Weblog 2010

December 2010/January2011

The weather the last two months has been terrible, the most rain and high winds in decades. The shelter did not get away unscathed. One morning in December I woke up to find the pony’s and mule’s field shelter had been absolutely flattened by the wind. Although we were lucky that nothing was hurt and we could retrieve most of the shelter to put up again – we have no-one prepared to do the job. The three ponies have been moved up into sheltered olive groves but errant donkey Kerkyra is left in the now very empty field with no shelter at all, only his rugs. So we must wait till we can get the shelter rebuilt, when ever that might happen? Despite his castration last May, Kerkyra still cannot go with any other donkeys, his hormones are still raging.

A few days later in yet another windy night, the beautiful big Oak tree was toppled and crashed to the ground. Luckily no animal was hurt and its top branches hit the smaller storage tents and the boundary fence but without damage. A minor miracle. I was particularly upset about this tree as it was my favorite and was part of what I wanted to make our Remembrance Garden for the donkeys.

The same day, there were weird gushes of wind, very strong, coming from nowhere. I went out of the big barn to the outside to close one of the outside stable doors at the bottom, to protect one of our donkeys Achilleas from the cold winds. As I pushed the door shut, a gust of wind lifted the top door off its hinges and blew it straight onto my hand. Wow, did that hurt. I had to go to hospital and they said a small bone had fractured in my hand and I had to have it in plaster. Five days later I went back to see the orthopedic surgeon who decided it wasn’t broken and I could manage with just a bandage. That made things a little easier for me though none the less painful.

A few weeks before Christmas the gypsies bought us a donkey who we called Achilleas. She was lame on both front legs and they forced her into the shelter. We managed to persuade her to get as far as a pile of hay on the floor where she promptly lay down and did not move for 24 hours. Her feet were in appalling condition and we asked Spiros to come the next day to trim as best he could. This he had to do with her lying down. Two days later, expecting heavy rain we slowly managed to half carry her to an indoor stable. She had severe ballerina syndrome on one leg and a tendon injury on the other. Donkeys can live well with ballerina syndrome, we have two others, but this was very severe. The gypsies told us she had been forced to work with this problem by her owners, and eventually the other good leg broke down with the tendon injury. Then the owner did not want her as she could not walk, let alone work. We decided to give her a chance of recovery and after some weeks with all the rest, her tendon injury got better and she could walk for a few minutes at a time. On sunny days we took her outside to lie in the sun.

Sadly we decided to have Tonic put to sleep just after Christmas as she was not making a recovery, in fact, the problems seemed worse and she was obviously suffering. She went peacefully with me by her side.

After six weeks, Achilleas was making no further improvement to the ballerina syndrome, even with the application of a special shoe for the problem, there seemed no chance for her. You cannot have a donkey lying down 23 and a half hours a day indefinitely. With the vet’s consultation, we decided to have her put to sleep. It was a very sad day for us, January 2nd, as she was a beautiful donkey, old but in excellent health otherwise, a real stoic animal with the kindest of natures. Like Tonic, it is so sad to see some improvement but just not enough to save them.

Two days previously, one of our donkeys, Tricola Light collapsed from a severe COPD attack, she could not get up without help. We stabled her but she collapsed again and from that moment was never able to stand. She just had not the strength to keep on her feet, so bad was her respiratory problem. We could not use the sling as this puts pressure on the lungs. She was humanely put to sleep with dear Achilleas. They are all sadly missed.

On 18th December we went to Liapades to collect another unwanted donkey. We only knew that he belonged to an old lady who could not take care of him anymore. We met Yiannis, the son, and he showed us old Poulis, saying he was about 32 years old. He did not look so bad, so we were relieved but his feet were very bad, they had obviously grown very long and someone had chopped the ends off with a saw. But a sweet story transpired in the transfer. Yiannis said his mother had got Alzheimer’s disease and some days she remembered she had a donkey somewhere and she would escape from the house and go looking for her old Poulis. Of course the family was worried she would get lost or fall over somewhere so they had to put a stop to her escapades to look for the donkey. That is why Yiannis asked us to take the donkey. He told us that he would tell his mother that the donkey had died. I said why not tell her you have given the donkey to us and you can bring her here to visit him. Yiannis was horrified. “If I tell my mother I have given the donkey away, she will kill me” he cried in horror. So we promised not to say anything. Yiannis came with us to the shelter to see Poulis’ new home and he was happy, he really cared for this donkey. He says he will visit with his daughter soon. Poulis has now had his feet done by our friend Spiros and settled in well with Limani and Thalassa – all having feet problems and being old and unsteady, they get on well together. Limani came in with a horrendous problem with his feet and while Spiros was trimming them he found hundreds of maggots inside on hoof. Luckily for Thalassa, we were able to treat this problem successfully and she, Poulis and Thalassa, all quiet, old, little donkeys share a stable.

After all these problems, I prayed that we would be spared any more serious cases. We are just too limited in what we can do. With no portable X - ray machine on the Island to ascertain just how badly Achilleas and Tonic’s injuries were, we were working blind. Our vet has been promising for years to find an X- ray machine, but to no avail.

18th January 2011

Ten days ago, the gypsies arrived with yet another donkey. This is a beautiful, 15 year old donkey but she was chronically lame in the right hind leg. The gypsies said they had just been to Lefkimmi to buy the donkey for 350 euros and were on their way to sell her to a Greek for 500 euros. A nice tidy profit. However, disaster struck and she slipped on the back of the truck and broke her leg. Now they just wanted rid of her. So thank goodness they brought her to us rather than just abandon her. We explained that if they put rubber matting in the bottom of the truck, they would not have so many injuries from travelling donkeys. They said that in future they would put sand in the truck – not a great help but at least they are prepared to do something in the future, (we hope). We have had Kyrinia for 10 days now. We called Dino our vet to examine her and try and find out how bad the break is and if it can heal. Well, again he said he needed an X- ray machine and we are still waiting. The break is between the hip and the hock, around the stifle area. Since she is so young and otherwise healthy, we decided to give her a chance. She has been standing for 10 days near the caravans where she can see everything going on, is not being bothered by other donkeys and is eating very well. The fact that she hardly moves (unlike Tonic) is good I think, the bone has a chance to fuse and maybe she can survive, but without the x ray, we can only wait and see. As many of you know having met Ira and Xara who in the past had horrendous broken legs, they have healed and although they are lame, they live a very good life. Xara has been with us four years and Ira, five years. Paraskevi also broke her leg when she was six months old, she healed well and quickly being younger of course. So there is always hope.

But we also hope and pray for a portable X- ray machine. If we can see in the first instance how bad the break is and if there are complications, we can make decisions in the first instance as to whether we can really help the donkeys or put them to sleep straight away, if things are too bad.

Spiros brought us a donkey which he said kicked a bit! He said the donkey had worked all his life in Argirades but recently been bought and sold, bought and sold again, probably because of the kicking. Well we named him Agros and he certainly was a very grumpy donkey and was having nothing to do with us. If we went within a metre of him the back legs went flying out. Of course, on learning that there were two special meals a day available he became a little more amenable. After a week, he was so sweet and enjoying many cuddles and of course we had to change his name from Agros to Alfi.

