Right from the start I liked one old donkey very much and it was always my secret wish to have a donkey on my own. So volunteering at CDR war also an endurance test. Do we have the right conditions at home for keeping a donkey, do we know enough about the needs and demands of this animals and can we integrate it into our daily life. In the end it took over a year until “my donkey” could resettle to our place. During this time she never became friend with one of the other donkeys at CDR. Since two years now she enjoys her retirement at our place near our house. She is still a very asocial character, does not like to share her place with one of our other animals, but she also became a very proud, self-confident and demanding old donkey lady. As it is a good form for a former working donkey we are going for walks two times a day ( in winter too), but without work only as if to say : “a rolling stone gathers no moss and a daily change is always doing good!” Still the volunteering work at CDR is very important for me, I appreciate the big experience value Judy has and the more you have the chance to work with many different individual characters of an animal species the more you can improve your knowledge about it.

So my advice to all, who love donkeys: If you want to do them and yourself something good ……. Go to Corfu !"

Tina from Germany

Altai - during a German Winter

Altai - stopping to say 'hello'

Altai - out for a walk with Tina

It’s fun with the donkeys! and so good to see, you can help!
That’s why I go back next summer again."

Colin and Cheryl are a retired English couple who have been volunteering for over a year now, coming 2-3 times a week and covering the absence of Judy when she has to go away. Cheryl says:

“We come here to primarily help with the care of the donkeys. There is much cruelty on the Island and it helps us cope by being able to help some of the animals. We have taken in 2 street dogs and 3 cats but this work with the donkeys enables us to do that little bit more. We also appreciate that the work, though hard, keeps us very fit, it’s too easy to stagnate and become unhealthy in one’s retirement. We have also made many friends here from all nationalities, visitors and residents, and we join in the social life when ever we can”.

"Hello, we are Mariette amd Marlot, Animal Care students from the Netherlands. We are in Corfu for 6 weeks to help Judy at the Donkey Shelter. Before we came here we did our internship at the Ezelsocieteit in Zeist and there we learnt the basics in donkey care.

Here it is very different from Holland because in Holland you can call a vet or a farrier if there is something wrong, here there is nothing; you have to do it by yourself. A farrier has to come from Athens when it can be afforded.

It hurts to see that many of the people here don’t care about the animals and they try to stop the donkey charity doing their work, but Judy keeps going and tries to improve things for the animals.
We like it here because Judy is a lovely lady and it is very thankful work. We love to learn things and do them on our own; listening to the donkey’s heartbeat and watching the respiration to see if the animal is sick. You can learn a lot of new things here if you want to, Judy is happy to teach you and let you practice your new skills. It is also very nice to meet all the visitors who come to look at the donkeys. They are all so interested in everything we are doing and sometimes they come back to help for a day.

We recommend you all visit and work here with lovely Judy and the sweetest donkeys you will ever meet!!"

Exercising the Dogs and Pony

Donkey grazing in the field