That dream became a reality for Bair recently when her boyfriend, Tyson Eckerle, asked for her hand in marriage while a donkey all decked out in hearts and sequins stood by their side. Eckerle had borrowed the donkey, named Betsy, from Saratoga Vice Mayor Ann Waltonsmith.

Eckerle, 23, and Bair, 22, met two summers ago while working as freshman orientation counselors at UC-Davis. "There was this little spark on both our parts," Bair recalls, though it took some time before Eckerle worked up the nerve to ask her out.

When the entire orientation session was nearing an end, Eckerle passed around a book asking all his co-workers for their phone numbers to stay in touch, though it was really only Bair's number that he wanted. Three weeks later, after returning from a trip to Europe, Eckerle called and invited her home to meet his sister.

Eckerle said he knew in his heart that he had found the right girl because there were times when she would say the exact same thing as what had been on his mind. For Bair, "we can be in a room full of people and just the glances" would tell her they were in sync.

"He makes me want to be a better person—that's how I know" he's Mr. Right, she said.

On Valentine's Day 2002, Bair presented her boyfriend with a poem that described her old fantasy of a knight riding a white horse and how she was more attracted to the donkey-riding type now because the latter represented a more humble personality. Following her story, Eckerle opened the card she had given him and found written inside: "So what's your donkey's name?"

Shortly thereafter, Eckerle decided he would one day propose to Bair. Upon graduation last June, the young couple moved to San Francisco, where Eckerle works as a biologist for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Bair counsels teenagers with severe emotional problems.

Also in June, Eckerle held a family competition to see who could come up with the most creative scenario for a proposal. With the help of his sister, Eckerle's plans began to take shape. But it wasn't until last month that he fine-tuned the details for the much-anticipated marriage proposal.

Deciding he had to somehow involve a donkey in the proposal, Eckerle's efforts led him to the Bay Area Donkey and Mule Society web page, where he found contact information for Vice Mayor Waltonsmith. He emailed the Waltonsmiths and requested to borrow their donkey.

"It was a very dear and romantic thing to follow through on this [donkey] theme in their relationship. That was so endearing to me that I was certainly glad to help Tyson," Waltonsmith said.

Together, they devised a scheme where Eckerle would tell Bair that the couple would spend a day hiking in the Saratoga hills, starting on a trailhead on private property owned by friends of his parents. On the appointed day, Jan. 25, Eckerle brought his girlfriend to the Waltonsmiths' home and introduced them to her as his parents' friends; then they proceeded to hike up to a redwood grove.

Upon arriving at the grove, Bair found greeting her a donkey in a red halter with pompoms and paper hearts strung around her neck and tail. A small bench had also been adorned with a balloon and red roses. At that moment, Eckerle brought out his guitar and began narrating a made-up fairy tale and interweaved it with song lyrics he had written while on his way to work one day:

You make me smile;

You make me laugh.

You are the sunshine in my life.

Seeley, will you be my wife?

As Eckerle belted out the last notes of the song, he got down on his knees and popped the question.

The newly engaged couple has not set a wedding date, though both are considering March 2004 and are certain they will invite the Waltonsmiths. Bair said she wants an outdoor wedding where "quite possibly" more animals would be present—though this time the couple might have to go for a mule large enough to support the groom's weight so that they can ride it.

And, Bair said, she wouldn't put it past Eckerle to find a way to surprise her again.

"He always has something up his sleeve," she said.