In the last days, we have taken in two more donkeys, Mistral and Seres. Seres, the gypsies said, suffered from COPD so cannot work anymore. I was a bit suspicious as he is a small but healthy young donkey and most owners would keep them working till the end. I thought there must be something else wrong and so it proved. We put him in the big tent field with all the other more healthy donkeys and he must have thought he had died and gone to heaven. All these females! And many ‘in season already’. Well it seems that our new donkey was not castrated properly and he still believes he is a stallion. We had to drag him out of there before he did some damage to the donkeys with his high spirited cavorting about and cause himself a COPD attack with the exertions. So this handsome adorable male is now outside the shelter looking in. Luckily for him, Alison who helps us out here is going to take him home with her as soon as she has fixed up a shelter for him. I think she will have masses of fun with him as he is a real character, the first thing he did when he came in the shelter was walk over to the table and pull it over, we ended up with masses of broken cups and plates and a general mess everywhere. Good luck Alison?

Mistral is a very small, old brown donkey with the sweetest nature. She will be fine if she can get some weight on and build up her strength.

Tassos/Jez our baby is now 6 months old and is behaving like a delinquent teenager. To compound the problems he has discovered his sexuality and is constantly trying to behave like stallions do. He needs castrating. We hope to send him on a transport in the Spring, but that is many months ahead. We have nowhere we can put him separately with a few male friends for company, and of course he needs weaning. And big as he is, he can still get under all the fences. But he is fun to watch and still has great games with Makis and Steel and tries to pull their head collars and name tags off. Xara still shares her food with him but instead of being the beloved Auntie, she has become one of Tassos many targets to practice his stallion tendencies on. She is not amused. Much as we love our baby, our other donkeys are too old and do not want to play with the youngsters. However, Tassos still has young Pirareus as his playmate, and they are a joy to watch. Although Tassos’ Mum was a handful when she was the same age, being a female, she did not cause us these sorts of problems when she got older.

Along with the continuing problems of donkeys arriving with terrible feet conditions and severe leg injuries, we have a problem with the amount of donkeys coming in blind, or going blind at the shelter. It is puzzling how quickly the donkeys are going blind. Mari has lost her sight and she has been very disturbed by this, but thankfully she is settling down a bit as I put her in with Zachari who was initially somewhat demented from the loss of his site. He seems to have settled down with Mari and is much calmer now. Almost like he feels better to know he isn’t the ‘only one’. If I put a sighted donkey in with Zachari, he would kick them like crazy, we just couldn’t keep them together. But he accepts Mari bumping into him and doesn’t seem to mind at all and she likewise. Not a marriage made in heaven but shows promise?

Xara has lost the sight in one eye, Lavendel is losing her sight very quickly, Rosay is the same. We have Dina, Nisea, Pagi, Lieke also blind, but they have been blind for a long time and Pagi, Nisea and Dina came into the shelter already blind. Interestingly these are very healthy donkeys and Pagi is only about 12-15 years of age, so it can’t be that old age is always a factor to complete blindness. We are doing some research into the problem, but information is hard to come by. The problem is finding somewhere safe to put more blind donkeys, our ‘hospital’ area in the wood is already full. We have tried moving out Atlanti and Paralia into the big stable area but they don’t like it and spend all day leaning on the fence of the hospital to get back in. Security.

I often get some criticism when I tell people we deal with the gypsies and give them 30 euros for any donkey they bring us. Also the gypsies are severely maligned for dealing in the donkey trade. For seven years now I have worked with a donkey dealer, our Spiros, believing it best to have ‘your enemies’ close, so to speak. And I can only tell you that it works, for us. For two years I have been working with the gypsies and so far that has gone well. The gypsies and the dealers do a favour for the donkeys in present day Corfu. They collect all the unwanted donkeys from around the Island, the old, sick and injured and bring them to us. The healthy they obviously sell for profit. That is their business. Before CDR existed, the old, sick and injured donkeys would be collected and kept tethered on their land and eventually, when they had a large lorry load, would be taken from Corfu to the mainland and on to the slaughter houses of Italy. This involves many months of feeding and watering the donkeys until their export, and therefore a lot of work for the gypsies. Not to mention that many would die or suffer from their sickness or injuries whilst waiting for the transports. So by bringing the donkeys straight to us, it saves them a lot of effort.

Alternatively, the unwanted donkeys would be turned out by their owners and left to die or kept suffering until they did die. This still happens on occasions, so I do believe the gypsies do a good thing. Nowadays, the gypsies and dealers bring the donkeys straight to us, get their ‘30 pieces of silver’ and are happy. We at CDR are also happy as the poor old donkeys are saved and we can either help them get better and give them a few good years of retirement or have them humanely put to sleep.

When I was informed of a stolen donkey, and the gypsies were obviously accused immediately, I was invited into the gypsy encampment to look at their donkeys. This I think shows a mutual, if tentative trust between us. It’s not many people who would be invited in or many people that would go in. So although for sure, the gypsies are not known for their kindness to animals, they do a good service in co-operation with CDR. Surely this is much better than what happened in the past.

The gypsies have also made their living from collecting scrap metal that for decades has been dumped by the Corfiots all over the Island, not only doing environmental damage but being horrendously unsightly to the island’s visitors. The gypsies collect all this rubbish for recycling. Of course they tend to dump it on their encampment whilst waiting for sorting, but at least it is in one place! Surely it is the same thing they are doing for the donkeys? They are doing a service of various kinds. Of course they make money from it but they have to earn a living like everyone else.

So I explain these things to you, our supporters, so you know what is going on and that we at CDR hide nothing from you. And you can choose whether to support our work and the way we do it, with all the facts. At the end of each day, we can say, we have stopped the vile exports of donkeys from Corfu to the slaughter houses of Bari in Italy. This is exactly why Animal’s Angels, the German charity support our work, and this is what we will continue to do.

21st January

The last few months we have, as usual, been very short of help at the shelter. Susan put out many a plea on Facebook for volunteers. I wanted to thank, Esther, Jan and Antoinette, Paola and Alice for helping out on a regular basis during these hard times and all the others who come when they can. Also thanks to Sarah, who has helped me personally a great deal by cooking me a meal most nights when I was ill and incapacitated with my injury. It kept me going. Our thanks to all those extra donations at Christmas, all the fund raising that went on and all the parcels that came for the donkeys, dogs, cats and rabbits.

We had several donations just before Christmas through the bank that had no address on the bank papers so I have not been able to send my thanks. So to MW I Melsert Goirle I thank you here and if you require a receipt please email me. Various other donations made through the bank simply had a town and country on it with a code number. I have sent thanks for these but have no idea whether they will be received since there is no street address. Please be assured that wherever possible we do thank everyone individually for the donations.

As you may have seen, we have been updating the website slowly. I still have much to do, but thanks to the help, I can get a few hours each week to do it.

And yes, I hate to ask, but please keep up with donations if you can. Hay is very expensive this time of year, 8 euros 50 cents a bale, it is terrible, but we must have the hay. At least, since it is coming from the very north of Greece where they know how to make hay, it is good quality.

