Bellis makes friends near and far

It was a donkey walk day and I let Bellis decide where we'd go. I told her, "My pace, your directions." I had to tug her nose a bit in her enthusiasm, I like her to walk beside me with a loop in the lead rope.

She absolutely insisted that we go to town, and leave the woods. I was disappointed but a deal is a deal.

We got to this garage that I must bring a camera to show you next time. The entirety of the garage door has a photograph of the interior of a garage on it, with a baby elephant inside. Seriously it looks so real you are standing there and you think there is actually an elephant in the garage. There are typical garage things in the photo as well, a ladder, etc, and the angles of the garage are absolutely perfect with the real exterior structure. There was even a little string hanging down, the thing you pull on to close your garage door, that was part of the illusion. I couldn't leave it. Only when I got very close did I see a shimmer of light on the photo to tell me it's not real. What a fun family that must live there.

Another house in town has its garage door painted like stall doors with horses' heads sticking out, so lovely, but obviously a painting. The elephant/interior of garage thing was a trip.

Bellis didn't appreciate stopping to stare so we went on. She led me to our village's Protestant church, a lovely old stone steepled building that rings its bells every day. Two old men stared and answered my Hallo as I passed. They turned to watch the donkey approach the church.

We encountered 4 steps to get to the church, and they were pretty big steps. I scooted up them and then realized the donkey may have never done steps in her life. Or at least not like this. She stood there, touching the steps with her nose, clearly telling me, "It's a wall. Or a fence. Probably a fence, obviously meant to block my way and I won't challenge that." I said, "Think of it like a hill, with ridges." I speak out loud to her, she doesn't to me, yet. I started tugging on her to follow me, the old men watching, knowing fully that I would likely fail, you can't drag a donkey anywhere it does not wish to go (like streams, trailers, total fails).

Then finally she made the decision to trust me and try. She scrambled up them! Great. Then we encountered 3 more steps, and instead of scrambling, she just did a hunter jumper leap over them. Good girl! And again, and again, and we were finally back up to the main road in our town.

It was a novelty, a donkey in our town, and people exclaimed, "ESELCHEN" the diminutive meaning  "little donkey" even though she's not little at all. It's like how everyone called Baasha Pferdchen, little horsey, in an endearing way.

One person asked me where the shepherds and their sheep are. I was like, "Huh? Oh, you mean the nativity! If there was a live nativity in our town, this donkey would be in it!"

I took Bellis to our only park, with a turned-off fountain and gravestones sticking up (that's Europe, graves in random places) and then to the big bridge over the main drag through town, a Schnellstrasse (fast street) where cars zoom up to 100. Apparently Bellis had never been on an overpass before and she really did not like the cars going under her. I kept laughing, "Cars under you, and semis too!" She didn't think it was funny and I finally let her lead us off the bridge.

"Let's go visit the cows on the other side of the cemetery!" I was excited to be where Mara had a total meltdown, to be with an animal who would certainly not have one.

Some of the graves had Christmas deco on them! You know how German graves have little gardens on them? Well some of the bushes on the graves were decorated with Christmas tree balls and such. How very strange.

The cows turned out to be in their barn for the Winter, and happily we could see them through the open door. The smell of manure was like death, worse than death, I don't know how anything that is not death can smell that bad. These two cows just stopped eating and stared when they saw the donkey. Bellis stared back in fascination. I wanted to get closer but there was a house there and I was sure someone could see us, so the 4 of us just stared at each other for a very long time, motionless except for sniffing noses.

We continued on our way and encountered more people delighted to see a donkey, unable to stop grinning at us and saying, "ESEL!!!" It always makes me wonder how horses are so uninteresting to people, and donkeys are the opposite. A donkey is an awkward, ridiculous version of a horse. But somehow people are enchanted by them despite having not a lick of elegance.

We finally got to Aldi, where I planned to tie her up where I'd tied Baasha, and see if I could leave her and go into the store (and not shop, I had no money on me). Well Bellis wasn't as good as Baasha. Even though I've left her tied in the woods before, the Aldi parking lot was not her comfort zone and the people and their carts, she was worried and started pawing and fussing as I left her. I walked all the way over to the door of the store and she started threatening to bray. That would be the worst thing possible, shattering their glass with her braying. I said to her, and even at that distance, she can hear me, with those ears, "You bray and I walk in this store right now." She didn't bray. I think sometimes she really can understand English.

She controlled herself and after a few minutes I walked back over to her and she put herself close to me for comfort. Very cute.

A little brown skinned boy got out of his car nearby, "ESEL!" and I heard his mother say, "Well, do you want to ask her or not." I understood and took the donkey to the kid, maybe 6 years old, and said, "Would you like to touch the donkey?" They looked at me funnily like I'd said something wrong. I'm sure "touch" is probably not the right word.

They were so nice. The little boy was shy and didn't touch Bellis much, but she put her face right next to him, her face as almost as big as him, and he just stood there in awe. They asked for her name, and understood that Bellis means flower. I apologized that she was so dirty, she'd rolled in the mud and I couldn't get it all off. They said they were dirty too. They were so nice! I explained that donkeys are so much easier than horses, not likely to make sudden moves, but that the stubbornness is a factor. I said I wanted to leave her unattended and go to Aldi, but she didn't want to be alone. The mother said, "Like you!" to the little boy, "You didn't want to be left alone when you were younger either!" I said I'd work on it in increments. (Not that I know the word for increment in German.)  Then she said, "Oh, shall we hold your donkey while you shop?" I said, "I have no money, I didn't want to shop, just see if I could shop if the donkey was OK, but she's not." How nice of her to offer.

I told them where we live if they want to see her again.

Two grade school kids saw Bellis and exclaimed "Ein ESEL!" I smiled at them, trying to invite them to come to her and pet her if they wanted, but they were too shy.

Nearly home, an old man with the most whimsical garden in the entire nation was scrubbing the moss off his driveway with "moss remover" which I've tried but never worked. I asked him, "Does it work?" It was the first time I'd spoken to the friendly looking old guy. We started talking about the ubiquitous-ness of moss and  then he asked where my horse was. I said she had a screw loose so now I'm shopping for another. He tried to help, "Though I know nothing about horses, maybe you could go to a horse show and find one for sale!" : ) He was very nice. He said, "You could ask your horse friends to help you." I said, "I'm new here and don't have many friends." He said, "You aren't *that* new." I said, "Oh, do you know where I live? It's the house with the totally mossed driveway." He smiled at that. Bellis nudged me and I told her no, you don't get to push me when you are bored.

Finally I left him, a very nice first encounter with Mr Whimsy.

Onward and upward, almost home, the shepherd's wife pulled her car up to us and said what  fine looking donkey she is. I said thank you and showed her Bellis' teeth, with her clear underbite. "She may be fine, but she cannot reproduce because of this." I thought she'd appreciate that cuz they breed sheep. I asked her about her ponies and she said the white one rolls in the mud until he's completely black. I said with great conviction, "That is the way of grey and white horses."  She's so nice. I wish I knew her name.  I know a lot of people shun them, but I don't.

Finally home, I gave Bellis her enormous dinner of hay and thanked her for a nice walk.

(Still haven't heard a single Christmas song.....but we have wrapped presents under our tree, we're ready!)