Speaker 1: This is Pet Life Radio.
Speaker 2: Let's talk pets.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Human Animal Connection Show, where we believe
we can communicate with all animals. Join us as we
explore the thirty three principles and healing methods of the
Human Animal Connection. As animal lovers, we know that you
share our commitment to making the world a kinder place
for all creatures. Together, let's embrace the transformative healing power
of the Human Animal Connection.
Speaker 3: Hello everyone, Welcome to the Human Animal Connection Podcast. I'm
so happy to have Ellie Lax with me. She is
the author of a couple of books, My Gentle Barn
and Cow Hug Therapy. So just so happy to have
Ellie back on. She's been on her show a couple
of times, and I said, you have to come back
and tell me about your donkeys, because I know my
listeners know that I am just gaga when it comes
to donkeys, and so I know Ellie has so many
wonderful stories about her life with donkeys. So Ellie, welcome
to the show.
Speaker 2: Thank you for having me. I'm so excited about talking
about donkeys.
Speaker 3: I know, it's like, yeah, we get to talk about
our favorite thing, donkeys.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So, how did you fall in love with donkeys. What's
your donkey story?
Speaker 2: Who doesn't love donkeys? I mean, my god, I know
little muzzle and those giant ears and those huge eyes.
I mean they're yours. Yeah, caret not love donkeys. But
we got our very first donkey in two thousand and three.
So I started the Gentle Barn in my little half
acre backyard, but then four years later moved to our
main location here in Los Angeles, California, which is five
acres and it's where people come to visit on Sundays
and we do private tours and school field trips, and
we have lots and lots of hurting humans come to
find solace and sanctuary with our animals here at the
Gentle Barn. And we had horses and cows, chickens, goats, sheep, pigs.
And I met a man who had a donkey sanctuary
and he invited us out to go see it. I
think that he has since moved to Hatchebee, but at
that time he was in Lancaster and it was a
little donkey rescue and we went on in a very
blustery day. I mean the wind was roaring so fast
and so loud we could barely hear each other. And
I got out of the car, thinking, oh my god,
it's gonna be miserable because the weather was so bad.
But the minute we entered the pasture of donkeys, the
cuteness took over. It was as if the wind stopped,
and all of a sudden it became this magical experience,
surrounded by donkeys, all shapes and sizes, all different shades
of gray to very dark dark gray, almost brown, and
I was in heaven.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well, I started asking this man as he tored us
around about the various stories and what the donkeys had
been through, and we met one particular donkey. His name
is Addison, and he proceeded to tell us this horrendous
story about two brother donkeys who were forced to pull rocks,
do excavation and manual, hard labor for this guy. And
if you don't know, you could twirl a rope around
and spook a horse to move forward, which isn't the
nicest thing in the world, but I mean, people do
that to get them to move. You can't do that
same thing with donkeys. When donkeys are hit or threatened,
they freeze. And I mean this man, so this man
wanted them to pull heavy things and do hard manual labor.
The donkeys froze because it was way too heavy for them.
The man proceeded to beat them, and the more he
beat them, the more they froze, and the more they froze,
the more he beat them, until he almost beat them
from it with an inch of their lives. Anne was
subsequently arrested and thrown in jail, and the donkeys were
then brought to the donkey sanctuary. Addison's sibling was beat
so bad that he had no will to live, and
he actually passed away, leaving Addison at this donkey sanctuary
to heal his wounds and to physically recuperate. Once he
had recovered physically, Addison had a very deep seated fear
of humans, and so he huddled with the other donkeys.
He was in a deep depression from the loss of
his brother and from all that had been through, and
he kind of stayed on his own, stayed to himself.
