Legacy of Ebenezer the Donkey. How One Animal Became a Local Community Legend

Julie Marty-Pearson 0:00

Hello, and welcome to a brand new episode of the story of my PET podcast. I am very excited to have my guest here with me today. Welcome to the story of my pet, Joe Domino,

Joe Domino 0:14

it is wonderful to be here. I, we did a podcast a little while back, so it's so great to be on your show. I love what you're doing with animals and all the benevolence. It's wonderful. Thank you.

Julie Marty-Pearson 0:24

Thank you. Yes. I was on Joe's show, and during our discussion, came started talking about pets, of course, because of my podcast. And then he started telling me a story about. An animal in his life, in his community that made a big impact. And I'm like, you've gotta come on and share this. Yes. So before we go there, I always love to ask my guests, were you always an animal lover? Did you grow up with pets? What was your life like with animals?

Joe Domino 0:58

Yes, I did. I had animals. Growing up and it's weird, the first dog that we had, and I don't know how this happened, was a black lab we found and his name was Satan. And I don't know how this happened. I'm serious. My life half the time doesn't even sound like it's real, but it, that's a true story. So from there, my dad. He was, he was an animal lover. He was born in Brooklyn, raised in Long Island, looked like a guy that fell out of a Godfather film, but he always had a soft spot in his heart for animals. Had a saltwater aquarium, so we always had cats and dogs. And he had a big he had a big love for Jackie Gleason. So one of the cats that we had around was named Chauncey that lived to 15 or 16. And Chauncey was the name of the street that Jackie Gleason grew up on when he was a kid. Anyway, I. So animals have been a part of my life and now as an adult, we have what, three dogs and three cats.

Julie Marty-Pearson 1:52

Wow. Okay.

Joe Domino 1:53

Yeah.

Julie Marty-Pearson 1:53

You are our people.

Joe Domino 1:55

Yes, absolutely.

Julie Marty-Pearson 1:57

I love that. I've learned that the story behind pet names is often very interesting 'cause there's something, there's always some reason, right? Yeah. Whether it's a TV show or a book or someone in our family, we named them after. I always love hearing that. So yeah, it's fun. I appreciate that.

Joe Domino 2:16

Yes.

Julie Marty-Pearson 2:17

So in your life. At some point, a donkey came to be a part of your experience. You wanna talk about how that started?

Joe Domino 2:28

Yeah, sure. So I live in le Okay. So to give you an idea of Kansas City, Missouri. It's a really big area, and we always get confused. When you say Kansas City, is it Kansas or Missouri? It's both. We have Kansas City Kansas City, Missouri, and then all these suburbs. So I live in Lee Summit, but I work in a town called Grandview and. In this town, I'm an IT technician, so I drive all over town and there's one specific road off Main Street that connects to a town called Martin City. And a pasture off of that street is, was a donkey. And I drove by it one day and I'm like, hold on a second there. It just did not seem like it was in place, right? So I believe I stopped and went up and. He comes running and braining and I don't, I didn't have any experience with donkeys and I was like, oh my God. And I think I like backpedaled and fell and I just kinda came back thinking what's going on? And he was happy, came up and was waiting for food. And I think I had asked somebody about this donkey and they're like, oh yeah, Ebenezer people feed him all the time, get some carrots, go for it. He's great. So after that, I brought my kids in and specifically my son Miles, who's on the spectrum. He's 20 now. So this would've been in about 2005 or six this happened. So he grew up, a large swath of his early life was Ebenezer's life. So we would get carrots and we'd go and hang out and he'd always bra when he saw us and it was loud. It was like he had a megaphone attached to his voice box. So he would scream. So that was the beginnings of it, and it just turned into this thing where I looked into this donkey and asked questions, and then I reached out, found I, I was doing part-time work for a newspaper called the Jackson County Advocate. So I found the owners Ben and Victoria Alvarado, and we met and I interviewed, and I just really got into this donkey and it just went on from there.

Julie Marty-Pearson 4:26

So how did they get the donkey? Was it a donkey they've always had or did they have other pets, like other, not pets, but other horses and donkeys like that? Or was it just him?

