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For more than two weeks, Jenny has
eluded capture
A donkey named Jenny runs away from Kevin Hall, of
New port, Maine, Sunday, Feb. 11, 2007, as Hall and his mule attempt to
capture the donkey that escaped from the nearby farm of Joe Varricchio and
Mary Gaeta, in Pittsfield, Maine on Jan. 18, 2007. The owners are now using
horse trainer Karina Lewis who is skilled in animal psychology to gently
lure the donkey back to the farm.
PITTSFIELD (AP) - An exasperated farmer has tried for weeks to corral his
runaway donkey. He tried coaxing her. He tried tranquilizing her. He even
tried using a horse whisperer.
But Jenny the donkey has proven to be elusive, evading capture and enduring
bitter cold during the past three weeks on the lam.
"This one here seems to outsmart everyone," Joe Varricchio, who runs the
farm with his girlfriend, said Monday. "I guess she likes her freedom."
Varricchio and Mary Gaeta decided to buy Jenny two months ago because they'd
heard that having a donkey around the farm would ward off predators like
fox, coyotes and raccoons that have been snatching 50 to 60 hens a year.
But this donkey had a mind of her own, fleeing the corral on Jan. 18, a
couple of weeks after arriving at the farm, called "Mary's Gardens."
Varricchio said his son shot Jenny with a tranquilizer dart, but she ran
away into the woods. Apparently it had no effect, because she was up and
about when they located her two hours later, he said.
They tried putting tranquilizers in her food. That didn't work, either.
The latest effort, on Sunday, involved a horse whisperer.
"Some people call me a horse whisperer; some people call me an equine
psychologist," Karina Lewis, of Benton, told the Morning Sentinel newspaper.
"I like to call myself a problem-solver of people and horses."
But she couldn't figure out Jenny, who she thinks is part donkey, part
horse. Lewis and her partner rode horses in an attempt to corral Jenny. The
donkey came close, but kept running away.
Lewis said Jenny might be wandering on 30 acres of woods behind the farm
because she's searching for her mate, from whom she was separated at an
auction. Her donkey buddy is now believed to be residing somewhere in New
Hampshire.
Jenny doesn't wander too far, though. She returns to a spot behind the barn
to eat each morning. She might even catch a quick nap. But she's up and
running whenever someone approaches.
It's not easy catching a critter that doesn't want to be caught, Lewis said.
"It's kind of like chasing a 700-pound rabbit," she said.
Another volunteer who's trying to help is Kevin Hall of TK Ranch in Newport,
which specializes in miniature horses and donkeys.
Hall brought along a male donkey, Jackson, in hopes that Jenny would amble
into the corral for some company. It didn't happen.
"I've never had such a hard time getting a donkey a date in my life," he
said.
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