Chasing Donkeys and Swattin' Flies

Gosh--yesterday just about worked this poor body over! It all started with a 7:15 am wake-up call from my Mom. Now, when my phone rings at 7:15 am, I KNOW either something is wrong or someone is hurt. So, I immediately felt my heart race at the sound of the phone. Well, Mom informs me that one of the neighbors by our house called her and told her that the donkeys and were out of the fence. You see, they live in a fenced off part of the pasture behind our yard. I immediately jumped out of bed and threw on some pants and tennis shoes. I ran to the door and sure enough 4 donkeys stood in the front yard of my neighbor's house across the street. Ok, I am a riping 5 months pregnant, so I am thinking, how much help am I going to be? So, I called my Mom and asked her if there were lead ropes or anything that would help to use to get them back. Her suggestion....animal crackers. Animal crackers? OK. So, I ran back in the house and grabbed an old bag of animal crackers (that I had almost thrown away a week or so ago because they are stale) and walked back outside and started shaking the bag--you should've seen the donkeys heads perk up at that sound. And here they came--right at me. So, I started throwing an animal cracker trail on the ground all all the way back to the gate in the fence that was open. I thought, ok that was way too easy. So, I started counting animals--4 donkeys, check. 1 white horse, check. 1 brown horse....1 brown horse....1 BROWN HORSE!!! NOPE. Great. And he was nowhere in sight! I started to panic--where could the miniature horse be. And being miniature sure didn't help at all--he's about the size of a Great Dane. Sounds big for a dog--but it's small for a horse! So, Richie decides to take off in his truck down the road to look for him. Well, about that time, I see a brown flutter in the backyard of another neighbor's house. I flagged Richie down and pointed in that direction. Sure enough, there he was. At this point, I'm thinking this won't take long. WRONG. It was over an hour later before he was finally back in his pasture! Let me tell ya--I was exhausted by the end of the experience.