Joe Domino 4:37

It was, I think it was just him and he was in this pasture and it wasn't by their house. There was no house. Around it. Okay. Their house was in town, so they would come in and take care of him and they had a little barn there. I believe they went to Jerusalem. I think he went to Israel and realized how instrumental donkeys were, they were very spiritual. So there was actually a cross on his back and they felt like he was good luck. He was like, they called him the Jesus donkey. And they, he had this special magic about him, but it was just his personality and he was endearing and it, he really did become a rock star. All kinds of people would feed him. So anytime I went by, there was always someone stopping, and they would shuffle up, up and give him, and they're just like, man, I love that donkey. It was just like this. It sounds

Julie Marty-Pearson 5:21

like a very popular guy.

Joe Domino 5:23

He was. He was wonderful.

Julie Marty-Pearson 5:25

It's funny 'cause when you talked about it when we met before is when you said Ebenezer. That's what got my attention. 'cause I love, I love, what is that called? I just lost it. The Christmas Carol or? Yeah. Yeah. And when I hear Ebenezer, I think of the Ebenezer Duck Uhhuh in the Disney version, Uhhuh. I love hearing that name, which is so funny. Yeah. But it sounds like it's the donkey really pulled people in

Joe Domino 5:53

it. It was, there was, it was magical. And that's the way I felt like there was times where I would just be driving along and there's nothing going on, and I would just look over and see this little donkey standing in the middle of this field and it would just make you happy. You would either laugh or you'd wanna stop or whatever. And my whole goal, half the time when I saw him, would be to stop to see how loud he would break, and I would record it. And then I would go home and get the kids fired up. Hey, get, guess who I ran into today? And that was the old flip phone. So sometimes he would scream so loud it would just completely shave off the audio. You couldn't hear anything. So it was yeah. I mean he was just this, almost like a sidecar circus act sometimes. Yeah. But he was awesome.

Julie Marty-Pearson 6:37

It's funny because I'll be on, I don't know a lot about donkeys. Yeah. Not something I've ever interacted with. Although where I live in California, we have a lot of agriculture here. Yeah. So even though we're much bigger than we used to be, you can drive down a street and there could be a field with horses. Seeing those animals at different places isn't abnormal. Yeah. So I can imagine for a place that is, you're like, there's a donkey

Joe Domino 7:00

uhhuh.

Julie Marty-Pearson 7:01

But I've also learned from. People I follow on social or some of the guests I've had about how social donkeys are and how they love people. They love other animals. They really love to be, they're like big dogs. They love to play, they love to interact. And so it sounds like Ebenezer was alone in that field, so he had to bring people to him to have, that connection.

Joe Domino 7:27

Yeah, totally. Yeah. And that's what he did.

Julie Marty-Pearson 7:30

Yeah. So you wrote a book about him, correct.

Joe Domino 7:33

Yeah, this, the thing about Ebenezer was the story deepened quite a bit after I met him and it turned into a thing where the book memorialized him and I can give you the abstract of the story. We spent years feeding him and loving him and talking about him, and it was a big deal. And I ended up setting up a website called ebenezer the donkey.com and since then I paired down my websites. He passed in 2010 and. Through some things, it just went away and I reignited it on my personal website and I got it back up. But anyway, he, after the website was set up, it started getting out there. I started putting YouTube videos up and people were so ecstatic. All kinds of people from the community that hadn't seen him for years or didn't realize this was going on. And then he got sick, he got his hoos, got really bad, and he was getting old, and there was some issues. I was the resident journalist to write about him. So I was right after that one article that I wrote, the feature that started the press circuit for him. And then when he got sick, I wrote another article. And at that point there was caregivers that were named Randy and Shirley Phillips. And they became good friends and they were hugely instrumental in the last part of his life of giving him comfort and helping him out. So he went to a horse hospital in a town called Raymore Up the Way and. He got rehabbed, got better and came back. And Randy and Shirley at that point were always there. So I would take Miles and we'd always talk to them and they became really good friends and we'd hang out with Ebenezer. And again, my son, miles just absolutely loved the donkey. And it was just like, and being on the spectrum, it was almost like a therapy for him to see the donkey and to love him and just, he just loved it. So he got sick, he came back. After he did that, they built a new barn. I think they may have raised some money. And at that point I made a bumper sticker that said Long Live Ebenezer. And we sold it at a feed store off Main Street. I love that. And it started getting around and I remember the first day I was like going to a store in town and I saw somebody had it on their car and I was like. No way. And it was like right there and it was like I knew at that moment that this was not just the donkey, this was something that hearkened people right to a prior time of just loving this sand animals. So anyway. He ended up passing. It was sudden, but at the time he passed, they had gotten heat in his barn. They were trying to take care of him. They wanted to get a camera set up. 'cause at that point, all of those videos of the nests of eagles that they would have a camera in, right? Patch. That whole phenomenon was going on. It was in the early days of social media. Right. So we wanted to get a camera set up and we were working on that. Or live

Julie Marty-Pearson 10:13

streaming Ebenezer.

