Meet the Donkeys

	Phoebe: Phoebe is the the oldest of our donkeys born in 1982. Although old she is very much the boss and keeps the younger donkeys in order. Because of her poor start in life her hoofs are a perpetual problem as they get very crumbly in wet weather. She spends most of the winter in canvas boots to protect them.

	Chocolate 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 she had a weakness for ginger nut biscuits so with patience, kindness and a bit of bribery we succeeded in taming her and she is now as friendly as the others.

	Gretel is a gentle tiny grey donkey who was in extremely poor condition upon arrival. She could neither walk nor eat. Our vet filed her teeth and cut back her hoofs, cleaned up an abscess and gave us drugs for her laminitis. After a lot of hard work with glucosamine, MSM sulphur, Laminaze, Cortiflex, Magic (Magnesium), calcium granules and Farrier’s Formula in her feed she got better. She had originally come over from Belgium and had been sold at a Cambridge market. Her passport said she was 3 but our vet thought she was more like 21! Her difficulty in walking was helped by our farrier suggesting orthopaedic shoes at £100 a time which need to be replaced - every 8 weeks - as the hoofs grow out. LATEST NEWS- VERY SADLY GRETEL DIED ON DECEMBER 11TH 2011- SEE WELCOME PAGE FOR FURTHER INFORMATION.

	Hansel is an affectionate brown male donkey who came with Gretel from the same source -fortunately apart from needing a major worming programme he was not in bad condition. However he can be quite feisty and is rather strong. He was devoted to Gretel and was never far from her side. When he arrived his passport claimed he was 3 and the vet said he was more like 13.

	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.