Making Friends of the Four-Legged Variety

Dear Neighbors:

I've been meaning to post this and somehow, I keep forgetting.

Last month when driving home from my mom's place through Reche Canyon, I noticed that the local, wild, free-range burros were out doing their thing. Their "thing" being:

• Walking around, looking cute;
• Hanging out at the side of the road, also looking cute;
• Crossing the street at a leisurely pace while traffic backs up in both directions. The cute part is the drivers' frustration as they realize they cannot, under any circumstances, continue their drive right now.

I pulled over in a good spot (for once, no one was trying to sell their homemade crap by the side of the road) and initially, I waited. And then I decided to stop fighting the irresistible urge to get out of the car and introduce myself. After all, I've been driving this canyon for 25 years and have never stopped to get a better look at the canyon's wild residents. 

 After I parked, I turned around to find that most of the burros had already finished crossing the street. A couple of them were clearly giving me the eye...

It occurred to me that their friends hadn't yet finished crossing and maybe they were worried about getting them safely across the street. After all, the price of failure is death. 

The two stragglers continued on their merry way, entirely unconcerned with the approaching car on one side and the line of cars building up on the other. 

Their friends having safely crossed the street, a few of the burros decided to greet their visitor -- me!

I thought to myself that perhaps this wasn't such a good idea, that maybe they were called WILD animals for a reason. 





Still, I held my ground as the first burro approached. 

What the heck -- I reached out my hand and pet his adorable nose as he bent his head down to make it easier for me. This guy was no People Neophyte, that's for sure.  He was a pro.




The rest of the group followed his (or her) lead and approached me as well. When they began to get in a scuffle (check out the two who are nose-to-nose. They were about to duke it out), I decided that it was time to leave and hit the road again. 

It was certainly a beautiful day for making new friends. I called my mom as soon as I got home, because I knew she'd love to hear that I finally got up close and personal with our local wild bunch. 



Loving the Canyon,

D