![donkey from shrek donkey from shrek](https://static1.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Shrek-and-Donkey.jpg)
But as the donkeys get older, their health bills and other associated costs are rising, and Harding-Barlow worries that the volunteers may not be able to keep up. The group relies on tax-deductible donations that generally cover what they need. In return, he and Niner are treated pretty well by the Barron Park volunteers who feed them - mainly alfalfa pellets - twice a day, walk them and take care of their veterinarian bills and insurance. “He treats his public very well,” she says. Harding-Barlow describes him as a “little sweetie” who adores being petted, and loves kids, dogs and posing for photos. Apparently, he didn’t have a great agent. Perry? Well, his handlers were paid a measly $75 by DreamWorks for two lengthy modeling sessions. The Bay Area: 50 places to go and things to know “Shrek” went on to win the first Academy Award for best animated feature and grossed close to $500 million in worldwide box-office receipts before spawning three sequels. “So Perry got the role, mostly because he behaved himself and Niner didn’t.” He kept trying to eat his very expensive boots,” she says. “Niner didn’t have a good rapport with one of the artists. That’s when artists from DreamWorks Animation - then headquartered in Redwood City - visited Barron Park to sketch and shoot video of the four-legged creatures. Inge Harding-Barlow, another donkey handler, has been at it long enough to recollect how Hollywood came calling in the late 1990s.
![donkey from shrek donkey from shrek](https://mennica-gdanska.pl/11744-thickbox_default/donkey-shrek.jpg)
“It’s really a quaint and distinctive neighborhood tradition - something that sets the neighborhood apart.” “It’s hard to describe why it’s a thing, but it is,” Anderson says of the attachment he and others have to the donkeys. On occasion, they will make appearances at local grade schools and kids’ parties. Every Sunday, Perry and Niner are trotted out to meet visitors young and old.
![donkey from shrek donkey from shrek](https://www.ameede.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Donkey-Shrek-B003601-file-stl-free-download-3D-Model-for-CNC-and-3d-printer.jpg)
The tradition continues, thanks to the generosity of current landowner James Witt and the volunteers who oversee the feeding and welfare of the donkeys. They are the most recent in a long line of donkeys who have hung out here since the early 1930s, when their turf was part of a pasture owned by the late Stanford physicist and gentleman farmer Cornelis Bol. Palo Alto’s treasured donkey, Miner 49er, diesīorn in 1994 and as photogenic as ever, Perry - short for Pericles - lives with fellow donkey Miner Forty-Niner (known as Niner) behind Bol Park. Palo Alto’s famous donkey returns home - with a new buddy “They shortened his legs a bit and mixed traces of Eddie Murphy’s face in with his, but he’s still Perry.” “You can look at those movies and really tell that it’s him,” says Don Anderson, one of the two dozen or so volunteers who tend to the animal. Perry’s claim to fame? He served as the model for the happy-go-lucky Donkey - voiced by Eddie Murphy - who stole scenes and hearts in the wildly popular computer-animated “Shrek” films. None of them, however, wears the label as well as Perry, a miniature donkey who resides in Palo Alto’s Barron Park neighborhood. Some celebrities are known to be complete asses.