As by now even Jeff had come to expect, no help came. No response issued forth in response to his ear-splitting, persistent braying. That wasn't to say that his situation — how a common donkey been discovered in an upstairs room of an ordinary suburban home — had completely escaped the notice of the humans around him.
The zoo's management had offered temporary shelter because the municipality lacked adequate facilities to house and care for such a large animal. The offer had never meant to be permanent.
Jeff woke with a start. He still couldn't get used to being able to go to sleep, knees locked, while standing on all four of his hoof-tipped legs. He saw his keeper and the veterinarian standing on either side of him. "It's too soon to see real change, but I think restricting this big guy's diet is doing him a world of good."
The keeper, the man who doled out those meager portions, stood silently with a critical gaze. He didn't see an animal worth all this fuss. This donkey looked to have two legs in the grave, and if all things had been considered, the man would have been more than glad to provide a helpful push. He frowned when he surveyed the animal with its mud-caked hooves, well, if mud was the only foul substance caking them, as well as ruined teeth, hideously enormous ears, and a ratty hide and unkempt tail. He had tended a variety of animals and none of them had been as off-putting as this smelly donkey. He hoped the vet would hurry his exam so they could put some distance between them and the dirty animal.
"Some farm willing to take him would be best," the vet continued speaking although the keeper barely registered his words.
Jeff heard every statement. With ears the size of his, hearing was not one of his problems. He didn't want to go to a farm. He wanted to go home and become an ordinary teenager again.
"And he's got some good years left with the right care," the vet determined. "He could earn his keep."
"Earn my keep?" Jeff brayed before he remembered the pointlessness of trying to speak.
The vet took the obnoxious brays in stride, but the sound grated on the keeper who frowned and looked at the ugly muzzle of the donkey. Thin whiskers sprouted from beneath the animal's chin that gave it the appearance of an equine equivalent of Shaggy from The Adventures of Scooby-Doo.
Jeff realized that his cushy life as a zoo specimen could be replaced overnight with a new existence on a farm as a mere beast of burden.
"What's this?" The vet said aloud as he shined a penlight into one of Jeff's huge ears. He used a metal implement to scrape the wad of dried paper out of the donkey's ear.
"Oh, there were some hoodlums using straws to pepper it with spitballs," the keeper said.
"It!" Jeff moaned in a sound that escaped as a snort. "I'm not an it."
He wished the vet would examine the nostril where one of the punks had lodged one of the spitballs, but alas the doctor didn't realize the two teenagers had been that thorough. Jeff snorted again. He could still feel the bit of hardened paper lodged deep in his nasal passage.
"I'll ask someone with zoo publicity to put out a notice on social media," the vet said as he ended his exam. "Maybe we can get this guy a permanent home."
"I can't imagine who would want it," the keeper said.
Jeff lowered his great head, dejected. The keeper designated him an "it" and perhaps that was true. After all, he couldn't even object as the vet casually discussed his fate. Jeff no longer had any say in what would become of him.
He had no say in a lot of things, as became immediately apparent as the two men beat a hasty retreat. Jeff didn't even realize until he heard the splattering on the ground that he had started pissing. The keeper's sneered features registered the full scope of his disgust.
With his poor vision, Jeff failed to detect the man's repulsion. However, the fact that he could start pissing right in front of the two men and have absolutely no control over the timing of such a basic function reinforced the designation of "it" that had been thrust upon him.
As he saw the large puddle forming on the ground, all he could do was moan and huff in humiliated agony.