Yes, there really was an Old Mike. In the mid 1950s my father and mother bought a small ranch in Tuolumne County a few miles from Jamestown, California. Old  Mike, an ageless mysterious donkey lived on the ranch. He was self-sufficient. I have no idea how he lived but he loved people and seem to always be around. my father loved him dearly. My father eventually had a stroke, went into a long coma, and  six months later dad was gone. Old mike disappeared. I have no idea if he was stolen or went to a lonely place on the hill and died. We could never find him!—Love you dad ands love you Old Mike.–memories of olRoff