We are still looking for homes in North West Europe for some of our donkeys, so please keep asking at sanctuary’s you know of, if they could take some of our old, but healthier animals. If we don’t send any donkeys away this year, we have to stop taking donkeys in. And sadly there seem to be many more old, sick and injured donkeys out there that need your help.

And a final thank you to Austrian Gabriele Jacoby who donated her car to CDR just before Christmas. This 22 year old 600cc Suzuki is a real gem. It is very cheap to run, cheap to tax and insure. We can use it instead of the expensive to run (petrol wise) jeep, but of course we must keep the jeep as we need it to pull the trailer and have the 4 x4 for the bad roads. Our lawyer suggested we should trade the jeep or car in for a new car using the government’s financial incentive of giving you 3000 euros off the new car. I told him that not only could we not afford a new car, however much discount we could get, but that we didn’t need a new car. My jeep and the little Suzuki are perfect runarounds and any spare money we had would go TO the donkeys needs.

2010 was a great year for CDR. We were able to move to the new shelter, we had our big stables donated and erected in time for the winter. We had a lot of visitors once we moved and everyone was impressed with the big improvements. We still have a long way to go and a lot of work to do, but how far we have come since 2006 when I took in the first donkey, Hope. Yes, we also had quite a lot of lost lives, but have saved many many more donkeys from a cruel end. We have only been able to do this with your support. Everything is down to team work.

And volunteers and students, don’t forget we need your help too this year. A belated and Happy New year to everyone and our sincere thanks for your support. Your money really does go where it is needed, not on fine offices, executive’s wages or flash company cars BUT direct to trying to save the lives of old, sick and injured donkeys.

Our wish list for 2011

Export of 30 donkeys, electricity supply, Hay Barn, tons of hardcore/grit to go around the land so the donkeys don’t have to stand in the wet in winter. There is plenty more we need but if we can achieve this much in 2011 it will be another great year. And of course let’s hope our vet get’s an X ray machine.

Weblog 4 Nov 2010

They finally gave me a day off to catch up with the admin, accounts and blog!

Well the first week of September saw the last donkey from the old shelter arriving at the new. It was little Zachari, our blind hairy donkey. All the donkeys settled in well and were allocated to either the big tent field – for the stronger ones, the wooded area for some of the blind and more crippled ones and the big stable field for all those on extra daily food rations and medications. The ponies got their own field with Zorba and Kerkyra the recently castrated males who still didn’t think they were castrated and had to be kept safely away from the other donkeys.

A large sign was put on the main road to direct visitors to the shelter and soon the guests were coming in to see the new donkey shelter. Everyone was very complimentary and especially those who had visited the old shelter in previous years so they could really see the improvements at the new and what can be achieved with effort and donations. It is great to work here, it is so peaceful (when the dogs are quiet) and often a cooling breeze and always plenty of shade from all the trees. However, one small drawback – since the area is 3 times bigger than our last place, we have to walk 3 times farther each day?

So apart from about ten further trips with the trailer to the old shelter over the next couple of months to collect the donkeys belongings, we were moved. The caravans were moved also eventually and all stables that could be taken down and transported to the new place to reuse were also transported. So nothing was left behind that we could use. We did however, leave Spiros the roof!

15th November

It doesn’t seem to matter how much help we have I am always kept busy with the donkeys and the administration is abandoned. My sincere apologies to all of you eagerly awaiting news, for the long delays.

Tassos/Jez, the baby is now 4 months old and a very independent young man he is. The last months he is spending much time playing with Pirareus (our one year old), and a lot of time trying to pull the head collars and fly fringes off the older donkeys. They are very patient with him. Xara is like an Auntie to Tassos and even shares her food with him, she certainly wouldn’t let anyone else have it.

A few weeks ago we let Cooki out in the big field we are allowed to use near the shelter. Cooki is the donkey with the spine deformity. Well even I was amazed when she started running, bucking and jumping on the other donkeys. It was beautiful to see. She certainly does not consider she is disabled.

Tonic is one of our latest arrivals, coming in some weeks ago. A beautiful, well fed donkey. However, I was not there on her arrival and was told the following by our volunteers; the gypsies brought her in the back of a pick up truck. She had already fallen down in there. So the gypsies just pulled her out by her tail and she crashed to the ground. We managed to walk her into a stable and settle her in. For 2 days she just stood and walked around with one hind leg sticking out abnormally to the side. Eventually she lay down to rest and could not get up again. So for the next week, every time she lay down we had to use our sling and pulley system to get her up again. However she remained in good spirits and ate well. But she had a very swollen back leg, it was 4 times larger than the other bad one. An abscess eventually burst and her recovery was quick with good treatment. After some weeks, when the ground was dry she was able to go outside again and she was so happy. She maintained her balance by walking quite fast and only had an odd fall now and again over the next few days but we could easily help her get up. Things were looking good. Last week we had a visiting vet, Laura, (more later) and she said that she believed Tonic had broken her hip – whether from the fall and removal from the pick up truck or even before that, we will never know. However, in the last few days she is falling over many times a day, and is not eating so well. We will not give in easily but things are not looking good for Tonic now. We will keep you posted.

Loutses, who we picked up in May from an old man who said she must be about 40 years old, went downhill before moving her to the new shelter. After a few weeks at the new shelter we could see that our normal happy, people loving donkey was getting tired and ready to go. I called the vet and asked him if he could put her to sleep along with our beautiful Nymfes, who was now suffering from her chronic foot condition – with no sign of a farrier visit, we could not help her anymore. However, Dino, the vet said he didn’t have enough Dolethal to pts both donkeys so we had to choose one, and as Loutses collapsed that morning as she was so weak we had our lovely Loutses put to sleep. Dino said he would order more Dolethal and it would be here in 2 days. However, a week went by and then 2 and then 3, and no Dolethal. The factory had stopped supplying it and would not make more till sometime in November. I was getting frantic. Hydra, our oldest donkey at well over 40 had stopped eating and she was ready to leave us, though she never wanted to give up and would always get up in the morning with help. Meli, who had an terrible arthritic knee was finding it hard to cope as well and poor old Nymfes was struggling on bravely but in great difficulty.

Our friend, Dagmar, went around all the vets on the Island asking if they had dolethal to spare, but none would spare us any. Everyone was short and needed their supply. I even rang the Donkey Sanctuary in the UK to see if they could help, but they couldn’t send us any as it was illegal. Dagmar rang all the Greek suppliers of this dolethal and none had any to send. Dagmar discussed with one vet practice on the Island about using their humane killer (as used in slaughter houses) but the vet even said ‘perhaps this is not the best way’ and recalling a horror story about the use of this gun, by this vet, on a horse with a broken leg some years ago, where it took the vet 4 shots to kill the animal (as witnessed by 2 of my friends), we did not think this was a good idea at all. We thought to ask the hunters even, if they would shoot the donkeys, but who knows if they could make a clean kill.

