We received this today from Sophie our welfare officer. Thought you would all like to know Georges start in life ….

On 29th October 2010, in the early hours of the morning a donkey gave birth to a colt foal on a particularly cold and wet night. Bonny had foaled in the field and somehow had managed to get her new foal into the stable where the owner found them in the morning. He was very surprised as he was unaware that Bonny was even pregnant

 At first he thought the foal was dead and immediately rang the vet and myself for help and advice.

Bonny still had a foal feeding from her and it was unknown if George had received the colostrum. He was very cold and listless and Bonny seemed to be in shock. She was not making milk and so our priority was to keep George warm and to start bottle feeding him .

The next few days were touch and go. Bonny was given extra feed and George wore 2 coats to keep warm.

On the fourth day, the owner decided to relinquish the donkeys to the DS as he knew he didn’t have the expertise to help these donkeys survive. As they were both too weak to make the long journey to the DS, it was decided that they should go to a more local veterinary hospital where they stayed for 3 weeks until strong enough to make the trip to Sidmouth.

 Thanks to the owner making the right decision, George is now a fit, lively 6 month old, tormenting his mother on a daily basis. Both can be seen at Slade Farm
Here he is now enjoying life at #kapz HQ

Everyone loves a carrot ….. as grown by Sammy yesterday – all ready for today’s Donkey Shower @ DNKYS HQ #carrotcake #cake #donkeys 

We had lots of visitors today …. Get 2 really cute donkeys and suddenly you become ever so popular !!!

William , Poppy and baby Arthur came to see George and Little Lad  today. It’s the first time we have had children around our little donks and they did us proud and behaved impeccably. We had help with grooming and feeding but for some reason the kids were nowhere to be seen when there was poovering to be done …… Huh what’s all that about then ????

Baby Arthur particularly liked Georges  mane and tried pulling it at every opportunity. George didn’t bat an eyelid …..

4 weeks in and the boys are growing in confidence everyday. It’s just so great to see ….

This is the name Khush has given to our daily job of removing any traces of recycled grass & straw ( in other words pooh !) 

Our manure mountain is growing daily but the up side is my Roses will be the talk of the hamlet next year and my tomatoes will be positively glowing 😀

The picture below shows you the sweet end …. Butter wouldn’t melt and all that …… Hahaha !!

So we’ve had a great day today ……. After a morning of routine maintenance and the mandatory massaging of those amazing ears we took George and Little Lad for a little stroll up the lane for the first time.  Headcollars on and looking very smart we set off to leave the field. As usual George who is more confident was raring to go and Little Lad who likes to take things at his own pace. To come out of the field you have to walk over our hardstanding near our car port and because it is a different surface they need to asses the situation ( you know it could be quicksand lol). Hilarious….  George was stood there with one hoof on and one hoof hanging in the air not sure wether to put it down or not. Confident there was no danger we are off, closely followed by Little Lad. Across the gravel drive and turn left up Rag lane and past a couple of neighbours and all the new things to see and smell the boys were very animated with everything, ears twitching and on high alert they couldn’t have been better behaved if they had tried …… Amazing animals, to trust us to take them out their comfort zone …. I can’t imagine life without them now and would highly recommend anyone thinking about fostering from #thedonkeysanctuary to DO IT  they give so much joy ( and quite a lot of poop!!!) and ask for only love in return.  

we could just watch this all day – over and over!

Well George has finally done it !!! He let out the most almighty “eeeyyyooorrre” this evening. He got really excited at the thought his food was on its way. He has a small supplement of high fibre nuts and happy hoof once a day. He happened  to see me pick up the bucket and the whole time I was preparing his gourmet dinner he was braying with excitement ( or was it impatience – he is a boy  donkey after all!!!) And then the cutest thing happened – our bravest cat the big “King Louis” came and sat next to the donkeys while they were having dinner and he was completely chilled out … Then George who has finished went over to Louis very gently and just stretched his neck out to say “hello” – “are you one of those miniature donks?” To which Louis walked off in disgust …. 

You know in a family you have one child happy to help with chores and the other just gets up to mischief ……well it happens in the donkey world too. George always there wanting to know what’s going on, how he can get involved, whereas Little Lad to him the grass always looks greener on the other side- literally !!! So George helping with the chores this morning while Little Lad had somehow snuck through the fence to the fresh lush grass on the other side …… 

So from the title you should be able to work out that the boys have let me groom them today. No headcollars just happy to stand there and be gently brushed all over including their face, legs, belly and tails. Then they were even happy to have their feet picked out ….. Of course curious George has to sniff the hoof pick used on Little Lad ….. I’m surprised he didn’t keel over its the first time we’ve done it in over 2 weeks …..Donkey Cheeeese !!!