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!

Joe decided to take it easy while watching our farrier at work! Maybe he was trying to make it easier for the farrier to trim his feet or protect the tool box? Joe also likes to wait for the staff to sweep up the dropping into piles and then stand on top of the pile they want to pick up. He follows the grooms around to almost every pile which obviously slows things down. The solution? Sweep round him then pick the bits up later!

Having 132 donkeys, most of whom are dark brown or black, can get a bit tricky to know who is who so we make name collars for them with break points for safety – yellow for the girls and red for the boys. Unfortunately some of donkeys like to play with them and take them off and it generally seems to happen overnight. Here's Paula wearing her name collar as a bandana. Not
sure if she's going for the Rambo look. Sorry Paula – we caught you!