. All 3 were lying down for 3 days and only Nymfes by some miracle managed to get up on her own. Meli’s good knee had finally broken down after taking so much weight from the arthritic knee, so she could not get up and she was too heavy for all of us to help. I drove to town and begged Dino to think of something to help the donkeys. He finally told me he had thought of an alternative, - an overdose of anesthetic! He had ordered some and it would be here that day and he would come in the evening. I just couldn’t believe it had taken 3 weeks and more for anyone to come up with this idea!!

That night Nymfes, Hydra and Meli were humanely put to sleep and their suffering ended. It was very hard time for all of us to see the suffering and not be able to do anything to help. But finally they were at rest. And now we know this need never happen again as we have a solution. But personally I think it is a national Greek scandal that there was no dolethal available in Greece. How many more animals throughout Greece suffered like ours??

On more sad notes, Sky, who had been with us about 4 years, became ill one morning, a severe colic, by the symptoms and despite treatment, she died 26 hours later. She was a lovely little donkey and no trouble all those years. And also our lovely Zorba, was found dead one morning. There was no sign of him being ill the days before. He seemed in very good health and had only been castrated this May. It was totally unexpected and particularly sad because Zorba had been promised a super home with Tanya, one of our volunteers from Germany. But Zorba lives on as he is the father of our lovely baby, Tassos.

I finally managed to get my holiday in Germany at the end of September. It was a great time for me visiting all my friends who took great care of me and made sure I rested. Back at the shelter, Nadia flew over from Holland and took care of all the animals. I knew I had nothing to worry about if she was there. While in Germany I visited Iris who works for a Swiss charity, the Tierschutzbund. I told her of our problem getting a dentist and farrier for the donkeys and how Omali had died earlier with massive teeth problems and many more were suffering to various degrees. I was over the moon when she phoned me when I got back home and said the charity had offered to fund a dentist. Our dentist, Laura, who is also an equine vet, is with us now, as I write, and all 70 donkeys and ponies will be treated. Laura was very shocked at the state of the donkeys teeth, never having seen such sights in her life. She is working very hard and has done some huge improvements on the donkey’s mouths. I can’t thank Laura, Iris (who came too as assistant) and the Tierschutzbund enough. It really is important to the donkey’s well being and future health to have this treatment.

And more good news, GAWF are coming this week, for 2 days to do the hooves of the donkeys. It is unlikely they will all get done, but our major sufferers will get the professional help they need. Zois, Atlanti, Angeliki, Metaxa, Mari, Vidos, Assimos and Kerasia, to name a few cases that will be first in the queue. Many thanks to GAWF for this help. You can imagine how I felt when I heard the donkeys were going to get dental and farrier help from professionals for the first time in over a year.

22 November

Amazingly, Aris, the farrier from Crete who GAWF arranged to send over to do the donkeys feet managed to do all the donkeys and did an excellent job of them. It was great to see Kleo again, a GAWF vet and dentist who came to assist and had some lessons from Laura the German vet/dentist in the use of power tools.

I just want to take time out to thank Mirthe, El and Nadia, all from Holland who took over as acting managers so that I could either get away for my break, or spend time doing admin. El took the helm when we had 2 shelters to run and while I was at the old shelter with the sicker donkeys, El trained our students at the new.

I also want to thank Cheryl, Susan. Daggi and Laura our regular and reliable volunteers without whom I could not cope in the winter time. Also Bill (Belinda) and Daggi who do so much to help with the admin side.

When the stables were finished in August, we discovered a very bad problem. The concrete base had been polished to a very smooth finish and this made the floor very slippery when it was wet in particular. The donkeys were slipping and sliding and some had bad falls. We put out an emergency call to friends of Corfu Donkey Rescue to see if they could find the funding for us to buy rubber matting for all the stables and the central aisle. They came through very quickly with a super donation from the Michael and Shirley charitable Trust, UK. Our sincere thanks for the donation and solution to a potentially deadly problem. Rubber matting should be completely installed in the next week.

Due to high bank charges on received donations through our bank in Corfu, we have opened a German account. This is in the name of one of our German Trustees Dagmar Lohrenz
Sparkasse Berchtesgadener Land account no. 201 408 77 BLZ 710 500 00 as reference you should always write: "CDR" or "Corfu Donkey Rescue" and please specify whether it is a donation or adoption or for any other special purpose.

There is only a very small monthly fee for this account and this will mean more money goes to the donkey’s where it is intended and NOT to feed the Greek banking system. The account can be totally trusted and is also opened at the bank where one of our long term supporters, Andrea works.

For those of you who wish to send larger donations from Germany and need a receipt for tax purposes we have another option for you. Please contact me direct for details.

OK, back to the donkeys, Tonic is doing very well again and we will keep helping her in the hope that her broken hip will fuse, (we spoke with Laura about this and it is possible, she herself has a horse with a broken hip the last 5 years). As many of you know from visits here, the donkeys can survive horrific injuries and go on to lead a long and happy life, given the chance.

Assimos, Kerasia and Vidos, who came in last year with severe laminitic problems and were always lying down, are fully recovered and happy little donkeys now, as is Angeliki.

Greek Skai (SKY) TV is coming to film on 24th Nov for one of their special animal programmes. Sadly the weather will be bad all this week. However, it will show the problems we have to deal with, wet ground and lots of mud. The weather has been exceptionally bad this October and November, unbelievably wet with horrific storms. Sometimes I have to go out at night to make sure the donkeys have all gone inside – some I have to drag inside! The fields are all under water. Luckily the drainage is good and by the afternoon of the next day, the water has drained away and there are only a few puddles left. But it takes weeks to completely dry out, if at all, due to continuous rains.

We are hoping that some coverage from Greek Skai TV programme will bring in some much needed Greek financial support. Although we have great support for our work from the Greeks, to date, we have only received 600 euros from the Greek side. It is such a shame, these are Greek donkeys, who have worked hard for the Greek people, but all the finances come from foreigners. Let us hope this situation will end soon.

On this note, I want to thank Spiros from Doukades who we use a great deal to do various work with his Bobcat and JCB and gives us very cheap prices and to all the local landowners who let us use their fields and olive groves for the donkeys (weather permitting).

Interestingly, we have been on TV and radio in Holland, Germany, Austria and Greece but never in the UK!! I am a little disappointed that there is no interest in our work in the media in UK. If anyone has any connections, please push them for a mention. Although we have made great progress, there is still a long way to go and much money needed for the support buildings, electricity and for a drainage system and an awful lot of concrete to avoid these winter problems with the incessant rain.

But for now, please keep up your support and donations this winter, we need money to feed the donkeys and just keep going with all the expenses incurred on day to day survival. For the first time in 7 years I have had to ‘close the doors’ to new arrivals as we have neither the room, the money or the volunteers to take in more donkeys. It is very sad and incredibly hard for me to do this and for all those donkeys that need to come here but I have to refuse. But we must ensure that those we have are well taken care of first.

And finally next year, the Tina and Juergen Bolz Stiftung are planning, all going well, on financing a transport of our healthier donkeys to good shelters abroad in North West Europe. Only then can we help more donkeys in need. If you know of any reputable shelters that would be willing to take in some of our donkeys and give them a final retirement home, please let me know. We will also consider private homes, so if you would like to take in a couple of beautiful, older Corfu donkeys, please write to me direct by email. Controls will be made of course.

