The old saying "as one door closes another one opens" proved true when the intended holding base we had lined up unfortunately fell through in Cyprus. However, in less than a week, we were contacted by a local man who was asking if we fostered out donkeys. When he heard we were looking for a holding base he asked if we would consider him.

We went and looked at his property which proved to be ideal (barring some stone clearance) and all systems go! The owner of the land is really keen and has been coming up to the Sanctuary as a volunteer to work alongside the staff to gain experience which is very encouraging.

Last Monday I went with our officer manager (who also co-ordinates our Welfare work) to a very remote village in the Troodos Mountains to assess a donkey who's very elderly owner was in hospital and unable to look after it anymore. Neither Maria nor I are particularly good at heights and when we ended up driving up an extremely steep and winding stone track, we began to feel a little queasy. Added to that, the track was less than a metre wider than the truck with sheer drops of several hundred feet (no barriers or trees). We wanted to get out and crawl on our hands and knees back to a proper road. Well there was nowhere to turn so we had no choice but to grin and bear it and carry on for 7km!

Eventually we found the village and the dear little donkey who was living in a shed that had no daylight. He is about 30 years old and in need of some dental work and TLC and we brought him in last Wednesday. Fortunately for him, Maria and I then had to visit another donkey in a village 8km away and found a much safer and easier way back so the trip for the donkey was much better than the one we had!

Last month two equine dentists came out to the Sanctuary donkeys and worked with our vet, farrier and Welfare Officer on an Outreach Project at one of the districts villages. 25 working donkeys were checked, wormed, had their feet trimmed and teeth checked. This part of our work is very important for several reasons; obviously we are helping the donkeys but by doing so we can often help the owners keep their donkeys longer by making sure the animals are in a good state of health. Also we get to know the owners and let them know that we are there to give support and advice if needed. There is a tendency for people to leave things until there is little to be done to enable the donkey to keep working so we encourage them to ring us when a problem occurs. As a result we do get more calls from owners and Cypriot people concerned about donkeys they have seen.