Meet the Donkeys


	Chocolate, born in 2003, was brought in by the Sidmouth Donkey Sanctuary. She had been living in the grounds of a pub and was extremely nervous of everyone and everything. However with patience, kindness and a bit of bribery, she is much more confident with people and loves being in the company of her donkey friends. And if you really want to get her attention, she is very partial to her favourite Ginger Nut biscuits!

	Hansel is an affectionate brown male donkey who was rescued from Belgium and apart from needing a major worming programme, was not in bad condition. He came to us with Gretel and when they arrived, his passport claimed he was 3 but the vet said he was more like 13. He can be quite feisty and is rather strong and although he was devoted to Gretel and was never far from her side, he is now thriving and looks after his Shetland friends, except at meal times when, like most equines, it is first come first served!

	Starsky and Hutch, are two gelding brothers that came to us because their owner was eight and a half months pregnant and couldn't cope with them. When they came they used to kick out but after a lot of handling they became much better behaved, but they do like to get up to mischief.

Here is an update for those of you who read my book “Beware Dobermans, Donkeys and Ducks”.

Henry, who had been a beach donkey at Eastbourne and had appeared on stage and in nativity plays finally died at the grand old age of 38.

Cherry Blossom was rescued from a tiny garden in Bognor and was known as the escapologist because she ignored all electric and most other fencing charging through it with her bulk also died at 38.

Frances had been saved from going to market when the dealer lost his field to a housing development she also died at the age of 37. She was the mother of Phoebe.

Pepsi had escaped from her field up the road and turned up outside our gate so often that we decided to let her stay also died aged36.

Dandy was Pepsi's great friend as she had been rescued at the same time. We had discovered her across the road with her friend Donna who was dying. Both had been neglected after the owners had divorced. We called the vet out but it was too late to save Donna however we did manage to persuade the owner to give us Dandy. She proved to be very difficult as she had never been handled and stayed with us until she died at the good age of 37

William was a later elderly addition who came to us when his owners - went to live in Spain. Unfortunately he was really too old to make the journey and only lasted a year with us but was such an affectionate character he was much loved and also died at the grand old age of 38. His death may also have been due to the fact that he was grieving over the death two months earlier of his great love Maddie, our sweet grey mare with half a tongue..

It can be very hard to have them all go within such a short period but that sometimes happens when they are all of a similar age.