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In coming years Pumpkin's health slowly deteriorated (laminitis, founder, uveitis, insulin resistance, arthritis), she was spending more and more time laying down instead of standing and walking around, like it was when I brought her to the ranch in summer 2011. She past away from pneumonia on February 4th, 2016, just shortly before I came to visit her for the last time. She had a big problem to stand and walk on her left front foot last couple of days before she died but not because of abscess or sore fetlock joint. It looked to me like her left shoulder was dislocated. She probably fell down while she was trying to get up from her "bed" which was a huge hole in front of her stall. I had to hold her around her neck to prevent Pumpkin from falling on her way back to the stall. When I released her, she immediately fell down on the ground, urinated and defecated. She was used from her younger years to spend all time outside because she never had a shelter before I became her owner. Even on the ranch, where she had a shelter, she preferred to go and sleep outside in any kind of weather... 
December 2016 and January 2017 were two extremely wet months in Nevada. There was a lot of rainy and windy days here without any snow. Just rain and more rain... I used to bring her, like in every winter, about 3 gallons of hot water daily to keep her warm. She loved it and always drank it all. She left all her regular cold water supply untouched. Her normally hot breath was just warm couple of days before she died. I'm pretty much sure that cause of her death was pneumonia that stopped her heart for ever. Donkeys, unlike horses, don't have a water proof coat and despite having a shelter now, she preferred to stay under open sky, probably remembering her times when there was no shelter for her... This is the end of Pumpkin's story. She is buried on the Canuck Ranch in Fish springs. I miss Pumpkin terribly but on the other hand I'm glad that her suffering is over and I didn't have to call a vet to put her in sleep which I think is a kind of murder and for me impossible to order it. I'm also glad that God made the decision for me. Pumpkin will live in my mind for ever as a trustworthy friend of almost seventeen years. I often feel like a donkey myself because I bonded with her the same way like donkeys do. The most wanderful pets you can imagine. They never betray you. Never. Sweet dreems my girl until we cross the Rainbow Bridge together...
"Smrt jednoho dva rozdělí,
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New Paradigm Ranch suppose to go out of business in August 10th, 2011 but it took another year before NPR definitely closed at the beginning of October 2012, became a bank acquired property and then finally sold in December 2012. There was no other place for Pumpkin I knew about and could afford at this time. It looked like the only solution was to put her in sleep on July 29th, 2011.