And Now A Word From Jack

our frend billie what hails from a carolina ast for a update on my life and times so here i am. the little fella finds my dialec a tad hard to translate so i figgered i'd jest do it miself, tho words ain't no spechulty of mine .

things here is reel good fer a ole man like miself and i'm feeling like a donkey reborned - not a day over four an a haf. mi coat went back to bein a shiny blak colour this summer and mi feet is jest perfec and i'm tole i even have some extra paddin over mi ribs. all i kno is i got so much energee that i jest has to cut loose mos evenins and rip snort around like a rebel. the young lad - i usualy calls him sonny on account his name is so high class no one can hardlee spell it or say it. well anyway he says i'm near to givin him papatations cus i rassel so good. holy smokers, that boy breethes some heavy when i git him runnin.

i tell him he needs ta relax his mind cos its spinnin a mile a minit. he studies everythin and gits hissself in a state over pritty near whatevers goin. theres so much nowlege crammed in between his ears im serprised there ain't smoke comin out. that caint be good for a body. mine you, he aint lost no weight threw all his frettin. that boy packs her in good at dinnertime. he's a fine boy tho and a grand frend to me. i near to give up on everthin til i met him and now he fills up a big space in mi hart.

heres how i come to be here. i was a grown donkey when i was took to a place what give rides to people (some of em too heavy fer me) and i went in perades and so on. i done this fer twenny seven years with my fren Hoolio, a real small fella who was my age. it were a bizzy place with young folk workin there in the summer and in the evenins when the boss didn see, some rough type young fellas used to play rodeo on mi back - they yelled and kicked me and smacked at me til i threw em off. i guess they had fun but i sure as heck didn. thas another reason mi back is so swayed.

then about six, seven year ago me and Hoolio and some ponies what had werked fer all them years was what they call retireed. we was took a mile from the place to a fiel and cut loose. old Hoolio took it so hard he jus lay down an died after three weeks an my heart jus folded up to the size of a pebble. i stood over him til the humins came and took him awy - i didn want no low down coyotes gettin at him. i et nothin fer days an them ponies picked at me and kep me outta the small shelter and mi teeth got neglected and mi feet too and then i stayed so wet fer so long i got a rot type thing on mi body and some lice set up shop an mi feet growed all funny and i near gave up hope.

one day in the middle of the cold seeson that lady from the primrose donkey place showed up and took us all away. they spoke kind and carried me into the moving box caus i was too shakee to do it miself. then she commenced to restorin mi health. i hav a thing called a murmering hart and was eemaciatied so they cooked me all kinds a stuf to git me some weight on. a few week later along come a vitinery gal - no red hare on this one - and they doped me up and went to cleanin mi teeth. i tel ya the smell even made me turn green. that vit gal had tears in her eyes cos she never seen nothin lik it and it took three sessions to get all the plaks off mi teeth an to haul out the rotten ones. i had a buncha abcessssess and all in all eatin wernt easy. then they got after the things that was growin on me. i began ta git some hope goin but i never palled up with none of them other donkeys. ta be onest, i was still missin Hoolio.

then one fine day in earlee summer las year bak i go in the movin box. oh no i sez to miself, i'm goin bak to that fiel. but no, we drove and drove and when the door open, i was at this heer place. and who do i see in the fiel? fer sure its Hoolio i think. i git closer an it aint Hoolio but sonny boy and after a few minits i start to like his company a lot - hes quiet and gentel and excep fer all that thinkin, he's a jim dandy charakter. we been close buddies ever since.

him and the woman argues all the time tho her and me get on real good. she says to everyone - give jack whatever he wants an they do it. i git spechul food and lots of it and have mi own room with a big bed. fer all there bickerin as soon as the woman or sonny boy are outta site of each other, why, arent they lookin for the other one. makes me believe ones as crazee as the other. sonny boy aint never lived no where else an he thinks he has it hard like here - i tole him about what i wen threw and he caint hardlee believe it. between you and me and the fencepost, he's jest a bit what ya called indulged.

the molly mare is fine - she's a full sister to the woman from what i can tell - look the same, ack the same - bossee but frenlee. doc is big boss and looks out for us all - ya jest gotta do what he sez and everhthins smooth. i like the dog jest fine and spen lotsa time tryin ta straiten her tale. cats is good too but who ever knos what a cat is thinkin. the male humin gotta a lot a time fer me and him and me are real close.

so there ya go. this here is mor words then i used in a lifetime but now ya kno some a mi storee. the woman took some piktures a me today so you can see mi new blak coat.