Today is a very special day for a beautiful donkey called Con who is pictured here on the right with her best friend Bess. Thirty years to this very day (21 May) Con came into our care here at the Sanctuary as a very young foal with her mother. Since that date, a staggering 10,497 donkeys and mules have come into the Sanctuary from the time she joined us 30 years ago and Con has been here the longest.

For many years Con has been living at Paccombe Farm lying in the hamlet of Harcombe, which is separated from the main Sanctuary by just two miles. The farm is very sheltered and close to our specialist facilities that we have at Slade House Farm, making it ideally suited to our older donkeys with various special needs.

While in our care, Con was one of the lucky donkeys who went out on our rehoming scheme but sadly her foster owners were no longer able to look after her so she returned to live out the rest of her days because we offer our donkeys a home for life.

Con is an unusual strawberry roan colour and has a very placid nature. After coming to the Sanctuary she made friends with a donkey called Dolly and the pair were inseparable, until unfortunately we lost Dolly. The grooms made a big effort to comfort Con who seemed lost without her companion, then after quite some time of her seeming like a lost soul she found comfort in a donkey called Bess who had recently gone through the same tragedy as Con of losing her own donkey friend.

As you can see from the picture, Con and Bess have bonded very closely and spend their days enjoying the sunshine together grazing the fields side by side.

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