New friends on World Animal Day 

Little Lad and George made some new friends today. Molly and Charlie came to visit from the Midlands. Two well behaved, confident and respectful young people were brilliant around our two well behaved and confident young donkeys. Grooming, carrots and apples were some of the  treats for the boys. And they didn’t leave out the cats either !!! 

Well done Molly and Charlie !!

   

It’s Memorial Day at The Donkey Sanctuary

We wish everyone a reflective Memorial Day.It’s a day to remember the founder Dr Elizabeth Svensden and all your nearest and dearest including your pets that have gone before us. 

We will be eternally grateful for the work of Dr S and all the welfare officers, grooms, vets and all our donkey friends who made us into the donkeys we are today. Please continue your support for The Donkey Sanctuary so they can help other neglected donkeys like us. Little Lad and George 🐴🐴  

Mmmm

What do you mean I’ve got straw in my teeth???

  
It might only be straw to you and me but to these two chaps it is like having a cordon bleu dinner served on a golden platter. We also put a couple of there favourite treats in there like apples and carrots just to surprise them 🙂 

just hoofing around . . .

Just had the best day with our dnkys.com today – what a pair of absolute charmers.

Sophie from the Donkey Sanctuary arrived at 11am for her regular visit, all ready to help us with our first Vet visit!!!!

Anyway – for 15 solid minutes they ran round and round the field around us – chasing after one another, playing with footballs and generally showing off.

Having a 250Kg dnky running towards you is some experience, I tell you – there are skid marks in the mud and at one point we thought they were going to go flying!

Little Lad was amazing, running just fast enough for George to keep up and slowing down when he could not reach him. Little Lad ran, and looked behind at the same time. Sophie says she has never seen this before.

The speed and fun they were having was so uplifting to see, we were in absolute stitches PLUS for Sophie to witness their frolicking first-hand was pretty special too. I am still giggling and it shows how well they are settling in and how happy they are!

When all the hoofing around was over, they were so exhausted they were sweating and the vets appointment came and went without any drama and we have had loads of cuddles and treats since!

What a cracker – photos to follow soon!

Pedicure …..

So today the 2 boys had their first pedicure (or hoof trimming in donkey speak 🐴). We couldn’t have chosen a more windy day. We caught the boys about 20 minutes before Matt ( the amazing ) donkey farrier was due. As soon as they saw him coming into their field with his tool belt on they new there was something afoot ( pardon the punn). Both decided they were not going to join in this little party and tried to get away. 

Matt suddenly realised he’d seen these donkeys before and could name them …. Out of the thousands of donkeys he sees at the  Sanctuary  he remembered them ( not sure if that was a good sign or not )!!! He has looked after their hooves from a very early age. Anyway he took Little Lad in hand and after a good 10 minutes of lots of scratching and reassuring he got to work on his hooves. After only his nearside being done he wanted off but Khush had seen how firm Matt was and did not let go off Little Lad. He was truly amazing (Khush I mean ).   George wanted to join his friend going round and round in circles !!! 

Matt decided to bring George to just outside the stable and tie him up as they had never their feet done without being tied up before. Little Lad looked on and you could almost see in eyes he thought “OMG I’m next”. 

Anyway we got them done thanks to the amazing skill of Matt who has such a way with them. When we let them go they just wandered off and started playing…… Was George trying to bite Little Lads ankles or was he checking out his posh hooves – hard to tell. We learnt a lot from Matt in that hour so a big thank you to him and Sophie for recommending him. Bring on the vet !!!  

 

Polos 

These two little noses can smell Polos at a thousand paces. Even if you don’t have them in your pocket anymore they can still smell exactly which pocket they once lived in and won’t leave you alone until you have turned out your pockets ….. So sweet !!! ( no pun intended) 🙂