Joe Domino 10:15

That's it. Yeah. He was gonna be Ebenezer tv and he ended up getting really sick and he passed away and there was a huge outpouring, after that. Everybody was putting balloons on his fence and all of that stuff. There was a parade and they had a float in there the year after he passed and it won like best of show. So at that point I thought he has to have a book. Anybody that wants to know about this donkey, I need to encapsulate it into an easy way that people can get it. So I went through Apple Books and it's digital and yeah, in fact, I just got a letter recently from somebody that was like. Can we get a paper copy of this and to just make one paper copy or a few of it is quite expensive, but I wish I had paper copies 'cause there's enough people that I think would really dig in. So that's the timeline of Ebenezer.

Julie Marty-Pearson 11:02

That makes sense. And also I, one of the things that I've learned. Through podcasting is that stories connect us and that stories are are our legacy, not they are our legacy. And so a lot of people turn to writing or podcasting or whatever it is because they wanna leave something. They wanna have history or their family's history or whatever that is. And I also think as a culture, even more so now, but back then too, we all connect over something when we need that connection, we need to feel like we have something together. So it sounds like Ebenezer really brought the community and people together in a way that it wasn't just about him, he was the vessel.

Joe Domino 11:50

Yes to, yes. To

Julie Marty-Pearson 11:51

bring those co connections in your community. And obviously it continued after he was gone because people were leaving things and you wrote a book because there was something there that we all need, right?

Joe Domino 12:03

Yeah.

Julie Marty-Pearson 12:03

But sometimes we can't see it until there's some random thing like a donkey that brings us together.

Joe Domino 12:11

Absolutely. Yeah. And it's funny because Randy and Shirley actually. Bought a farm and got donkeys, rescue donkeys. Okay. So they kept that traditional life. So I think they had. About three or four donkeys. So they kept it alive. And donkey rescues are a big deal and anybody that can take 'em in like any animal, but especially donkeys, are a little bit harder to transport and a little bit more precocious than others. So that was an outgrowth of it. But yeah, it was the community and Miles loved to see Randy and Shirley, and we became friends and we still kept in touch. And when I re. Reignited this website in anticipation of this interview. I let Shirley know, and I hadn't talked to her in years, and she was like, oh my God, how's everybody doing? What's going on? And it was just this family reunion and the whole catalyst is Ebenezer. He's the one.

Julie Marty-Pearson 12:59

Oh, I love that. Yeah. And I will say because of where I live in Central Southern California, we do have a, we have a lot of agriculture, we have a lot of people with space and large animals. So we actually have a local rescue that, yeah. Specifically rescues and helps horses and donkeys. They had a zebra at one point because it is very different to help those type of animals because of their size, let alone the space you need for them to be able for them to be healthy and have exercise and all those things. And I think sometimes we. We don't tap into those things if I'm not a horse person, or I don't care about donkeys, I care about cats or dogs or whatever. But sometimes it's that one experience that kind of ignites that connection. And it sounds like absolutely for your friends, that's what Ebenezer was and then they, helped other donkeys because of it. So that's just such a powerful thing that animals give us that we don't always recognize. Right.

Joe Domino 13:59

Yeah. Yeah. And that's the thing, it's like any animal that I've had in my life, there's just such a bond and it's such a bittersweet thing. 'cause you know they're gonna leave and you're gonna likely outlive them. And it's, but it's that, the strength of it, it's like they're here for comparatively to us, a short amount of time. Right. But the reverberation of their influence and what they do and how they help you understand this reality is huge.

Julie Marty-Pearson 14:23

Yeah. It's been through this podcast the last three years talking about my own pet that I realized, wow, like I didn't know it when I was 12 and I finally got a puppy that dog is what I needed. I was sick, I was out of school. I needed things that I couldn't verbalize or even realized. And he was my best friend, and he got very in tune with me, and he knew when I wasn't feeling well or when I was sad, we don't always realize what animals do for us sometimes until they're gone. Absolutely. But they are a part of our everyday life, our schedule, our family. So do your kids, does mild miles ever talk about Ebenezer or talk about Oh yeah. That experience?

