On Donkey Day, the gym at Bertram Elementary School was filled with a hush of anticipation.
Students sat respectfully and quietly on the gym floor as Bertram Interim Mayor John Baladez stepped up to speak.
He immediately made it personal. “Forty-five years ago, I attended this same school,” he told the attentive crowd.
Instead of relying on a burrowing rodent like other parts of the country, Bertram proudly does things its own way when it comes to predicting the seasons.
A proclamation read during the event humorously pointed out that while Feb. 2 is traditionally associated with “a strange mammal” searching for its shadow, Bertram has “no mammals known as groundhogs.”
The Bertram Chamber of Commerce further declared that “a shadow cast in the north by an underground mammal is meaningless to our city,” and that a “local intelligent mammal of high regard” should instead be given the honor of forecasting spring.
That honor belongs to Pawnee.
Pawnee, a 23-year-old miniature donkey from the proud Oatmeal stable Frontier Legends, has been Bertram’s official spring forecaster since 2005 and boasts an impressive 75–80% accuracy rating over the years.
Owners Skip Oertli and Patsy Oertli brought Pawnee into the gym, a move indoors prompted by the cold weather outside.
The forecasting method was simple.
One container held oats, signaling an early spring. The other held sweet feed, meaning six more weeks of winter.
Dozens of quiet, hopeful faces watched as Pawnee considered the choices. When he made a clear move toward the oats, the room burst into applause.
The clapping and cheers rolled across the gym as the verdict became official: early spring for Bertram.
After delivering the good news, Christine Hoffman, principal of Bertram Elementary, knelt and gave Pawnee an affectionate kiss.
As classes were dismissed, students and teachers filed past in an orderly line, each getting a chance to gently pet the town’s most beloved weather forecaster.
In an age of weather apps and satellite maps, Bertram’s Donkey Day proves that sometimes the most trusted forecast comes from a long-eared local with a taste for oats, and a strong track record.
