Magazines, unlike blogs, take a long time to put together, and so the issues on your coffee table or nightstand right now were finished a couple of months ago. My essay in the latest Ladies’ Home Journal mentions events that happened in January, but as many of you know, that was January a year ago, the cold, snowy day the donkeys came home.
Here’s what has happened since then, for the benefit of my new LHJ friends:
Jo-Jo promptly slipped on ice and fractured a bone in her leg, necessitating x-rays that cost more than her worth. After a month of “stall rest” and painkillers, she and Foggy were reunited, and the rest of the year went by uneventfully, except for that little incident in the Hopkinton police report. Suffice it to say, by the time she took off down the road, the fracture had healed beautifully.
Nancy made good on her promise to stay in Jo-Jo and Foggy’s lives, and over the summer, welcomed them back to her farm for donkey camp while the rest of us took a human vacation. Meanwhile, Nancy acquired two adorable baby donkeys more suitable for the rest of her herd. So Jo-Jo and Foggy now have “cousins” – meet Eli and Cowboy, from Texas!
We hope we don’t ever have to go up against these two in a pet Halloween-costume contest, although beating Jo-Jo in a tutu is tough.
I can’t link to the LHJ piece for a while, so if you’re interested, please buy the magazine, the February issue, which should be at your newsstand about now. (And, guys, if you’re too manly to buy a Ladies’ Home Journal, you can always download it on your Kindle!)
…and if ‘Eat, Bray, Love” is not made into a movie like ”Marley and Me” someone is missing another good story!! It would be perfect! I just know I am on target about this!
From your lips to God’s ears, Claire …. just as long as it doesn’t end the same way!
Absolutely not!! I couldn’t take another ending like that!
Someone lent me the LHJ and I thought the story was delightful. You write wonderfully well if you can sell that mag a story about donkeys, really.
I’ll have to book mark this site to keep updated.
Thanks for loving donkeys, I suspect they do not get much.
Thank you so much, Mike. Love the pup.
Lucas was a stray, I take what the road gives me and it seems to have worked really well so far. No donkeys yet but if one shows I’ll be sure to call.
I want a donkey! Joe says that I can’t have any more four-legged friends. Do you think I could train a donkey to walk around on two legs? Perhaps in a tutu? One day….
P.S. Sara wants a horse, but I think a donkey would be better
I’ve read of people who let them in their kitchens, so maybe you can housebreak one. They’re excellent guard creatures!
I already read the article in LHJ and loved it. So much so that I found my way to this blog…
Being a single parent to teens and with dogs I can ill afford, I could certainly identify with this family’s affinity for a couple of donkeys. Sometimes we have to go with our hearts. It might be that medical treatment for the fracture cost a small fortune, but Jo-Jo is ‘priceless’ really. Can’t quantify what animals bring to a family, right?
I told you when I first read this piece a year ago that it was my favorite JNG piece ever. And that’s saying a lot. A year later, it still stands as my favorite piece for so many reasons, not the least of which is the feeling that you came home to roost in that piece. The authenticity, the warmth, the maturity, wisdom and writerliness are all so apparent in this piece. I hope your readers do themselves a favor and pick up a copy of the LHJ. It will warm their January souls.
I cannot wait! I am so thrilled for you! Yay!