Joe Domino 15:08

Yeah. It's interesting. Where I was working at, there was her name was Terry Blue. She was the help desk representative. So she would farm out the tickets and we got really close. We worked together for a long time. At one point she came in and she said, I got a shirt for miles. I found it specifically for, and it was a blue shirt and it just had a big donkey hat on it. So she gave it to him and he loved this shirt. Absolutely loved it. And he wore it all the time and outgrew it. And she recently, unfortunately passed and he wanted to find that shirt and we went to her visitation and he brought the shirt and the family was like, oh yeah, we totally remember, the shirt and miles and that love of the donkey. And it's he still will bring up in, in relationship to that shirt. It's weird, his relationship when animals leave, it's really hard. He, we had a dog named Coco, named after Conan O'Brien. We got her around the time that Conan was supposed to be the host of The Tonight Show and got it stolen from Jay Leno. So at that point. We named our dog Coco, and she was an Australian Shepherd mix with Biji. She was a wondrous dog, the best dog I ever had. And she passed recently and I can't even bring her name up to him 'cause he's no, don't do it. And so it, it's tough. When it comes to the shirt, Ebenezer's a little bit easier to digest because it's been so long ago and he was a little bit more of a novelty. It wasn't like we were around him all the time, like Coco or a dog. So there's a part of him. I think that the stages of grief were briefer and he's able to digest that a little bit more. But yeah, when that shirt comes up and he's gonna hold onto that shirt forever, in fact, he wants me to find an a a bigger size one. And I think I'm gonna be inspired by us talking about this. I'm gonna get on Amazon when I'm done and find one.

Julie Marty-Pearson 16:49

Oh yeah, I've done some mockups of merch for my podcast on Amazon, and they could do also bonfire. You could create something on bonfire and even raise money for something related to donkeys on that one.

Joe Domino 17:01

That would be cool. I'll make a note of that. And it's bonfire.

Julie Marty-Pearson 17:05

Yeah. I, yes. This is not a paid ad. Bonfire is a free website. You can create a store and. Create images and logos and all sorts of things, and then they do all the stuff for you. They make it, they ship it, and then so you're not gonna get as much out of making money off of it. It's a smaller amount. Yeah. But it's a great way to have merch for whatever reason, without having to put any money into it to get it started. Great. And so a lot of that'd be great nonprofit. Animal rescues use bonfire for, for fundraising, but also just to, because if someone buys a t-shirt with the name of the rescue, they know more people are gonna learn about it. So it's a great way for small organizations to do that.

Joe Domino 17:47

Okay, cool. Very cool. I'll have to look into that. Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome.

Julie Marty-Pearson 17:51

You know what I love about this is there's always this. Idea of what pets are and what they their place is. But I think that limits us in terms of our connection with animals. And I think connecting with animals is one of the purest thing we can do. Just like when people go out and hike and connect with nature. Yeah, and I always bring up the fact that we had a possum living in our house for nine months. William de Possum is a fun story to tell, but it was also this experience for my husband that he. He's always loving animals. He's always had a big menagerie of animals growing up and for him, he loves the learning about the animal and giving them what they need. Right? Yeah. He would research and find out what food to make for him, so he got all the nutrients, he literally, that possum ate better than I did. Let me just say that, but I think that. As kids, and it sounds like with your kids, those connections to animals help us in ways we don't realize, yeah. Your son being on the spectrum myself, I miss a whole year of school and it was very hard in a lot of ways, but pets are like there for us. They don't talk back. Yeah. They don't say you're wrong. They just are there. And I, it sounds like that's what Ebenezer was, not only for you and your son, but for a lot of people.

Joe Domino 19:13

Yeah, I was just thinking about you talking about taking in the possum. When I was a kid, we found a dog in the neighborhood and tried to, and this was in the eighties, so there wasn't social media and you had to just let animal shelters know and whatnot. So we put the word out that we found a dog. I don't know if we put flyers on polls. I don't think I came from that ilk that they would've done that. But we tried our best to do something to let people know. So my brother. Went to a one of those show and tell days and showed a picture of the dog and the kid in the class said, that's my dog.

Julie Marty-Pearson 19:48

Oh my gosh.

