MEET PERRY
By Chuck Barney | cbarney@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News Group
PUBLISHED: November 27, 2015 at 8:33 am | UPDATED: December 14, 2016 at 2:13 pm
Some celebrities are known to be complete asses. None of them, however, wears the label as well as Perry, a miniature donkey who resides in Palo Alto’s Barron Park neighborhood.
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.
“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. “They shortened his legs a bit and mixed traces of Eddie Murphy’s face in with his, but he’s still Perry.”
Born in 1994 and as photogenic as ever, Perry — short for Pericles — lives with fellow donkey Miner Forty-Niner (known as Niner) behind Bol Park. 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.
The tradition continues, thanks to the generosity of current landowner James Witt and the volunteers who oversee the feeding and welfare of the donkeys. Every Sunday, Perry and Niner are trotted out to meet visitors young and old. On occasion, they will make appearances at local grade schools and kids’ parties.
“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. “It’s really a quaint and distinctive neighborhood tradition — something that sets the neighborhood apart.”
Inge Harding-Barlow, another donkey handler, has been at it long enough to recollect how Hollywood came calling in the late 1990s. 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.
“Niner didn’t have a good rapport with one of the artists. He kept trying to eat his very expensive boots,” she says. “So Perry got the role, mostly because he behaved himself and Niner didn’t.”
The rest is showbiz history. “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.
Perry? Well, his handlers were paid a measly $75 by DreamWorks for two lengthy modeling sessions. That, and no royalties to speak of. Apparently, he didn’t have a great agent.
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. The group relies on tax-deductible donations that generally cover what they need. 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.
“A lot of people think the city takes care of them, but that’s not the case,” she says. “We really work hard to maintain the tradition because it draws the neighborhood together, and it’s a focal point for the kids.”
IT'S TIME TO ACT
DONKEY DONATIONS:
Fans of the donkeys can support their care and welfare by making PayPal donations at www.barronparkdonkeys.org
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