Travis Ward took up kayaking around a year ago as a way to connect with nature. That being said, he never expected he’d have an interaction quite as close as this! Living in Arizona, Travis lives near Lake Pleasant. This makes it easy for him to kayak just about every weekend in the beautiful desert area.
When he does, it’s totally normal for him to spot donkeys. Just last week, though, one of them started to get unusually close. Upon further inspection, the poor creature had thorns in his eyes and ears.
“I could just tell he was in pain,” Travis said. “I realized he was in trouble.”
The donkey continued to slowly approach Travis, making it seem as though he was asking for help. Calmly, Travis began to remove all 40 of the painful thorns.
“He was being very still very calm and he just let me get all of them out,” Travis said. “He does the donkey noise for about a minute and then he takes off.”
According to Travis, this seemed to be the creature’s way of thanking him. It took Travis about 10 minutes to let that unusual yet beautiful moment sink in before he went about his day. Needless to say, it’s one he’ll never forget.
“It’s always nice to help whether it’s a person or an animal,” Travis said.
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