Thank you, from the heart, to all of you who have supported us and donated throughout the year, we can only keep going with this support. A very happy Christmas to you all.

August 2010

Let’s start with some excellent news. The new American Barn stables are built and we are fully functional at the new shelter. The foundations were paid for by Renate Klenk from Austria and the stables themselves by The Tina and Juergen Bolz Foundation in Germany. Without these generous donations we would never be able to move to the new shelter this year. By the same token, without the help and donations by everyone else who has contributed, we would never have been able to feed the donkeys this year, so a huge thank you to everyone.

After many, many months trying to get permissions, organise the laying of the cement and the stables to be brought over, everything finally, unbelievably, came into place. Juergen travelled over in the car loaded with all sorts of goodies for the shelter and donkeys and stayed to help the two German fitters to erect the stables. It took just over a week and it was so exciting watching the daily progress. To build such a thing in the heat of August was quite a challenge to workers not used to 40 degrees and no shade. After two days they decided to start at 6.30am in the morning each day, but by 9am it is already very hot. The stables are truly magnificent and brought tears to my eyes. After they were finished I just kept going in the barn and looking, time and again, like I expected it all to disappear. It is beyond anything I had ever dreamed of for the donkeys. What a long way we have come over the last six years. There is still much to do, but we know that the donkeys have a great place to spend the next winter. It is no longer a period to dread. All the lights and electrical equipment for the stables were donated by Mr Linden from Germany (Tina and Juergen’s electrician). We do not have an electrical supply at the moment, and that will be a long time coming and very expensive, but we do have two generators to run the shelter, kindly donated by Klaus and Waldi Hausman Richter from Germany and some British neighbours near the old shelter. So come on winter – hit us hard, we are ready for you?

On July 17th I was due to fly to Germany for 10 days to attend a fund raising event and have my first break in well over a year. However, I had to cut the trip short to three days as I did not have enough experienced help to leave the donkeys for so long. But a few hours before I was due to catch the plane, my experienced helper had collapsed and I could not risk leaving the donkeys for even one day alone in case she did not recover. So I cancelled the trip. Half an hour after my plane left, about 10.30 am in the morning, I received a call from my students at the new shelter who told me we had an extra donkey! Paraskevi who many of you know was born here 3 years ago, had given birth to a beautiful baby boy. What a shock. However, all went well and mother and baby (now 6 weeks old) are doing great. Paraskevi, who we still call baby herself, is a great protective Mum, and little baby we have called Jez. He is a very friendly and trusting guy and although it is great to have a little one around, we do not want him to take the limelight away from the old donkeys – because caring for the old, sick and injured is what CDR is all about.

As for my holiday break and first day off in 16 months, I am making a second attempt at the end of September to get to Germany and visit friends.

Dave Hancy’s walk along the Corfu Trail raised 400 euros for CDR. Our sincere thanks for this great effort and donation. Interestingly, Dave reported that during his entire trip he only saw about 15 donkeys or was it 9, I can’t remember, which just shows what a rare animal they are becoming on the Island. (I think most are in the care of CDR!)

Loutses, whom we told you about in the last blog is still thriving, constantly demanding attention and following everyone about. She is wonderful and so full of character. Still thin, despite her many special feeds a day, but a strong little lady. But we must not forget that she is well over 35 years old!

We also moved Cooki today to the new shelter. We travelled her on her own with Laura in the back to watch over her. She travelled very well, I went at a snail’s pace and she seemed very happy to arrive and explore her new surroundings. You may recall Cooki is the donkey who was born with a spine deformity. Since being at CDR she has gone from strength to strength and we are so pleased with her progress. Interestingly, when she lies down, her spine is almost straight. When she stands up her spine slowly curves to the u shape it normally is.

Our rabbits and hen and cockerel were moved to their new quarters at the new shelter. They really have much better conditions now. However, sadly the cockerel was found dead one morning and we believe he was defending his hen from the very tiny but poisonous snake that we later realized must be coming to take the eggs. I was told to put sulfur around the outside of the pens as snakes hate the smell. Looking on the internet, I read that this was a fallacy but have to say, we have had no more eggs taken and no more casualties.

I was quite upset to lose our cockerel, although he was not popular with our volunteers and students as he used to attack them, I understood that he did this only when his hen was trying to lay eggs, he was just protecting her. I had saved his life before, taking him from the jaws of one of our dogs, and he seemed to remember this, and I could stroke him and fuss him without problem. I had a big soft spot for our beautiful white cockerel and miss him. Now we must find a new mate for our poor lonely hen.

On the sad side, we have had a few losses from our donkey group. As suspected, Omali died (see last blog). We had her put to sleep as it was obvious she was never going to recover. Ouzo also was put to sleep. She had been with us only a 2 weeks and was a fine healthy old donkey by outward appearances. But one day we discovered she must have tetanus. (tetanus has an incubation period of 2- 3 weeks before showing symptoms). There is no cure for this, only penicillin and tetanus serum. We could not get hold of any serum at all, and despite our best efforts she collapsed a week later. I spent the night with her in the stable and called the vet in the morning to end her suffering.

Next we lost Larnaca. She fell victim to a COPD attack, (like human asthma). There is absolutely nothing we can do in these cases. She went quickly which was a blessing. She was a very sweet donkey and up until a few days before we saw no sign of impending trouble.

Kino our very old pony who had been with us nearly three years, stopped eating well about a month ago. Despite our best efforts and a visit from a UK visiting vet, he could not be helped and he died. He was very old but we were glad he had the pleasure to be in his own field in the new shelter and enjoy some peace and freedom there with his friend, Piratus. I remember one summer, my Dutch friend Nadia would ride Kino and I would ride my horse Jake, to the lake, and let them splash about in the water and eat the reeds, while the dogs swam and chased frogs. They were wonderful heartwarming evenings. It is a great loss to us that both horses are no longer with us.

Lakones, an old but very strong donkey who was always first in the queue for food and quite a bully, suddenly collapsed one evening last week about 5pm and died later that night. We can only assume she had a heart attack as it was all so sudden and unexpected. She did have a type of tumor on her side. Maybe it grew more internally and caused her death suddenly. However, with no expert vet we will never know about these things for sure. But I was with her up till her death and she seemed very calm, resigned and not at all distressed. It was a quick death and seemingly without suffering. Wish we could all go that way.

And lastly, our dear old Izzy, who was given to us by her owner 5 years ago, was put to sleep. All these years she needed an expert farrier to help her, but rarely was one available. Eventually it became too difficult to walk much, even with her painkillers, so I decided to call it a day. It was very hard to lose such an old friend; she was so much part of the old shelter. The wonder of it all was that she even survived after she came here all those years ago, I never thought when she came here, that she would live with us so long. She was a very quiet, uncomplaining donkey who just got on with living and dealing with her problems her own way.

Back to the bright side. We still have 65 donkeys, nearly all at the new shelter now enjoying the last of the summer, though I suspect like me, they are looking forward to the cooler September days and a ‘bit’ of rain.

