A donkey is showing off his vocal skills, and his talent is getting noticed on YouTube.
Moonlit Oaks Ranch in Keystone Heights, on the west coast of Florida, sounds like an orchestra warming up for a big show; and it's the owner of the ranch, Alicia Shueler, directing the creature choir.
“I just started playing the violin and viola," said Shueler, who thought her musical animals would make for a friendly audience while practicing.
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"I was really just goofing off," she said.
She started by playing for the cows: "They ignored me. And then Donkeyotee called me from across the farm."
Shueler found Donkeyotee abandoned and starved several years ago, and brought him to live at the ranch.
He was a four-and-a-half month old colt who had been errantly weaned at two-and-a-half months.
Shueler's vet didn't think he would make it through the first night.
“He was skin and bones, his ears drooped down, and he was too weak to take more than a single shuffling step on his own,” said Shueler.
Donkeyotee is now a healthy eight-year-old, years old now and very healthy, and apparently the perfect violin practice partner.
"I walked over there, I set up and I'm like, 'okay, what the hey?'” she said.
Thinking maybe she would share her playing with family, she brought a video camera.
"I thought, 'Well, maybe I might get one 'hee-haw' out of him, but it might be kind of funny and I'll play it for my family and friends… and he kept going," said Shueler.
She then posted her 47-second donkey duet on YouTube for the family.
But more than 202,000 hits later, this reserved rancher has been bucked to centre stage by her donkey.
"I really didn't think I'd be playing it in front of that many people," said Shueler.
"He just likes the attention."
On the Moonlit Oaks Ranch YouTube page, Shueler commented: “I had no idea how our donkey would react beforehand... please excuse my playing - I was too distracted!”
Now Shueler updates a blog dedicated to Donkeyotee's story, and you can even add him on Facebook.
As Shueler says, “You never know what can happen when you help an animal in need.”
