The Little Burros of Panaca. . . .

In the picture, Ina and Delores

have their hair in the long braids

mentioned in the story.

Jaunita and David Quick, two of

the children of Panaca are

pictured on Thunder and Lightening,

two of the little burros in the story.

David wearing his big Cowboy hat!

One of my happiest memories as I was "Growing Up Ina" in my beloved Panaca was of the wild burros that roamed the hills above town. They were not wild in the way that you would class a jungle or savanna animal. When I refer to them as being wild, it means they roamed free and did not have a permanent home. Even though they often did not completely trust people, some of them had lived in an environment where they were owned by them and so did not always shy away. Over the years, we earned their trust.

The little burros seemed to belong to everybody, and nobody in particular. It is assumed that they drifted into Panaca after their usefulness at one of the nearby mines that dotted the hills from Pioche to Panaca, was at an end.

Regardless of how and why they were there, the children of Panaca had loved, cared for, and played with them for many years. Some of my older siblings had many of the same memories of the little burros that I have.

When these little burros came into town, they had several different corrals or barns they could stay in and all of the children of Panaca shared in their care; feeding, grooming, riding, and playing with them.

I have been a Phoenix Zoo Volunteer for 17 years. It has been one of the most rewarding things I have ever done. Since I was a toddler, I have had a profound love for animals. Growing up in a ranching and farming family, I always had animals available upon which I could lavish that love. As a little girl, visiting my sister Theresa in Salt Lake City, Utah, I had my first visit to a zoo, the Hogle Zoo. I immediately fell in love with the truly wild animals. It is a love affair that has lasted my entire life.

When George and I married in 1951, he was in the navy stationed at the Naval Training Center in San Diego. When I first joined him there, we lived in Hillcrest on 5th Avenue. Part of beautiful Balboa Park separated us from the San Diego Zoo. We had little money and no car, but could walk through the park, over the Laurel Street Bridge, through the cultural center that held several museums, to the zoo. With George being in the Navy, our admission to enter the zoo cost us 25 cents each. Many are the days we spent at the zoo and in Balboa Park. We had our own special tree there where we could relax, play games, and picnic.

Our children were raised to love the zoo and spent countless hours there, and later at The Wild Animal Park. When Justin and Jeni were born, going to the zoo with Granddad and Grandma was a frequent pleasure. When Brinton and Trey were born, they too, visited that beautiful zoo with us. After moving to Mesa, Rhonda and I took Brinton and Trey often to the Phoenix Zoo and later as Miranda, Hannah, and Joshua were born, they were also able to spend time there with us at the Phoenix Zoo and at zoos when we have visited them in Kansas and Texas. Going to the zoo has always been a family tradition.

During the years that I have been a Phoenix Zoo Volunteer, I have trained to do almost everything that is available to the volunteers; Tour Guide, Trail Host, Animal Observation and Interrupter, and Animal Handler. I thought I had done it all, but several years ago the Zoo implemented a Story Telling program for selected volunteers into our program. I was fortunate enough to be one of those chosen. They had instructors come from ASU and several of the community colleges to instruct us in the art of being a Story Teller.

For our final exam, we had to write a children's story using the Phoenix Zoo's Mission Statement as the foundation of our story. We could choose to write from a personal experience in our life, or it could be complete fiction as long as it followed the zoo's mission statement, which is "to inspire people to live in ways that promote the well being of the natural world", with a goal of helping to preserve the diversity of life in nature. Within that goal, we were to choose our own personal goal. I chose to make mine "to educate people about our natural world and give them the opportunity to meet the special needs of animals."

The basic facts in my story are true, but to make it a story that children would enjoy, I added dialect and used many of the native animals who live around Panaca that children could easily relate to. I only used dialect that fit the pictures I was attempting to portray and which seemed completely natural for the circumstances. I took liberty with some of the discriptions but never strayed far from the truth. My instructors loved my story.

The pictures shown at the beginning of this post portray children from the story. Two of the Panaca children, brother and sister Jaunita and David Quick, are on Thunder and Lightening, the little burros of my story. Also pictured are myself, my sister Delores, and our brother David, wearing his big cowboy hat

The following post is my story. I hope you enjoy it. . . .