And when the man learned of what we did at
the Gentle Barn, he said, you know, maybe you should
take Addison home. We've healed him physically, but maybe you
could take him the rest of the way and heal
him emotionally, and I was thrilled at that prospect. His
story broke my heart. His face just melted me. And
if there was anything we can could do for Addison,
I would be honored. It was a privilege. And so
we brought Addison home, and it took another almost two
years to be able to even touch him. He was
so scared and so at the Gentle Barn, we have
a protocol with terrified animals that instead of trying to
touch them, trying to hold them, trying to get near them,
which only makes them more defensive, we back off and
almost borderline ignore them completely, and we lavish attention and
care on the other animals so that terrified animal can
see that we are trustworthy. And so for almost a
year and a half we groomed the other horses and
brushed the other horses, and gave the other horses carrots
and played with them, and Addison watched. And then eventually
Addison saw that we were trustworthy, that we didn't lose
our temper, that we would never hit him, and he
finally allowed us to pet him. Wow, and that was
the beginning. We have a beautiful friendship. I came to
find out that Addison loves to be stroked on his
forehead and he loves his ears to be rubbed. Yes,
And around the same time that we took Addison in,
we also rescued a miniature horse from severe, severe abuse,
and the two had a lot in common, Yeah, their
shared hatred and fear of humans and their torture that
they had been through. So they bonded immediately, and so
much so that they shared a bedroom and the two
of them were inseparable. This really cute, tiny little black
miniature horse and this adorable fuzzy gray donkey. They played
tug a war, they chased each other like puppy dogs.
They wrestled and played, and they had a beautiful friendship.
And a few years ago, bonds I passed away. He
got very, very sick and passed away, and Addison has
not been the same. Yeah, I'm imagining that it triggered
a lot of loss and grief from his original trauma
losing his brother and then just his bond and his
friendship and his love of life with Bonzai. Now he
has to grieve two losses. And so we tried so
hard over the last several years since Bonzi passed away,
to get. We got three girl donkeys, thinking that would
pull him forward, and he just never really bonded with them.
And then we got another male miniature horse, thinking maybe
they could have a friendship, and it just didn't work.
And so now he's content to be in the horse
yard with the other horses, but he really hasn't bonded
with anyone special, and what he really wants is to
be taken for walks. And so my promise to Addison
is that he will be taken on an adventure every
single day, because that's the thing that he lives for,
that's the thing that fills him with joy. And sometimes
we just meander around the property as he munches grass
and pulls leaves off trees. Other times he leads me
through the wash on kind of wildly adventured through the neighborhood.
When the weather warms up, I want to load him
into a trailer and take him to Vasquez Rocks, which
is a very famous beautiful scenic place here near the
Gentle Barn, where we can go the Vasque haz Rocks.
They're like deep red, beautiful, beautiful rocks and as a
matter of fact, they were featured in a lot of
Star Wars and Star Trek movies and old westerns, and
so I want to take them there. I want to
start finding places to take Addison so he can see
the world, he can feel special, and he can have
these adventures because really that's what he's living for.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Well, the bond donkey bond is so deep and profound,
and you know, it's one of the reasons why we
do therapy work with donkeys is to show people what
the bond looks like viscerally, you know, because when they
do have a bonded pair, like they eat together, they
look up to see what's going on together. They move
this way, they move that way. They it's like some
kind of in synctness that is beyond work words obviously literally,
you know, the way they just function as a unit,
and it's it's so beautiful to watch. I know, in
Switzerland there's a law you can't have a single donkey,
you have to have two, you know, so some countries
understand this.
Speaker 2: Oh that's beautiful.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's so profound to see how deep it is.
And then of course it's so horrible when you've got
a bonded pair and one passes and it's not easy
to replace. It's like, you can't just go get another one.
Let's go to the store and get another donkey. It
doesn't work. I don't know what it is about. We're
very lucky. The two we adopted. We adopted because they
were a bonded pair and we didn't know it at
the time when we adopted them, and we found out
only a couple months later that they are mother and daughter.
We didn't know that. And it's just so beautiful to
watch the dynamics, and you know, sometimes they'll have a
little bicker, but a bicker is three seconds long, you know, right,
you know, like which one and that's over and they're
back to eating out of the same ball. It's so sweet.