Joe Domino 19:49

So we had the dog for six months or longer and they came and took it away and it was like ripping the worst bandaid off of a wound ever. It was like, oh wow. I remember we were a mess. So that was one of the weirdest animal fine stories ever. Oh my

Julie Marty-Pearson 20:05

God. That is crazy weird. Yeah. I think back to that. I grew up in the eighties as well, and it's like it was such a different world in terms of animals like my soul dog champ that I talk about, we found in the newspaper and went to some house. We don't know. These people went in their backyard and there's the litter, and I sat down and played with them and picked which puppy and my sister paid them $5 for me to take Champ home. That is not something that really happens now as much, which is good because we don't want backyard breeders and all of that. But yeah, our experience with animals often is impacted by the time and space and where we live and what our experiences is. But oh my gosh, having to give back a dog that you've bonded with after six months, that's gotta be so hard.

Joe Domino 20:51

My stepdaughter's a huge animal lover, and about, I would. I think right around when the pandemic started, she had this idea that she wanted to tell my wife and I about she want, she had a dream that she was gonna adopt an older cat, and she knows I'm a cat guy. There's something about the cats and I that I love dogs, but the cats and I have an affinity, and she wanted to get an older cat to let it live the rest of its life out with us, with all the animals and the love in the house and all of that. So sh my wife knew that there was gonna be a chance I would cave. I was gonna be the one that was gonna say yes or no. So I did, and I said, let's do it. Her name's Frannie. She's an old orange cat. We got her in 2020. That cat's still alive. So Jilly's moved out, moved on. She got a Great Dane, just a massive behemoth of a dog. Oh wow. She always wanted one but Fran's still around, very skinny and frail. Most of its teeth are out and the cat has to be like 18. I don't see it going downhill anytime soon. And I'm like, how long? How many lives is this cat like expending here? It's wild. Yeah.

Julie Marty-Pearson 21:59

That's so funny because I was, I grew up with dogs and I love dogs, but when I got my first. Cat at 25. I was like, you are my people. You love snacks and hanging out at home. Yes, that's it. But yeah, it's so funny. We have three cats currently, and our oldest Charlie is almost 16. He's diabetic. His hair's a little, he can't, clean as well as he used to. But even the vet, the last time we took him in for a checkup to, get the prescription, he was like, wow. He is doing really, he's been on insulin shots twice a day for at least three years. And usually when you start that, like you said, you're like, okay, we know it'll last so long. He's still going. Even the vet was like surprised. No. Like you just never know. And all animals deserve to live out their golden years with whatever they need. Yeah. And it's one of the reasons we don't have a dog. I would love a dog. I've almost brought dogs home many times from the shelter, but I know Charlie doesn't handle change well, and it was hard enough two years ago when we fostered. So we want him to live his golden years in peace and then someday it'll be right. So it sounds like you and your family really. Dealt with that too, and you still are. Yeah. And I love that you still have your daughter's cat even though she's gone. Yeah,

Joe Domino 23:17

Yeah. It's great. Yeah. And all the other cats, they don't quite get along because I think Frannie was a street cat was just a badass and has a weird relationship with other cats. It's not really, 'cause it can get bad with cats, but Right. It's just they just how at each other and move on. And Frannie's so old now, it's like she's just an old woman. She's right. I'm just gonna make my voice known and I just want to go and lay down somewhere, so

Julie Marty-Pearson 23:40

that's how Charlie is. He'll give one of the other cats a look and they're like, okay, keep moving. That's it. Uhhuh, it's they have their own unspoken language. Like we know, we just let him do what he needs. That's

Joe Domino 23:49

it. Yep. We're moving on. But I think an

Julie Marty-Pearson 23:52

important thing that you mentioned is adopting older pets because what I have learned through this podcast and volunteering is a lot of pets, cats and dogs in, in shelters because their owner is sick and now in assisted living or something, or the owner has passed and there's no one else to care for them. Yeah. And so these animals cat. It's dogs, whatever, end up in a shelter, and they've been loved and cared for in a home their whole life, and it's just scary and overwhelming. So adopting a senior pet is just. It's just a way to say, you know what? We're gonna let you have a happy life however long it is. And I've seen people do it and have, a few days or a few years like you guys, but it really is an important thing because they don't end up there because they're bad animals. They end up there because of circumstance.

Joe Domino 24:44

That's right. Yep. Life circumstances for sure. Yeah, it's been a trip. It's definitely been a trip. I I call Franny orange Cat Party and I made a little sticker. So we go to, like other cities, I like put it up there so people can be like, what is that? But it's just the nickname that I've given Franny and she's immortalized in different cities around the country. So it's fun. And the one thing

Julie Marty-Pearson 25:06

I've learned is nothing unites people more than animals.

