-“Who let these humans into our barn?” Ewe 1 asked, then shook her head in despair.

-“Really, they have no manners at all.”

-“What’s going on?” Ewe 2 asked, stepping from her stall. -“I’m trying to get some sleep here.”

-“It’s a couple of rude humans. You know how they’ve lost all their natural instincts. Well, one of them has given birth in our barn.”

-“How disgusting. Look at that. They don’t even lick the babe clean. Yuck.”

Bessie cow poked her head over the stall door. “Pipe down, you two. It’s the middle of the night.”

-“Some human has fouled our barn,” Ewe 2 declared, her forehead wrinkling in disgust. “Smell that? Leaving blood here on our fresh hay.”

-“Our hay? The stuff we eat?”

-“Yeah. Humans!”

One by one the animals gathered around to stare at the newborn laid upon their manger hay. There would be no eating that hay tonight. The humans had no common sense at all, ruining perfectly good food with birth matter, then plopping a newborn down on top of their manger hay. They should have done all this in one of the human buildings or outdoors. Now the barn would smell of blood and birthing for days.

“Oh great,” sighed Donald Donkey. “Look at that.” And he nodded at the barn door where stood five more humans: three were dressed in fancy garb and two were shepherds with soiled cloth robes. “Dumb shepherds. I bet they left their flocks to the wolves tonight. Why are they here? If this is how it’s going to be every night, I’m running off to find my own shelter tomorrow.”

The new donkey in the barn spoke up at last. “Hey. These people are animals too. They’ve had a hard day, so just lay off. The human building was totally full, so this was the last choice. Don’t worry, they’ll be out of here in two days or less.”

The extra humans came into the barn and approached the babe in the manger. They were speaking in whispers, at least, and not making too much noise. But it was sleeping time, and the animals felt a bit put-out that all these people couldn’t wait for morning to do their business. Some of them stayed where they were, staring at all the commotion. Donald Donkey shook his head and lay down in the relative privacy of his stall, curling his neck to a comfortable position so he could try to go back to sleep.