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For centuries, donkeys have pulled our carts, guided our canyon tours and participated in our charity basketball games. But acting in a live-action nativity scene was the final straw for two donkeys who made a break for it before the big show in Avon, Colo.

Chip Howard, who organizes the annual event at the Eagle River Presbyterian Church, arrived in the afternoon to find that the donkeys had gone missing.

"They weren't there -- it freaked me out," he said. "I was so afraid and nervous that the worst could have happened."

He called 911 and started following the tracks in the snow, eventually tracking down the animals miles away near some railroad tracks. With the help of local police, Howard was able to walk them back to the church in time for the nativity show, which he called one of the best he's ever seen.

It is still unclear how the donkeys escaped from the pen on the church grounds, but perhaps like the actual donkeys at the nativity, they cared less about the whole birth-of-Christ thing and more about eating some hay.