Joe Domino 25:09

Yeah.

Julie Marty-Pearson 25:09

You can meet people from all over the world and then you start talking about your cat or your dog or what, and they're like, oh my gosh, I have to tell you about mine. So yeah, it is also that thing that we all connect over. But we also we meet someone, oh, I'm not a cat person. I'm like, okay, nice to meet you. I gotta. Right.

Joe Domino 25:26

Yeah. Yeah. But I guess you're opening up a rabbit hole for me here. There. The a, another really fun cat story, which is probably why my stepdaughter thought I would have a soft spot to get a cat, is that I had a cat named Dr. Kitty for a while, and he only lived a 10, and he was massive. He was a big white behemoth. And when we went to adopt him, he came home and. The person, like 24 hours later, we get the cat. We're totally fine. I think his name was McGee, but we renamed Dr. Kitty. They call up and they said, this cat has a chronic case of herpes in his nose, and we forgot to tell you that. So what that means is the cat's nose is always stuffed up and it just, it would lean up like a ferret and just sneeze and all of this unbelievable stuff would come out and you would be like, oh my God, I can't I know, but. He was the coolest cat in the world and everybody got enraptured by his size. He just ballooned up and he was just a really friendly cat. And he ended up getting a really bad, I believe it was a kidney issue. And since he was so big, it got complicated. But he was a rock star. He lived a great life and a lot of people still mourn for him, but I feel the other way. He lived such a rockstar life. He ate he was adored. He had a great nickname. Right, right. He overcame the whole herpes in the nose thing and he lived a great life and that was probably one of the coolest animals I've ever had.

Julie Marty-Pearson 26:54

Oh, I love that. Yeah. I think sometimes. People give up on animals sometimes because of those things, which, we would never do that. But the thing is that what you said earlier, we only get our pets for a finite amount of time in our life, and we just want them to have the best life, whatever, however long that is, or however long they're with us, even if we didn't get to have them their whole life. And it's funny because my husband is the same way as your son. He had a dog when I met him. We'll be married almost 20 years, and when we started dating, he had a dog. I cannot say that dog's name without his whole demeanor changing. And that is why we connect, because the deep connections we make with these animals, and then we bond with someone who also has that. It's like there's nothing el, you can't explain it, you can't share it. It's just something that we as pet lovers have. Stick. And that's why I love having this podcast to get to hear all these stories. It's

Joe Domino 27:53

exactly one of the hardest things is I love making stickers sometimes. And I made one of cocoa and she had these big ears and towards the end of her life, one of them the cartilage got weak. So one's down and one's up and it just says, long live cocoa or cocoa forever, I think. And I have to be really careful with Miles seeing that. 'cause in the beginning he loved it and now it's just too painful. So yeah, it's like. You just gotta be careful and, Yeah. You

Julie Marty-Pearson 28:17

never know. Like we're protecting ourselves. And I remember when my soul dog Champ passed away, my dad was like, Nope, never doing it again. I can't go through this. And he never had another pet, even though he loved pets. Wow. He was the one that really, he. He grew up going to a farm in Wyoming with his grandparents, so he loved all pets, horses, cats, dogs. But he was just at that point in his life where I can't go through it. I can't put, invest myself. And it's it's not, it's okay. We get to decide that. Yeah. For some of us getting the next pet is how we rep process and heal. But for some, it's just like when you have that bond, you can't imagine giving yourself that way again. Sharing the story, and I think that's what I love. Once we start talking, I'll mention a pet, then that reminds you, or you say one, it reminds me. And that's that's what this is for. But it's also to say, Hey, try something different. Adopt a older pet check. Go to a rescue and help them with their horses and donkeys. We just wanna speak to people, which is, I think what Ebenezer did for you, for your son, but also the community. It gave them all. Something to devote their time and space to. And he really, he literally lives on because of it.

Joe Domino 29:29

Absolutely. And the one thing that's easing miles in this cocoa absence is my stepdaughter and her fiance got a dog that's a little Belgian Malinois that was like a mix of like pit and all these others. And it's a wonderful, it's such a smart dog. I had no idea the Malinois was such a smart dog. You're very

Julie Marty-Pearson 29:47

smart.

