochart recalled. "We tried to dart it, but it ran."
It hasn't been seen since.
Other spottings include an albino deer, a white pig, goats and a family of exotic chickens, as well as the usual assortment of puppies and kittens.
There was even someone who "dropped off a dog with a chain around its neck that had a 25-pound dog of food attached to it," Lochart said.
The good news is that it's illegal for anyone to hunt within the parkland's boundaries. But critters don't follow the same rules.
"One time a white rabbit was left," Lochart said. "A white rabbit, not even a brown one. You know how long a white rabbit is going to last out there?"
To reach ELIZABETH PEZZULLO:540/354-5421
epezzullo@freelancestar.com
Date published: 10/12/2005
Good morning everyone.
Good Morning Dolly. Great post!
I've been looking for a certain picture for a while; it features a dog with rubber gloves on the front paws and this weird homemade mask with a construction paper cone over the muzzle and yellow yarn "hair" or "feathers". It is captioned "OWNED" or something like that. If anybody could point me to a copy of this, I'd very much appreciate it.
These pictures are so much fun!
Here's a great thread to go along with doggie stories.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1501007/posts
'He Doesn't Know He's A Squirrel; He Thinks He's A Dog'
KOMO 4 NEWS ^ | October 11, 2005 | Tracy Vedder
Morning Dolly, what a cute thread! Poor pups!
We'd stick around for a while, but we've got diving lessons to attend... -Bailey and Jack
Here's some more funny doggie pic's if they show up, you never know with Google.
Oh my , those photos are so disturbing. Why do people do that to their pups?
Thanks. Love the pictures.
051011-N-7883G-043 Yokosuka, Japan (Oct. 11, 2005) – The guided missile destroyer USS John Paul Jones (DDG 53) and the guided missile cruiser USS Cowpens (CG 63) depart Truman Bay for a fall underway period. John Paul Jones and Cowpens are currently assigned to the Kitty Hawk Carrier Strike Group, forward-deployment in Yokosuka, Japan. U.S. Navy photo by Photographer's Mate Airman Kyle D. Gahlau (RELEASED)
051010-N-4154B-008 Persian Gulf (Oct. 10, 2005) - An EA-6B Prowler, assigned to the "Shadowhawks" of Electronic Attack Squadron One Four One (VAQ-141), prepares to launch from the flight deck of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71). Roosevelt and embarked Carrier Air Wing Eight (CVW-8) are currently underway on a regularly scheduled deployment conducting maritime security operations. U.S. Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate 2nd Class Matthew Bash (RELEASED)