I mean, I think that donkeys as therapeutic partners has
is something that I know you are committed to. I'm
committed to. We want to educate the world about how
special donkey all animals are special. That it's not like
a rating thing or anything, but there's something about donkey
sweetness and donkey presence that's just priceless. I don't know,
what do you think. What is it about donkeys that
that's so magnificent? What do you feel well and I
think that they look magical. They're like some kind of mythical,
magical creature that I feel like we as humans shouldn't
even get used to what they look like.
Speaker 2: Like every time we see a donkey, or for that matter,
every single animal, we should be in awe, like we've
just discovered a unicorn. Yeah, but also it's their very gentle,
sweet kind nature. You know, at the Gentle Barn, we
have thirteen different species of the animals, and for the
most part, it is very laborious to produce a new
member into the family because horses will fight and kick
and bite, and pigs will bite rip each other's ears off,
and chickens karate chop each other like all animals are
kind of designed to protect their family and ostracize newcomers.
And I thought at the Gentle Barn that the only
exception from that was cows. You can introduce cows to
each other any day of the week, anywhere, and they
will instantaneously accept each other. And I thought that that
was the exception, But I just recently learned that donkeys.
Speaker 3: Are the exception too.
Speaker 2: Wow. So we just transported two male donkeys from Missouri
to our California gentle barn.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 2: And we also brought two horses. The horses took next
close to four months to acclimate to each other, and
we just recently took down the divider and allowed them
to be one big equine family. That keys were family.
The very next day after their arrival. Wow. So Chance
and Remy are the two Missouri donkeys. We brought Addison
right over to them because he's the elder. They touched noses.
We put Addison in the pasture and they scampered off together.
And then the very next morning we added the females
and it was instant family.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 2: There was never any aggression, no violence. They are very docile, gentle, sweet,
thoughtful creatures. And you know, in our world there's a
lot of sayings about animals that I have found to
be very inaccurate, right, like sweating like a pig. Pigs
don't even sweat. Cows are dumb. That couldn't be farthest
from the truth. Yeah, there's a lot of things that
we say that are not true. And one of the
things that we say is that donkeys are very very stubborn,
and I would like to say officially that that is
not true. Donkeys are not stubborn. Donkeys are highly highly
intuitive and intelligent, and so they're not going to just
do something because we ask them to. They're not going
to just go somewhere because we decide we want to
go them to go.
Speaker 3: They are going to.
Speaker 2: Use their intellect and they're going to use their intuition
and their instincts to decipher for themselves if that is
a good idea or not. And sometimes they're going to
put on the brakes because they're using skills that sometimes
we don't use to our detriment. I determine if going
down that alley or down that road is a good idea,
and they know things that we don't know. They know
that down the road there might be a loose dog,
or down the road there might be a lot of traffic.
And I have come at the gentle Barn. Instead of
trying to tell our donkeys what to do, we follow
their lead and we take Addison for a walk. We
are not leading the way he is because they are
far more intelligent than we are. And I trust themmpletely.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and that is so beautiful. That's one of the
reasons why we like to help people who've experienced trauma,
because one of the things people have experienced trauma have
often lost their sense of safety and working with donkeys
because donkeys are absolutely driven to be safe and they
will do what feels safe. It's not stubbornness, it is
innate intelligence, as their sense of safety is so refined,
and to be in the presence of being who without
any apology, without any whatever, is just like this is safe.
This is such a good education for people who need
to reconnect with their sense of safety. And that's one
of the reasons why donkeys can be great little therapy partners.
And it was interesting one day I had to go
to the actually that the dog parade, the shelter parade,
and I had to get up early in the morning.