We have the new stables, a new baby and luckily no new incoming donkeys the last 5 weeks.

Our Hydra, the oldest at about 44 years old, is still going strong, still rubbing on every table and chair, food bin, in fact anything that she finds, being totally destructive. But we figure, it is our pleasure to go around picking everything up after her, just to have her around. Yesterday we moved her to the new shelter with great trepidation. However, she travelled very well, settled in her new posh stable and got on with the job of eating.

Piraeus our 9 months old youngster was castrated by a visiting UK vet, who only charged for the drugs, many thanks. So that is all our stallions sorted out and so no more ‘accidents’. Of course Jez will have to be done eventually.

The new shelter has brought many other advantages, the soft ground means all those donkeys who were getting bed sores from lying down so much, have healed much quicker and no longer require bandaging daily, thereby saving money and time and of course they don’t have the sore bits.

The visitors are arriving daily, they can find the shelter easily, and the neighbours have left our signs up! Everyone is very impressed with the new land and buildings and all the shady trees for the happy bunch of donkeys. Thank you to all of you who have made this possible. We have plenty of volunteers in September to help us get sorted out and move the final 11 donkeys to the new shelter and all their ‘suitcases’.

And for a final piece of good news, The Greek Chief of Police has sent out a directive to all police stations telling them that all complaints involving animal cruelty and abuse MUST be investigated immediately and the complainant kept informed of the proceedings. This is truly a step in the right direction, at last.

I hope you all enjoy the last of the warm summer days of this year, as for me, I intend to enjoy some rain soon?

Some pictures from the new stables

On June 16th, I finally got the time to go and take photos of some puppies I had heard about in a local village. The mother of the puppies came to the village several times a day and got bones from the butcher and scraps from the tourists. The whole village knew about the puppies that were in an olive grove just below the last street in the village. I sent the photos to our contact in Germany and asked that as soon as there was room in the shelter on Corfu, could they be taken there? Regrettably there are problems at the dog shelter which are not for me to talk about. We waited a few weeks, I was becoming concerned as the puppies got older, they would surely follow Mum into the village and start becoming a nuisance and then the villagers would take action.

On June 30th I got news that someone was going to put poison down to kill all the dogs in the village. I emailed our contact to say it was a real emergency but got no replies. That evening some of our students went to the village to see if they could find the puppies so we could make a rescue attempt. Sadly we were too late. The bodies of 4 puppies were found. The poison had clearly been left 2-3 days earlier. At 11.30pm that night, when the village was quieter, we launched a rescue attempt to see if we could save any remaining puppies and the mother. We saw one puppy and the mother. We could not catch the puppy but caught the mother. We were all there to witness the terrible sight of dead puppies.

The next evening our students found and caught the one lucky puppy to survive this incident. Mum and pup were reunited at the shelter. A report was filed with photos to the police but we could do no more, we know the police will do nothing. I am sure many people in the village know who did it and are saying nothing. The saddest part is that these puppies could have been saved if there was someone to take them in until the problems at the dog shelter are resolved.

A week later, Spiros a friend from the village, told us that the mother had also been poisoned and that he had hand fed her for three days to try and help her to survive. Everyone told him not to bother because she would surely die. Then he said she had disappeared. He was very worried she was dead. He visited our shelter yesterday and was so delighted to see the mother and she recognized him straight away. Spiros had taken three of the puppies before the rest were poisoned, he kept one for himself and found homes for the other two. He suggested the last remaining puppy who survived the poisoning did so, because she was so shy and never went near people. The poisoned meat was eaten by the other puppies before she got near it. Happily the puppy has been rehomed by one of our students in Holland. We now hope we can rehome the very lucky mother. Spiros says he knows who poisoned the dogs and has let them know how he feels about it. He is definitely a very kind and caring young Greek man.

On 25th June we went to collect a little donkey from a village near Kastalenoi. A young lady called Dina had been to see me at the shelter a few weeks earlier and explained that her father had a donkey for some years. Sadly her father was now very ill and her mother could not look after the donkey and her husband. She asked us to take the donkey to the shelter. Her mother met us with the donkey they had named Fragoula. Dina said that in the morning her father was crying at losing the little donkey he liked so much and told Dina to give us €30 to help with food.

Fragoula was taken to the new shelter as she is in good condition even though she is old. Obviously Fragoula was well looked after and much loved. A lucky donkey.

Last October Frederick from the Jeep Safari, told me about a very poor looking donkey he had seen near Old Perithia. I asked a friend who lives in the north to take a look and let me know if the donkey needed help. Unfortunately she could not find the donkey. Sadly we could do no more and I fully expected the donkey would not survive the winter having seen the photos Frederick showed me.

In June, a German couple visiting the Island came to us and asked for help. They had seen a very poor looking donkey in the village of Loutses near Old Perithia. They were willing to buy her if we could find the owner. In this instance I called my friend Dagmar from the Nefeli Hotel, Kommeno, who is German and a fluent Greek speaker. She offered to go with our visitors, the next day, to find the owner. They found the donkey again and spoke to some neighbours. The neighbours explained a rather sad but amazing story. The owner of the donkey was Yiannis and he himself was very, very old and unable to take care of his donkey well. Last Winter he took the donkey and tied her up some kilometers away and hoped she would die. Well this donkey had other ideas. She managed to free herself and wandered about surviving as best she could. But one day she must have gained entrance to the garden of a villa and fell in the swimming pool. Luckily for her, help was on hand before she drowned and she was rescued and returned to Yiannis. Yiannis did his best to look after her after that, but carrying water to her everyday was very hard for him. The neighbours told Dagmar where Yiannis lived and assured her that Yiannis would be happy to let us take the donkey. But Yiannis was not at home. The next day, Dagmar, Mirthe and myself went up to Loutses with the trailer in the hope to bring back the donkey. We found Yiannis and he was very happy that we could take the donkey away. He told us he had the donkey for 35 years since she was small. He said she was a very good worker. We loaded up little Loutses, as we named her, and Mirthe travelled all the way back with her in the trailer as she was so unsteady. Loutses is now at the old shelter, getting plenty of food and tlc. She is so friendly and is always coming up to us for attention. I am sure this is one little donkey who is happy to be at the shelter with lots of company. A friendlier donkey you could not find and despite her age she is very capable of looking after herself and very able to give the others a quick kick if they get in her way!

Yiannis and Loutses with Judy

Sadly we had a recent loss. Ika came to us at the end of April this year. She had a very long white soft coat of hair, was very thin but also very strong willed. She seemed a very happy donkey. Four days ago however, she stopped eating and drinking. She showed all the symptoms of ‘choke’ – something stuck in the esophagus. 99% of choke cases clear themselves in 24 hours. After 36 hours there was no improvement so we gave her muscle relaxing injections and tubed her. There was definitely a blockage. I called two vets to come and help. Neither would come. I asked my friend Rachel to come over and help me put an IV drip into her, as she was now very dyhydrated. The following day one vet came and tried to remove the blockage gently with the tube and water, but nothing shifted. In the afternoon Rachel and I, gave her another IV drip. The vet came again that night, again no luck. That night, I slept in the stable with Ika, I feared she would not survive this. The following morning the vet came again, this time he removed the blockage in seconds, but Ika collapsed. I immediately asked the vet to put her to sleep. It was all too much for her. It was very sad. Ika was a super little donkey.

