New address for hometown donkey

Lots of folks think their neighbor is a jackass, but for people who live near Fillmore Street and Templeton Gap Road, it's true.

That's about to change.

Applejuice the donkey - probably the most visible pet in Colorado Springs - is leaving his bachelor pad beside the busy intersection for greener pastures.

He's been residing at Taylor's Acre for about six years, lounging around, posing before the barn painted with various sayings, drinking from a bathtub and braying at passers-by.

But his owner, 89-year-old Dessie Taylor, moved into a nursing home a few weeks ago because she suffers from dementia, said son Cecil Taylor. Family friend Dwane Baker is taking in Applejuice at his 5-acre place near Fountain.

"It's kind of an Old McDonald's Farm," Baker said. "We have four other donkeys, so he'll have company instead of being alone up there."

Applejuice, who is about 12 years old, is supposed to be moved to his new home Tuesday. He's been alone since his girlfriend, Twinkle Star, died about three years ago.

"I just want him to go to a good home," Cecil Taylor said. "Mom might be upset. She lived to hear that donkey bray all the time. If she gets upset, I hope she understands I tried to find a good home for him."

The Taylors have lived on their acre since 1960, when this patch of ground was on the edge of town. Dessie and C. Robert Taylor raised six kids here, complete with raucous pool parties and a steady parade of donkeys, chickens, dogs and cats.

In the early 1970s, Dessie Taylor found out she had a brain tumor and was given six months to live. When surgery was a success and she made it to the Fourth of July in 1972, the family threw a big party and painted a flag along with "We are proud to be Americans" on the barn wall that faces the road.

"Little did I know we'd still be doing it all these years later," Cecil Taylor said.

For nearly four decades the family has dreamed up a theme each summer and repainted the barn. Now it says, "Vote," with hummingbirds buzzing about.

Taylor's Acre turned into a quiet place. The kids moved away, and then the love of Dessie's life - husband Bob - died in 1996 of colon cancer. The sweethearts had grown up together on farms near Limon, and been married for 56 years.

After that, she spent a lot of time in her lawn chair, listening to the traffic and the donkey, and thinking about the past.

"Mom would always complain about the traffic and I'd say, ‘That's what you get for living in the middle of town,'" Cecil Taylor said. "‘The city has grown around you, Mom.'"

Still, she never wanted to leave.

"People tell me I ought to get rid of all this stuff," she told The Gazette in 2002. "If I didn't have my memories, I'd be dead. It's all I have left."

Now, even her memories are slipping away.

Her kids haven't yet decided what to do with Taylor's Acre - some want to sell it, while others want to hang on. If he has his way, Cecil Taylor will be painting the barn at least one more time with a new message: "Dessie and Applejuice say goodbye."