It threw my donkey routine off and I couldn't remember
if I had given the water or if i'd given
the water. I turned it off because I had thing
because I was racing around different and I was in
the their corral with the water thing, and I made
a sort of I made half a move like I
think I made maybe a foot move forward, maybe a
head moved forward, and they ran from me. Because I
was in this stress state, I had to come I
had left the house. I had to come back to
make sure that the water wasn't running, or it wasn't
the thing wasn't empty.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: So I was in this whole stressy energy and they
wanted nothing to do with me, Whereas you know, fifteen
minutes earlier, they were my best friends and I was
feeding them and everything, and I'm the same person wearing
the same clothes. But they could tell that my energy
was nothing that they wanted anything to do with. And
it was such a great lesson for me because I said,
I got to slow down. I don't care if I'm
late to the parade and everybody's waiting for me with
my dog's that I cannot be in this energy because
look what I just did to my poor little donkeys.
You know. They forgave me, of course, the why it
came home for lunch, but it was so it was
so clear. I wasn't even aware in that moment that
I was that stressed, but they knew instantly from the slow,
this little body movement that I was not my usual self.
Speaker 2: That is amazing, And you know, I really want to
speak to what you just said, because that is not
a unique situation. It's really cool in your situation that
you got that mirror immediately and realized how you were
coming off and what mirror they were giving you. I mean,
what is that you actually recognize that? But I want
to speak to what you just said. Because donkeys live
low to the ground, connected to Mother Earth from all
four feet, connected with the trees, the grass, the leaves,
the sky. They are very zen. They are the prey
intuitive like I said before, and they live in this
very kind of zen state. So they're very, very instrumental
in helping us realize the energy that we're carrying and
how we're coming across. As you know, we do animal
therapy here at the Gentle Barn as well, where her
hubands come and they get to heal with these extraordinary animals.
And I'll never forget this one session with Addison. There
was this young teenager. We do a lot of work
with teenagers, either in drug and alcohol rehab centers, domestic
violent shelters, homeless shelters, probation camps. A lot of work
with teenagers because they're on this precipice where if they
can kind of find themselves and steer towards what they
want in life, then they will do very well, but
if they continue down this downward spiral, they're going to
get back into jail. Yah kind of seal their fate.
And so I love doing work with them because we
can make a really big difference and kind of turn
the trajectory of their lives. And we had this one
young man who was very fast moving. He was coming across,
very inauthentic. He was making Joe, he was talking really loud,
he was kind of trying to be cool and posture
in front of the other people. He was very inauthentic,
kind of very not in his body. And there is
no one on the planet better to mirror that than
a donkey nah. And we put him in the stall
with Addison because I was going to show him how
to brush and groom Addison. And Addison took one look
at this man and said I'm out. He receded to
the back of his stall and wanted absolutely nothing to
do with this guy. And so I took the opportunity
to relay what Addison was thinking and experiencing and why
Addison was repelled by the scene. And I invited this
young person to see if he could take three deep
breaths in and out become authentic, find his true self
and really kind of quiet his body, quiet his voice,
and see what happened. Yes, And I was taking a
chance because this young person could have very easily said
no and refee, and then I would have lost the lesson.
But I'm lucky that day because this man did take
three deep breasts in and out. He did quiet his language,
quiet his body, and find his center.
Speaker 3: And the minute.
Speaker 2: He did that, Addison returned as fast as possibly could
up against this person, invited him to stroke his ears
and rub his forehead. This guy was able to brush
his whole body, even clean his feet, take him for
a walk, and Addison was right by his side, And
a very deep lesson was learned that day, the power
of authenticity, the power of connecting to our true selves.
And for a lot of people, it's a real risk
to be that authentic and vulnerable, because that the knee,
that tough exterior is sometimes what helps people survive their
are circumstances, their abuse, and the violence that surrounds them exactly.
But to become vulnerable in that space with Addison and
to get that immediate mirror encourage this person to take
more risks in their own life to become more authentic
in their own relationships and then get those positive responses
that only elicit more and more risks. So it was
a wonderful lesson learned by that man, and it was
a wonderful lesson taught by Addison.
