May 26 (UPI) -- Former NASCAR driver Kenny Shepherd helped with a private rescue of two donkeys who were stranded on a shrinking island located at Lake McClure in California.
The donkeys, one male and one female, were stranded due to the water level rising in the area, cutting them off from a main body of land.
The donkeys had wandered off from a larger herd of donkeys that live in the area. The herd is believed to be descendants of a pack of donkeys that were either abandoned or able to escape capture.
Volunteers including Shepherd and other members of the community have been checking on the donkeys for months and feeding them hay, apples and carrots every day.
The private rescue took three weeks to plan with Shepherd paying out-of-pocket for much of it. He worked with local government agencies, urban tracking specialists, donkey experts, fabricators and welders to create a structure on the island that could herd the donkeys onto a rescue barge.
The donkeys were then taken to U.C. Davis for treatment.
In March, a California police officer called out to wrangle an escaped donkey said the animal surrendered due to being intimidated by his mustache.