Recently I spoke with Col. John Folsom, who sent several photos of a young, thin donkey that wandered into their camp in Iraq. He called to ask (a bunch) of questions about donkey care, donkey behavior and feeding. Nice man, who really is attached to this donkey. There are no other animals around, so everyone has taken a real fondness to this donkey. Apparently no one from this unit of Marines knows anything about horses or donkeys.

NAVY men stop by to have their photo made with the donkey

They’ve driven to another town to find some hay (he calls a form of alfalfa). Hay is really scarce there, and he purchased it from an Iraqi man. Otherwise they feed him apples, pears and bananas.

The Marines are all quite fascinated with this lone donkey. It had a cut on his cheek so one of the medical doctors took a look at it (while the donkey nosed through his bag of medical gear). Some Navy guys stopped by, one was a doctor who looked at the donkey’s cheek. Barbed wire is everywhere, so they suspect the donkey got caught up in some at one time or another.

The donkey is very friendly and they are still working on a name for him. John was thinking about ‘Hermal’, which is Arabic for donkey. –Crystal Ward, Placerville, CA