Speaker 3: Yeah, what a great teach. Your beautiful story is beautiful.
We're going to take just a short little break. Don't
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Speaker 1: Hey friends. If you like what you're hearing and want
to learn more, check out doctor Joseph's book The Human
Animal Connection, Deepening Relationships with animals and ourselves, or visit
the website The Humananimalconnection dot org to book an online consultation.
Thank you for loving animals. Now back to the show.
Speaker 5: Let's Talk pets on Petlifradio dot com.
Speaker 3: Welcome back to The Human Animal Connection. I'm your host,
Jeanie Joseph, and I'm interviewing Ellie Lax and she is
the founder of a nonprofit organization, The Gentle Barn, and
we're hearing wonderful stories about her donkey Addison, who taught
her so much. And one day she was on a
walk with Addison with her young daughter. What happened that day, Ellie.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's so many wonderful memories that I have with Addison,
but one of the stories that sticks out when I
think of him is the day that he saved me
and my daughter from what could be a really horredous situation.
When my daughter was little. Her name is Cheyenne. She's
now nineteen, but at the time I think she was
I don't know, six seven somewhere in there, and every
single day we would take our horses and Addison out
for a long walk. The neighborhood was more open then
than it is now, and so we had access to
trails that lasted forever, and it rained more then than
it did than it does now, and so the grass
in the springtime was literally knee high. And out on
these trails exercised the horses and at some point stop
so the horses could gobble up this lush, beautiful grass.
And we had so many volunteers that would come and
help us. We got to take our entire horse crew
out on these walks every morning wow, and my daughter
would come with me. Like I mentioned before, Addison's best
friend was Bonzi, or managed your horse, and Cheyenne would
walk Bonzai. And one day it was a warm day
for spring, and we had wandered a good hour if
not more, away from home, and when we were heading back,
after the horses had and Addison had grazed, Cheyenne said
that she was really, really tired and that she couldn't
walk anymore.
Speaker 3: And Cheyenne was in that.
Speaker 2: Age group where she still wanted to be held, and
I still held her a lot, but to carry her
on my hip for an hour was not something I
could do anymore. And I explained to Cheyenne that we
were too far away from home and she's too big
now for me to carry her for so long, and
I asked her to summon up her strength and to walk,
so for a good five minutes, she really rallied and
she tried, but after five minutes she just broke down
and she was crying and she was saying she just couldn't.
She was so tired. And I didn't know what to do.
I didn't know if I should call someone at the
Gentle Barn to come find us by car. I didn't
know if I try to put her on my shoulders,
but knew that I would have completely destroyed my back
if I did. And the whole time that I'm trying
to figure this out, Addison is staring at me. He's
staring at me as if he's trying to tell me something.
So I caught his eye and I looked at him
and I said, Addison, do you have an idea? He said,
let me help put.
Speaker 3: Her on my back. Oh.
Speaker 2: And I don't know if Addison was ever ridden prior
to me meeting him, but I knew for sure that
at the General Barn, we never we don't ride our
horses and donkeys. They their time for carrying people is done,
and it's our turn to carry them and after their
rehabilitation to get to retire. Yeah, so you know, I
didn't want to ask him to carry someone when we
had never ridden him before. I didn't know if he
was going to spook or buck or run away with
my daughter like it could be potentially dangerous. I didn't know.
And he looked at me as I was trying to
work that through in my mind, and he said, trust me,
let me know. So I said, are you sure, I mean,
are you sure? And he said, I'm sure. Trust me.
So I picked Jeanne up and put her on his
back and kind of was still holding the lead rope
to make sure that he wasn't going to react negatively.
But of course that was my fear, not my instinct, right,
And he looked at me again and he said, trust me,
I will take good care of her. And he carried
my daughter all the way home, and not just carried her.
He was thoughtful of where he put every single foot,
was careful of every rock that he passed. He was
so cautious and careful and slow, and if she kind
of leaned to one side, he would get he would
kind of get himself back underneath her. He treated her
like his most prized possession.
