Today's metro section in the Star Tribune informs us that Sheba, Nicollet Island's long-time resident donkey, has passed from this mortal coil. Reporter Howie Padilla had contact with my old and dear friend Doris, now living at an undisclosed secure location in Iowa.
I remember the day when Sheba and her mother Pearl arrived at Cold Storage's loading dock in Red Nelson's school bus. History was made that day and residents and visitors alike have regaled the world with tales of the donkeys and their various non-traditional animal friends for many years. Sheba became emblematic of the Island community's singular nonchalance - a tranquil enclave surrounded by urban hustle and bustle, protected in perpetuity by the mighty Father of Waters - well except for the time that one of the goats wandered down to Nicollet Mall and of course there was a certain sorely aggrieved building inspector who had to immobilized by a special city council permit granted to Sheba and her mom and attested to by a carefully planted hoofprint, but I digress. My point is that for the better part of two decades we Minneapolitan cogniscenti could smile when we thought of Sheba living quietly in our secret urban garden. It'd be nice to see a statue of Sheba somewhere on the Island, a welcome relief from the scattering of 19th-century reliquaries elsewhere in town that trumpet the invasion of northern Europeans that deforested the pine woods and made such a mess of the limestone shelf above St. Anthony Falls. I'm ever grateful for the care Sheba showed in carefully nipping tasty flowers from the big thistles that grew wild on the Island - a four-legged exemplar of sustainability, she was. She will be sorely missed. Fred Markus, Horn Terrace, Ward Ten _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