Joe Domino 29:48

They're crazy smart. So her name is Suki. They love the Fast and Furious franchise, so all of their names are characters. But Miles Loves Suki, so that's been really good to get him back in the dog game. And she's just such a good dog and it's good. So anyway, that to me, I understand the pain, but I'm I have not, I'm 52 and I don't see myself hitting that wall. I think my relationship did. Animal death is just a little bit, probably tamped by my early experiences. I lost my best friend when I was 16 and he was 17. It doesn't make it any easier, but I think when you get used to the fact that you embrace that idea that this life is just the way it is, right? It's like animals are just gonna be here for a finite amount of time and then you just move on. Right.

Julie Marty-Pearson 30:32

Yeah. And it is different for everybody because I remember when my my dog champ passed. Myself, my sister and my dad were all in the room with them when they put him to sleep. My mom could not do it. She stood outside. She's I can't deal with it. It's okay. It's different for all of us, but because I went through that at a young age, it's I always want to be there with my pet. So I've always done that. Like I've made the decision when I feel it's right and they're telling me and then I be there with them. That's important to me. Some people can't, and that's okay too. So it's finding where it works for you and yeah. We all have different abilities, and I definitely heal better when I have more pets than not having any. I don't see that happening, but it's also, I think sometimes by sharing these stories, it may help somebody who's about to lose a pet or has just lost a pet because grief is hard. It looks different for everyone. You cannot compare grief. You cannot say, me losing my dog is worse than you losing this. It doesn't work that way. And it also comes at us in places we don't always expect. And sometimes we can work through that, even if it's not getting another pet, but helping another pet. I see a lot of people volunteering shelters because that's their way of connecting and giving back, and I think. In a lot of ways you saw your connection for your son and Ebenezer and you really wanted to celebrate it, but also share it with people. Absolutely. And so that's what you did with the book. So tell everyone where they can learn more about the Ebenezer story and get your digital book.

Joe Domino 32:04

So if you go to if you just go to app, the Apple Books app and you type in Ebony or the Donkey, it's gonna come up. If you Google, Ebony, or the Donkey, it's going to come up. I have a site under my name, joe domino.com, and it is a link. On my website and it's under, I think, projects, but it's on there and it should be Googleable. So if you just Google Ebony or the Donkey, you're gonna get sound clips on Soundhouse. So you'll hear that Bray. There's videos that kind of encapsulate his life. I did. Like a full thing with all kinds of pictures and different things of his life. Oh, I love that. And then the website and then the book will come up. So all of it is Googleable and it'll come right up for you.

Julie Marty-Pearson 32:45

Perfect. And I will also put those links in the show notes, so you could go directly there, but if you can't wait and you gotta Google it, you'll find Yeah, I doubt there's a lot of Ebony or the donkeys on in the world.

Joe Domino 32:57

I think he's monopolized it. I think he's in good shape. And now that I know about this website with merch, there's probably gonna be merch coming down the line, so that'll be fun. Oh yeah, I'd

Julie Marty-Pearson 33:04

love it. Yeah. I follow a couple re, there's a rescue, I think it's Knuckle Bump Farms. Florida. And then of course my own local rescue all seated in a barn. And what I love about following rescues like that, that treat a wide variety of animals like horses and donkeys, is you also learn about animals. You also learn like their personalities and what they like. And so I think it's just fun also to follow along to stories like this because it'll teach us something even if we don't realize it.

Joe Domino 33:34

Absolutely it will. Yeah. Yeah. It's so good. Thank

Julie Marty-Pearson 33:36

you so much, Joe. I'm so glad we connected for other reasons. Yes. For your podcast, Uhhuh, but I got to hear the story of Ebenezer and how he and all the other animals in your life have touched you and your kids. It's really been great to just learn more about it.

Joe Domino 33:52

Absolutely. This has been wonderful. Thank you for the work you're doing. This is such a wonderful podcast, and I'm just so glad that I've had the chance to revisit Ebenezer and I thank you for your forum, so I appreciate it.

Julie Marty-Pearson 34:03

Absolutely. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of The Story of My Pet podcast. I appreciate you listening and supporting the podcast, and if you haven't already, wherever you are listening to this episode, make sure you hit follow or subscribe and leave us a rating or review. All of that helps the podcast grow and get to even more listeners, and help us educate and advocate for animals in need around the world. If you haven't done so already, make sure to check out our new YouTube channel, Story of My Pet podcast. Again, hit the subscribe button, give us some likes and comments on our videos, and that will help the podcast grow on YouTube. Thank you so much for being here, and much love to you and your pets.