Speaker 3: And I am so.
Speaker 2: Flooded with deep gratitude for him and what he did
for my daughter that day, and what he did for me,
and the way that he stepped up and cared so
much about her. Yeah, I mean, he is such a
nice guy. I'm so grateful to him.
Speaker 3: Oh, it's such a beautiful story. I mean, such profound
understanding of what was needed, such profound caring for the
experience of being on his back, you know, and even
perhaps never having been ridden or nothing in they kind
of nice way, you know. I mean, but God, it's
such such depth of being this that these donkeys have.
I mean, we poor donkeys. They have really not gotten
respect for history, you know, that people say terrible things
about them and just use them and the capacity. I mean,
it's so beautiful too that some of us are really
wanting to understand who they are as beings. You and
me and a lot of other people listening to us.
I know, there's good folks out there that really care
about treating animals better, and I think donkeys are have
been so misunderstood.
Speaker 2: I couldn't agree more, especially if you look at American history.
I mean, the Gold rush happened because of donkeys, and
I think carried people's packs and tents and clothes and food.
They ushered them down into the mind and back they
carried all the spoils that they found in there along
the rivers. I mean, we owe a debt of gratitude
to these donkeys and how they helped us lay the railroad,
how they helped us migrate from the East coast to
the West coast, how they helped us find gold. Donkeys
have been by our sides till the beginning of since
the beginning of time, I mean Nick's fiddle East and
how they went through deserts on the backs of donkeys.
We owe them a debt of gratitude, and we owe
them kindness, and we owe them respite. And if only
more of us could open our hearts to who they
really are and have them in our back pastures or
our backyards and form these deep, deep relationships that you
and I are lucky enough to share.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, well, I hope that today we've inspired some
people to do so. Whether if they're not able to
have a donkey in their backyard, if they can't do that,
that's okay, But to find ways that they can help
people who are helping donkeys, sanctuaries, rescues, places like my
gentle barn, the gentle Barn. It's just, you know, one
little thing we could do, one little carrot at a time,
if we could help donkeys, because they deserves it. They
deserve better from humanity than they've They've given so much
and they've asked for so little, and it's time we
gave them some love and respect and care back. So
thank you so much for everything that you do. Elie Lax.
How can people find you and the gentle Barn?
Speaker 2: You know, if you wouldn't mind. I have just a
few donkey fun facts, may I?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 3: Yes, please?
Speaker 2: Yes? I want to share that donkeys are actually not
related to the horse. They're actually related to the zebra.
And a lot of people think of donkeys like livestock, like, oh, yeah,
they're the same as horses, they're the same as cows. No,
they are related to the zebra, and they are much
a more wild animal than the horse. People have selecttively
bred horses for hundreds of years to be bigger and stronger,
or smaller and more petite, to be faster and lighter,
and so horses are actually very hard to care for
because they're so far away from their original ancestors that
they have very frail legs. You have to trim their
hooves every six weeks. Their teeth have to be floated.
They're kind of not a very strong physical being, and
wequire a lot of upkeep, which nothing against horses. We
have for Gentlebarn, and I deeply love them because donkeys
are a very close relative to the zebra and have
not been selectively bred like the horse. They are much
physically hardier animal. We trim our horses hoofs every six weeks.
We trim the donkey's hoofs every three months.
Speaker 3: Ah.
Speaker 2: We float our horses teeth every year. We check our
donkey's teeth every year, but we only have to do
them every several years.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 2: Because their teeth are stronger, their hooves are stronger, their
legs are stronger, their whole being is physically a stronger
species because they have not been watered down. They straight
from the zebra, and I think that's also why they
are so highly intuitive and why people mistake their intuition
for being stubborn.
Speaker 3: Fascinating.
Speaker 2: Yeah, donkeys love carrots and oatmeal and molasses cookies, and
Addison even enjoys the beats from her garden.
