GALLION – “When you come, be careful – there’s a donkey in the driveway.”

Those were the instructions 19-year old Brandi Gibson gave to her friend Mary Beth Buroker a little more than two weeks ago.

“I thought she was joking,” Buroker said.

Gibson, a UWA nursing student, wasn’t. When Buroker arrived at Gibson’s there was a small donkey, tied to the back of a pickup truck in the middle of the driveway. It looked like it had been abused, and definitely had been on its own a while.

Dubbed “Mickey” by Gibson’s mother, the little donkey had a broken ear, overgrown hooves and looked to have lost a fight or two with barbed-wire fences.

“I called the vet to see if anyone had reported a lost donkey,” Gibson said, which they hadn’t.

“Dr. Wright met me and looked at it and said it was in pretty good health,” she said. “I was trying to find a home for it when Mary Beth called.”

It was clear that Mickey couldn’t stay with Gibson in Cypress Point. Livestock isn’t allowed.

“Our parents are used to both of us bringing home all kinds of things,” Buroker said.

It wasn’t a stretch to get the donkey from Gibson’s house to a pasture at Buroker’s home – a friend was found with a horse trailer who volunteered to move the donkey.

To date, nobody’s reported a missing donkey, the girls said. That’s when they decided to place a classified ad in The Times.

“How many times do you hear about finding a lost donkey,” Gibson said. “I think he was keeping all the neighborhood’s grass cut.”

Buroker, who works at Commercial Bank, said she wasn’t sure if she wanted any calls to claim Mickey.

“If somebody calls … it’s going to be hard to get it back. I’m going to ask them why the donkey has been neglected,” she said. “I can’t give it back if its going to be abused. He’s got a great home here.”