Beloved Runaway Donkey Seen Appearing to Be Leading Herd of Elk After Going Missing 5 Years Ago

A donkey named Diesel who ran off five years ago was recently spotted with a herd of elk.

Terrie Drewry lost her favorite donkey, who ran away during a hike after getting scared by a mountain lion.

Diesel was found on a trail camera several months later but the search ran cold. Terrie tells Inside Edition she searched for Diesel for months.

Drewry and her husband, Dave Drewry, got other donkeys, but they never stopped thinking about Diesel. Then, something remarkable happened.

Max Finnel was hunting in Auburn, California , when he saw something strange within a herd of elk.

“I was like, ‘Oh my gosh there is a donkey in with them. This is the weirdest thing.’ It was just this complete bizarre confusion because I’m like, ‘Wait, that should just be all elk,’” Finnel tells Inside Edition. “What also got to me was the fact that it was clear that the donkey was part of the herd like they moved together.”

Diesel had apparently earned his place in the herd.

“It seemed as though that the donkey kind of might be the leader because as Diesel would move, the other elk would move,” Finnel says. “Apparently a warden in that area had found a dead mountain lion that they had suspected was killed by a hooved animal. They suspected that maybe Diesel had killed that mountain lion.”

The Drewrys were stunned.

“It was amazing, it was like there he is, now we know he’s alive and well living his best life,” Terrie says. “In a perfect world, absolutely, we would love to have him home but the fact of the matter is he’s running wild and free out with there with that elk herd and he’s earned his freedom at this point.”

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