Speaker 3: Wow. Wow, that's really wonderful. I know my friends the
donkey Rescue, they give their donkeys animal crackers.
Speaker 2: Do you Oh my god, that's so cute. That's a
very big animal crackers for our donkeys.
Speaker 3: And see if they'll love them. Oh, I think they will.
Speaker 2: We have three donkeys at the Gentle Barn. And this
is another amazing story. We have Hope, her daughter Lulu,
and her adopted daughter Rosie. The Hope came from extraordinary abuse.
She was from Mexico where they actually smuggled drugs inside
of her across the border. And then finally that whole
cartel was busted and the donkeys confiscated and brought to
a donkey rescue. And Hope was actually pregnant at the time,
nobody really knew, and so at the donkey rescue, she
gave birth to her daughter, Lulu. Shortly thereafter, the donkey
rescue found a newborn donkey in the dumpster that had
been thrown away, brought this little donkey to Hope, and
Hope adopted her as her own. Hope basically has two daughters, Lulu,
and Rosie, and the Donkey Rescue unfortunately had to close down,
and they found homes for all their horses and all
their donkeys, but they didn't want to separate Hope and
her daughters, and they couldn't find an adopter to take
all three, so they reached out to the Gentle Barn
and they said, is there any way that you could
take all three? And we said, of course. All three
of those donkeys came in and Rosie actually was very
bity and kicky and kind of badly behaved and she
needed to kind of learn how to be a little
bit more respectful. And Hope and Lulu were absolutely terrified,
Hope being the worst. And he said, years showing them
that they could trust us, showing them that they were safe, altered,
training them, lead rope training them, and being able to
brush their bodies and pick their feet and float their cheek.
I mean, it was a long, long process. Finally they
turned into normal donkeys. Yeah, they forgave the past and
they became happy, go lucky donkeys. I remember early on
having a conversation with Hope where I said to her, oh,
when she came into the gentle Barn, Hope's name was mama,
and so early on I had conversations with her saying like,
I know that they called you mama. Are you happy
with that name? And she said, you know that's actually
I'm not. He said, I know that I am a
mom and I love being a mom, but I also
feel like there's so much more to me that has
never been explored. I was young when I was working
for the cartel, I was young when I got pregnant
with my daughter, and I feel like I want to
name that is going to acknowledge that I'm a good mom,
but also acknowledge the other parts of me that I've
never been able to share with the world, my curiosity,
my intuition, my gentleness, my kindness, my maturity. And so
I said okay, and I ran a bunch of different
names by her. Yeah, And she said that she loved
the name Hope.
Speaker 6: Oh, because Hope is going to not harp on her
trauma but light up the road per future.
Speaker 2: And it was such a bright, sparkly name that she
loved it. And so I love she got her name.
Speaker 3: I love it when animals get their right names. And
this is very funny, but the two donkeys we adopted
are now called Rosie and Lily, and their previous names
were Rosie and Lola. But I asked Lola what she wanted,
and she wanted Lily first. We started with miss Lily,
but now we're at Rosie and Lily. That's great, well, wonderful. Well,
how can people get a hold of you to learn
more about your work here, to support your organization? Well,
to learn more.
Speaker 2: About the Gentle Barn are amazing animals and how you
can get involved, please go to Gentlebarn dot org and
find us on all social media platforms by going to
at the Gentle Barn. And to find out more about
me and my animal communication and my personal journey, people
can find me at Ellilax dot com and that's a
way that they can find my books as well.
Speaker 3: That is so wonderful. Well, this has been such a
wonderful time we've spent together, and I think we could
talk about donkeys all day. But what we have to
say of our for you out you've been listening to
the Human Animal Connection. I'm your host, Janie Joseph and
my wonderful, delightful guest, Ellie Lax from the Gentle Farm.
We'll see you again soon.
Speaker 1: Thank you for tuning in to The Human Animal Connection Show.
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