Good-hearted strangers return donkey lost after hurricane

Not all who were affected by Hurricane Hermine were displaced by a loss of electricity. In the case of miniature donkey Jackson Pelham, a gap in a stretch of downed fencing was all it took for the small beast of burden to go missing.

"He escaped on Sunday at some point," said Jackson's owner Heather Pelham. "We had a tree that fell in the pasture that took out some fencing. My husband and our friend fixed the fence, but when they did so, they didn’t take into account that he could get underneath the fence.

"We were both in Atlanta when we got the phone call from my husband’s parents that Jackson was missing."

Fortunately, he was not lost for long when he was spotted by Maria Reyes, about a mile and a half from where the Pelham's live.

"I was leaving Rosehill along Ox Bottom Road when this miniature donkey was walking in front of some cars. I figured no one cared because, ‘What the heck, it’s a donkey’ right?' But I’m an animal lover," said Reyes.

So Reyes, who by chance works at the Farm Equestrian Center off Meridian Road, took action. She retrieved a halter and notified police of a missing donkey in the area, after which multiple patrol vehicles arrived on the scene. As she worked to round up Jackson, she was joined by other passersby who added to the rescue effort.

It couldn't have been easy, Pelham said.

"He’s a fast donkey and he plays a good game of catch-me-if-you-can. If you come at him with a halter and reins, he’ll run away," said Pelham. "He’s thinking bath, he’s thinking shots, he’s thinking everything that he hates. But you can walk up to him with a peppermint and he’s happy."

Pelham was right. Reyes said Jackson was wily.

"It was a long chase, but luckily being a closed neighborhood, we were able to catch him," Reyes said. "Finally, after an hour of almost 10 people trying to catch him, we caught him."

Of course, the job was only half-done. With a donkey on her hands and not a clue as to whom he belonged, Reyes turned to social media to get Jackson home. She posted photos and video to Facebook and waited.

"I had like 900 shares on my post on Facebook. I would say a maximum of two hours within posting, someone saw my post and was the neighbor of the owner of the mini-donkey," she said.

Pelham said she and her husband Evan were "frantic." He headed home from Atlanta about 45 minutes after getting the call. About an hour into his drive, the couple learned Jackson had been found.

"We’re incredibly grateful that people stopped and took their time to help. We lived in South Florida through three hurricanes, so we know what it’s like to be without power for days. That people stopped when they may have had their own issues going on, that was very heartwarming," said Pelham, who also owns two horses, two cats, a dog and a goldfish.

"There was just an immense sense of relief. We’ve lost pets before, and to never know what happened to them still aches in my heart, so I was so fearful that would be another ache in my heart and that he’d be gone forever."

Contact Neil Coker at ncoker@tallahassee.com