I fear we may lose Omali, she is losing weight rapidly. We know the problem is the teeth, what a mess!! But we have no dentist to call on to help her. I have been doing what I can to remove sharp edges but the problems are huge and need a real expert. Again, donkeys suffering for lack of a farrier and dentist and expert vet. The very people we take for granted in Northern Europe! Even in North Africa they have expert equine teams and hospitals to help such donkey’s, here in an EU country, we have nothing. It’s heart breaking.

We have taken in a few more donkeys, We have Ouzo, Lefkas, Svenja Taz, Piraeus. We are really at full capacity now.

So life goes on here and we do what we can to help. Tourism is very bad this year. Everyone is complaining. The Island is so quiet, apart from the weather, it seems more like mid winter. Even the marina is eerily quiet.

Visitor’s donations are essential to keep us going in the summer months. We are most concerned. If you can spare a little money to help us keep going in these difficult times we would be most grateful. The donkeys need us and we need you. It’s all about teamwork.

It has been fairly quiet the last weeks on the donkey front. We sadly had one loss, Psela. She was put to sleep last month after her respiratory problems became too much for her to cope with. It was a sad day for us, she was a very friendly donkey and very popular with the visitors. Always at the front eagerly awaiting attention; she is much missed.

We have a new donkey, Mari, she too has respiratory problems. Things are not looking too good at the moment. Larnaca who came in a few weeks back was the same and she has got a lot better, we can only hope that Mari improves too.

We have no major problems with particular donkeys at the moment but many are suffering unduly because we haven’t got a professional farrier to help with the feet or a dentist to help with the teeth. Spiros our neighbour does some basic trimming as best he can but we need a remedial farrier. We just cannot afford to pay one to come here. Although there are farrier’s who are happy to do the work for nothing they need their airfares paid for and accommodation. Also, if they come here, they lose a week’s work in UK, Holland or Germany, wherever they come from, so we would have to pay this. In these countries they can earn €1000 a week. It is awful to contemplate that some donkeys are suffering and even put to sleep, simply because we have no farrier. That is how bad it is. Izzy, Nymfes, Atlanti, Paralia, I am worried about. Do you know a farrier who might come and help us?

Ivan Napier, from Cornwall in UK, came for the month of May. Ivan, camped out at the new shelter and did a lot of work. Ivan has a special skill, - making things out of nothing, so saving us a lot of money! He adopted one of our rescued street dogs, Timber (who is being pass ported and sent to Ivan in UK) Ivan became quite a celebrity at the local village of Doukades, trekking up there each night for sustenance sometimes with Timber and sometimes not. Timber blew it rather after he stole Ivan’s dinner off the restaurant table? Ivan is now home and Timber looks everyday for him to return.

On Saturday the 8th May it was International Day of the Donkey.
We decided to take one donkey, into the old town of Corfu, to advertise our work.

Daggi, Laura and I accompanied new donkey Larissa around the narrow streets behind The Liston, and were amazed at the genuine interest from the Greek shop owners.

One lady showed us a postcard of a donkey in the street of Corfu which she said was taken 40 years ago (see photo). So we took a photo of our donkey in the same spot 40 years later.

We were very happy that the Greeks were delighted to see the donkey and even gave donations to the sum of €200. We only stayed 2 hours because our little donkey was having trouble walking on the slippery cobbled streets. But we will certainly try this again in the Autumn when it is cooler. Larissa behaved perfectly.

In May we also had 16 students and 3 teachers from Belgium visit for a week. The students had chosen CDR as their charity project in their final year of animal care course. They had been fundraising for the donkeys before they came. On arrival they helped each day at both shelters, building the chicken and rabbit run and a hen house and rabbit hutch, general work and walking donkeys. It is great to know that there are new younger generations growing up with a love of animals and the thirst for knowledge about them.

As an added bonus, it turned out that their teacher Katrien was a vet and so she was able to castrate our 2 male rabbits that can soon enjoy a more companionable life with the females we have. When Katrien arrived I discovered she was an equine vet and I was disappointed I hadn’t known this as I desperately needed an experienced vet to castrate our two stallions. Katrien said she was willing to do this if we had some vet on the Island who could provide the equipment and drugs to help. Well, many of you know that we have big problems here getting local vets to work with foreign vets. To my knowledge it has never been done. But I knew one vet, Nikos who may co-operate. I went with a prayer in my heart to ask him and he was very happy to help. He wanted to watch the operations so he too could update his skills. He brought along his friend, Mario too. He is a new vet here setting up another practice. Our 2 donkeys were successfully castrated, the second one by Niko, and it was a real bonus for me to see these vets all working together and learning from each other. Bravo! Soon we will be able to put our young donkey, Kerkyras, in with the others so he will never be alone again. Zorba, the much older one might take a little longer. Thank you vets.

We have had an adoption, through the bank, for Lieke for Natalie Tanno in the Czech Republic. Lenka Safarova, if you read this PLEASE send, by email, your address, so we can send Natalie the certificate for Lieke.

And please, anyone who adopts a donkey through a bank transfer please send me an email with your address as well. The bank papers only allow one line for addresses so I end up with a street name and number and a country only! I cannot acknowledge receipt of your money with so little information.

Tanja, Casper and Angela, Mechteld and Kerstin, Klaus and Waldi, Andrea and Erika, all from Germany came as volunteers in the last month. My thanks to all for giving the donkeys the extra attention and love. And Paul from UK, who was here for a month to help with the building and fencing.

Xara is doing very well, she is at the new shelter as the ground there is more soft and smooth. She only needs her leg bandaged now, no boots necessary.

Zachari is doing very well, despite his blindness he is in with all the other donkeys and manages to keep out of trouble. He still shares a stable at night with Nymfes. Strangely, he is the only donkey that hates being brushed.

Paraskevi celebrated her 3rd birthday on June 8th. She is a beautiful youngster and now matriarch of the donkeys.

Sky suffered some trauma to her shoulders and was very poorly for a month but thankfully has made a good recovery.

Charlton our Staffi cross dog has stopped attacking the donkeys. He went through a bad period of jumping up at their noses and hanging on. I despaired that we would ever cure him of this very bad habit. It looked like he would have to be muzzled whenever he was near them or permanently chained up. But we are happy to say we did succeed and he now finds other things to do with his time like playing with Dax and running after balls, normal dog activities.

We took in a little dog called Wispa who was slowly dying from untreated Leishmania. But she is now looking much better and on the road to recovery. She is looking for a home. She is the size of a large cat. She is 15 months and sterilized.

Next week we collect another donkey from a small village near Kasteleni. The owner is very old and sick and his wife cannot care for him and the donkey.

Last week we were called out by an Italian lady called Paula. She had been walking her dogs in the middle of nowhere and found an abandoned donkey. We responded straight away, found the donkey again and transported her back. Paula has named her Dolche. She is very small and old but with no major problems. She is as sweet tempered as her name suggests. Paula is now a regular volunteer donkey walker too!

