The donkey, the onager, the koulan-the burro. All are names for one of the world’s most used and abused beasts of burden. If the horse was the animal of conquest, it was the lowly burro who made it possible for civilization to spread to the far reaches of the earth. Burros brought wood to the fires, raised water from the wells, toiled in the fields, carried the great and the poor, followed the conquistadors to the New World, and packed for the prospector and miner. Recommended by Cleveland Amory, renowned animal welfare advocate and founder of the Black Beauty Ranch, this book is an eloquent and appealing account of the burro’s past and present. It includes a chapter on the selection, feeding, and care of pet burros.

The author, P. J. Day and his two brothers and two sisters grew up in the magical valley of Tesuque, located just outside of Santa Fe, New Mexico. One of the family pets was a one-year-old little gray burro named Pedro. While reminiscing about that marvelous childhood Christmas Day in 2001, P. J. wrote a short poem for his daughter Jordyn, placing Pedro smack-dab in the middle of the first Christmas. A Burro's Tale evolved from that poem conceived on Christmas Day, 2001. The setting for A Burro's Tale is in fact the Tesuque Valley. Raphael's family business in the story is renting out his burros to the townsfolk who do not have a burro of their own. The burros are rented for travel, pulling carts, plowing fields, and carrying goods from the market. Pedro, the central character in A Burro's Tale, is younger and a bit smaller than the rest of the burros and has not yet been chosen for his first day of work. Pedro's journey throughout the story is really about the coming of age that all youngsters eventually face and learning to take his responsibilities seriously. Kids can be cruel, and Pedro's peer group in the story is no different. In order to gain acceptance, he must learn to ignore the relentless teasing from the other burros on the ranch (and a couple of mischievous horseflies) and work very hard to prove his worth. The story is filled with many valuable life lessons that all kids and young adults will relate to, because they will all go through them one day, or are being tested at this very moment. At all cost, it's about doing the right thing.

Look no further than Crochet Characters Soft & Snuggle Cacti for all your cute and cuddly crafting needs; this is one garden that is literally zero maintenance! Inspired by the popular Japanese crochet style of amigurumi, these easy-to-make succulent plants are totally customizable. All the plants and pots are designed to be interchangeable, you simply choose your favorite pot shape and color, then crochet any of the ten different types of cacti or succulents to go on top. Projects are arranged from easy to more challenging so you can advance your skills as you work through the book. Crochet Characters: Soft & Snuggly Cacti comes with everything you need to make two adorable projects--the moon cactus and the silver ball cactus--includes seven colors of yarn, a crochet hook, stuffing, embroidery floss, eye beads, and a tapestry needle. And best of all, no green thumb is required to keep these cute cactus babies alive, they’ll stay fresh and happy all year round!

From the bestselling author of Born to Run, a heartwarming story about training a rescue donkey to run one of the most challenging races in America, and, in the process, discovering the life-changing power of the human-animal connection. "A delight, full of heart and hijinks and humor." —John Grogan, author of Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog When Christopher McDougall decided to adopt a donkey in dire straits, he had no idea what he was getting himself into. But with the help of his neighbors, Chris came up with a crazy idea. Burro racing, a unique type of competition in which humans and donkeys run side by side over mountains and through streams, would be exactly the challenge Sherman and Chris needed. In the course of Sherman’s training, Chris would enlist Amish running clubs, high-spirited goats, the service animal community, and two Sarah Palin–loving long-distance female truckers. Sherman’s heartwarming story of overcoming all odds to run one of the most unbelievable races in America shows the healing power of movement and the strength of the human-animal connection. Look for Christopher McDougall's new book, Born to Run 2, coming in December!

Despite her feeling that she is only a burro, Pequeña is able to live up to the noble heritage of her ancestors who helped to build Mexico.

A memoir of one young woman’s decade-long adventure with her husband in one of the most uninhabitable and inhospitable places on Earth. Raised as a well-to-do Virginia girl, Edna fell head-over-heels in love with a semi-literate and restless young man whose dreams of adventure and freedom were as wide as the California sky. “I can’t take a soft life,” he told his bride. “It rots a man.” Thus began an uncommon love story. For ten happy years, 1931 to 1941, Edna and Bill Price abandoned city life and roamed sun-scorched Death Valley and the Arizona badlands on foot with their string of pack burros. They slept under the stars, scratched out a meager living from the wasteland, and hobnobbed with prospectors, outlaws, herders and hobos. “In this place,” Bill explained, “a man can find his God.” Far from feeling displaced, Edna thrived as a desert flower. In her extraordinary memoir, a jewel of Western Americana, Edna writes with wit and grit, recalling “those years when we knew no bed but the ground, no roof but the sky, when we were known all over the deserts simply as Burro Bill and Mrs. Bill.”