Follows the McDougall family adopting a rescue donkey that had been kept isolated and unattended in an animal hoarder’s barn in rural western Pennsylvania. When a mutual friend delivered Sherman to the McDougall’s farm, the donkey was on death’s door: He had infected sores all over his bloated body and hooves grown as long and curled as witch’s nails. The McDougalls taught Sherman how to be a donkey again, how to run, and then how to race. The story culminates in Sherman competing with his human and donkey buddies in a race in the Rockies that’s both grueling and hysterical.