Blogs

Believe it or not spring is around the corner! After a particularly cold and wet winter we are all looking forward to the grass starting to grow and daylight hours getting longer. Spring is a wonderful time of year and our donkeys and mules enjoy it as much as we do.

Some of you may have seen the previous blogs on our little cat ‘Posh’. She lives on one of the yards with our elderly and laminitic donkeys. The yard in Spring Boxes is like a little sun trap and catches the sun for most of the morning (when we get any!) which is perfect for our elderly residents as it warms up their joints and they love to bask in the sunshine.

I’ve been looking forward to writing this blog and I can now say that I survived the snow, wind, rain, and knee deep bogs, the endless hills and pebbles of the Grizzly run!...The months of training, fundraising, blogs, porridge and fudge finally paid off.

Jayne Rizzotti and husband Ste from Cheshire became proud foster owners last July to donkeys Bock and Eddie. Both boys were rescued from Ireland and brought to The Donkey Sanctuary in Sidmouth in the summer months of 2012. Jayne was kind enough to send over a lovely photo of Bock and Eddie settling in to their new surroundings in Cheshire, keeping us posted on their progress.

37-year old Madonna has a little angel and his name is September. You see, all mother's love their kids and Madonna is no exception. Both mother and son are inseparable and live together with our other resident donkeys here at Town Barton Farm. There's also something else very special about September... he was born at the Sanctuary...

It's always a sad time for us when we have to say goodbye to an old friend. More so when their owners travel about 600 miles in a round trip to visit at least once a month... just like Liz and Dave Barrett have been doing for the past 9 years to spend time with Hector and Smokey.

There is no fitting tribute to Hector than in Liz's own words which follow.