Some of the things we see and deal with can be very upsetting, no matter how long we have been doing the job of rescuing and helping donkeys. The rewards though can be immense – a nervous animal becoming calmer and more trusting, correcting hoof and teeth problems, healing wounds andd getting the donkey back to health are just a few. It's amazing how individual personalities come out. There are often 'I wish I had a camera' moments and luckily, on these occasions, we did!

You may remember that we had located some suitable places that we could move some of our donkeys to so that we can provide more room at Vouni. Well, the first one that we could use unfortunately fell through and the other site will take quite a while to prepare, so you can imagine how disappointed we were.

Looking after donkeys isn't all about feeding, cleaning stables and grooming! There are always repairs to be done around the sanctuary and the gates at either end of the sanctuary were on the erge of disintegrating - a little worrying especially if any of the donkeys got out in the night. Fortunately, we are lucky to have a maintenance man who is a carpenter by trade and in four days he made two sets of lovely new gates, put them up and treated them with wood preserver. The result? A smart new entrance and of course, safer donkeys.

Lonnie, one of our Adoption Donkeys, was a bit poorly in February. The grooms noticed he was very quiet early in the morning and not interested in eating his breakfast - not like Lonnie! After checking his pulse, temperature and respiration (which weren't what they were supposed to be), the vet was called immediately. Colic was ruled out and blood tests were taken which showed hat he had a minor infection.

Well just when we thought we'd seen everything – a donkey with three ears!

Our welfare officer had been asked to give some advice and provide a headcollar to a donkey owner near Limassol. Nothing out of the ordinary except when she got back, she showed us the photos of a beautiful stallion that had three ears! Now I wasn't disputing what I'd been told but... So off we went to have another look and sure enough he definitely has three ears.

The first thing we all would like to say is a huge thank you to all of our supporters, old and new, for the amazing response to our last newsletter. It goes without saying that without you, we wouldn’t be able to care for our donkeys or do the work we do. Not only have we received more requests for adopting our Super Six and wonderful donations but lovely messages of kind words and compliments. It is so encouraging for us and, of course, the donkeys are the ones who benefit from your generosity.