While Jeff brayed his asinine head off at the bars of the exhibit, only calling more attention to himself from the human beings visiting the zoo, a door opened and a man stepped out of a small shed camouflaged by plantings at the rear of the animal habitat currently housing one rather unhappy jackass.
The man approached confidently but carefully, and drew right next to the side of the animal before the donkey stopped its discordant brays and appeared to notice him. The animal's nostrils flared.
As well they might. Jeff felt surprise that a human being had suddenly appeared on his side of the bars. He shook his head in irritation at the way he kept thinking of people as humans, as something set apart from him. He flared his nostrils again, an automatic reflex from nervousness over the human's intentions.
"What are you doing?" Jeff tried to ask. From his wide, leathery lips came a low-key "HeeeHaww!"
It was the opportunity the man needed to slip a piece of metal into Jeff's mouth. As Jeff tried to spit out the metal, the man swiftly and nearly finished attaching some straps around his equine snout.
Belatedly, he realized that the man had just fitted him with a very simple snaffle bit. He had researched so many aspects on donkeys that he qualified as an expert even if he hadn't been currently wearing the guise of one.
Jeff felt a tug as the man led him away from the bars at the front of the exhibit and toward the rear of the compound. A few passersby gave a mildly interested glance in his direction, but seeing nothing more than a man leading a jackass, they hurriedly continued their trek through the zoo, confident a more interesting sight must be just around the corner.
The man led him toward the shed. In his time inside the compound, Jeff had been so intent on braying for all to hear toward the front of the exhibit that he hadn't bothered to explore. Now, in the shade of the shed, he saw a small table and a man in a white smock and rubber gloves standing next to it.
The zoo's vet waited for the worker to bring the animal closer. He watched the donkey's heavy, reluctant steps as it brought its hooves down with loud clops on the earth inside the compound.
Looking at the animal with a disapproving expression, he flatly stated, "Grossly overweight. We will have to put him on a special feed."
The other man looked disinterested, but Jeff's long, hairy ears took in every word. He felt offense, at first, but realized that the vet was only stating the truth.
Vet! It just came to him. The smock, the gloves... the man must be a veterinarian. With distress, Jeff realized he could have thought of the man as a doctor, not a vet. But it was veterinarian that first sprang into his thoughts. If he was thinking of himself as not human, what could he expect from others?
It occurred to him then that he should be attempting to communicate his dilemma to these men. After all, they were actually paying attention to him. While still thinking over his options, he felt the vet's gloved hands reach under and grab his balls.
"Heeee-Haww!" Jeff bellowed in surprise, not exactly the greeting he had wanted to go with.
The man's rubber-encased fingers probed at his balls and then at his long hose of a cock. Apparently satisfied, the man removed his hand, but then Jeff felt the man lift his tail. The vet shined a penlight toward what must be Jeff's most unattractive feature — his dark, puckered anus.
Jeff missed his clothes. He hated being naked to the world, left with no way to claim any sense of modesty by covering his horrid huge ball and penis.
The man proceeded quickly, keeping Jeff off balance as he felt tugs and pulls in other areas. The hands went back toward the front of his body and stretched his ears. Jeff snorted from surprise, and tried not to let out another bray that would only make him sound like the dumb beast he appeared to be.
Suddenly, the man's fingers pulled back his lips. Jeff tasted the rubber as the man's fingers probed over his huge, blocky teeth.
"Lot of wear and tear evident on the teeth," the vet spoke aloud. "I'd say this is at least a middle-aged donkey. He will need an exercise regimen, but we can't overdo it."
Why? Jeff wondered at the determination reached by the vet and then fearfully connected the statements together. The vet worried that he might keel over from a heart attack if he did anything too strenuous.
Suddenly, he saw something that concerned him more than potential cardiac catastrophes. The man lifted a huge hypodermic from the table.
Jeff's nostrils flared again as he inhaled deeply. He felt the jab as the vet sank the needle deep into his neck for the purpose of drawing a sample of blood for laboratory analysis.
"HeHaww! HeeeHaww!" Jeff reacted more from shock than pain.
"That should do it," the vet said. "Give me time to draw up a special diet for him. In the meantime, curtail the amount severely. We need to slim down this animal."
Animal. They meant him. He was the animal and they were humans.
"No!" Jeff brayed. "
The handler took back control and led the still braying Jeff toward a long feeding trough.
"Please. I'm not really a donkey!" HeeHaw! HeeHaw!
The man poured about half of the usual amount of feed into the trough.
"I don't want to eat that! Please listen to me!" HeeHaw! HeeHaw!
The man removed the bit and other items. While simply on display, the donkey wouldn't require them.
He checked and saw the water trough remained full, although some leaves from overhanging branches had fallen into it.
The man gave Jeff's fat rump a light smack. "Enjoy your new rations," he said in a voice that Jeff didn't fail to recognize the bland insincerity.
"Come back!" Jeff hee-hawed at the departing man. "I'm not a donkey!"