There have been delays on the building front (of course, this is Greece). I won’t bore you with the details. But there is light on the horizon and hopefully we have the foundations done in the next few weeks and then the stables will arrive from Germany. The permits, I have been told, have been held up by the state veterinarians, they are arguing how we get rid of the manure. One wants to put it in underground concrete containers! Then what we do with it when they are full, no-one knows or cares. Rules are rules!

Here is a picture of the stables that will go up at the new shelter soon. They have been donated by the Tina and Juergen Bolz Foundation. Fantastic!

Today I went to see my jeep mechanic and he has given me a donkey! He advised me that he put old engine oil on the donkey’s legs, said it was very good at keeping the horse flies away. I did say we had better ways of doing the same job

Much fund raising has been going on which has kept us going in these difficult times. The running costs are €1000 a week. Our donkeys are very old and so require extra food, not just hay but barley, sugar beet, nuts and bran and corn. Because their teeth are not good they require the best, softest hay. Because of their age and old injuries many require medication twice daily. So please keep on giving whenever you can. And our sincere thanks for all who have donated in any and every way.

The new shelter will be open to visitors in July by appointment (so you can be sure someone is there to show you around). However if you turn up unexpectedly and a volunteer or student is there, of course they will welcome you.

My number is 0030 6947375992

Last week I heard the first noises from the frogs. They sound like an orchestra. Spring is definitely on its way. The flowers are early this year, the wild flowers look beautiful and full of colour, soon the deciduous trees will follow suit and the Island will look cheery again after the dull winter colours. We still have rain and cold days ahead but there is nothing like the signs of Spring and warmer weather to come to brighten up the days.

10th March

We took in another donkey some days ago from Spiros. He, Pavlos, has severe COPD and cant/wont eat anything much except some hay. Just like Kiana. I hope the end is not the same. I am beginning to wonder if many of the respiratory problems of Corfu donkeys, (there are a lot. Most of our donkeys die from this problem) are caused by spraying the olive trees with all the pesticides and then the donkeys grazing the ground before the residues are dispersed. Maybe the residues are in the new grass that grows, in the roots of the plants and will never go away. It was only 10 years ago that DDT was widely used and sprayed by airplanes !! Even nowadays, you can see the bottles of poison hung on the trees to warn people it has been sprayed. But this is more to warn the people about picking the ‘horta’ for human food not the donkeys. (Besides donkeys can’t read) Years of grazing contaminated ground must do some damage to the respiratory tracts/lungs/stomach lining of the animals. But I can’t say for sure, I don’t know enough about these things. At the end of the day, is there a cure? I doubt it. The donkeys arrive with respiratory problems, they never commence problems after arrival despite a hay diet and a lot of dust in the summer. So I really do think there is something in what I have said. Any comments would be appreciated.

12th April

Well my good intentions of writing more regularly didn’t work out. We have been very busy and shorthanded as usual this time of year. But on with the news.

Elsa the dog we had here that got a foster home in Germany must have behaved very well as he foster parents decided to adopt her fully. A happy ending.

We have taken in 3 more donkeys, Larissa and Larnica and Omlai. This week we collected one more from Liapades village, no longer wanted by her owner. We have called her Methoni. The owner said she did not work her at all, hence she is a fat donkey and needs attention to her hooves, but by all appearances seems fairly healthy.

Tragically we have another sad horse story, this time more personal. Many of you have met my horse Jake who lived with the donkeys at the shelter. I have had Jake since he was 3 years old, and this June would have been his 21st birthday. On 19th March he died in horrendous pain after a 36 hour illness (colic symptoms) during which he was obviously suffering a great deal. With hindsight it would be a reasonable assumption to suggest he died from a twisted gut or lypomas growing in the intestine which caused a blockage. So sudden was the onset of illness and quick the death. Without expert veterinary help here on the Island, he didn’t stand a chance.

I thank all my friends and colleagues who were here immediately to help me and help him. Also to those who came and took his body away and saw to his burial at the new land. I could not cope with that. He was the light of my life and best friend for 18 years. My guilt is that I either didn’t have the time or energy to spend more time with him or taking him out riding. That was the price we both paid for my work with the donkeys. But I try to remember the good days when we were both in England and we did Endurance riding, Western riding and spent hours just charging about the beautiful English countryside having fun. Because Jake was a fun horse. He loved (food mostly) ? but he loved to gallop and especially race when we were riding with others. He was a real handful out riding but a perfect gentleman to handle at home. Cheeky but honest I could not imagine a better friend.

I always said that if anything happened to Jake (apart from natural death from old age) I would not be able to go on with my work. But you will be pleased to hear, that is not the case, I had to go on, the living still need us all. But as my friend Andrea said, “the shelter without Jake is like the sky without clouds”. How right she is, it is just not the same here anymore.

As if that wasn’t enough to bear, the following morning after losing Jake, we found Pavlos had died. He had only been with us 10 days. He did not respond to any treatment we could give, not that there is much help for this kind of problem.

And then to just round it off, everything comes in 3’s they say, a dog that I had taken in also died that morning as well. I had little hope for him. As the photos show he was in a horrendous condition. The worst state I have ever seen an animal in. I believe, again, this is just my opinion, that this dog, we called El, sustained this condition at his owner’s property. He was then abandoned on the road. However, El, was found slowly walking along the side of a fairly quiet road by our donkey dealer friend. Horrified by what he saw he did put the dog in the back of his jeep and bring him to me. He told me that although he was not a good man where animals were concerned, he was so shocked and ashamed by what he saw, he had to do something. He kept saying “how many people drove past this terrible suffering and ignored it? I am ashamed to be Greek”

It was reasonably clear that apart from severe malnutrition, dehydration and the skin wounds, El may have been in an advanced state of Leishmania disease. His chances of survival were from slim to nil. But for 4 days we gave him tender loving care, the best chicken and drinks, he slept all the time, just getting out of his bed to pee, and then died peacefully in his sleep. I hope I never have to see anything like this again.

And to top it all the last week they are spraying the grass and the olive trees in the field directly bordering our new shelter and other fields around. When I was there I checked the wind direction which was blowing away from the shelter thankfully but as for the whole time and all the spraying, I don’t know.

However, that is all the bad news, life is like that here. When you only take the old, sick or injured animals, and it must be said, an inexperienced equine veterinary service, death is never very far away. But there are always the silver linings on the clouds….

Spring rolls on, the snakes and lizards are all around again and yesterday I saw my first tortoise of the year. The birds are all around us, safe from the guns, breeding again. Many buzzards and eagles are screeching high overhead, especially at the new shelter. The dark pink blossom is out on the trees, the deciduous trees are in full leaf again. The colours are amazing. Our donkeys are doing well, a few minor problems here and there but nothing we can’t deal with at the moment. Hydra, our oldest, continues to amaze us with her strength and tenacity for life. Each day she comes out of her stable and into the front of the shelter and rubs on everything she finds, the place is like a disaster area when she is finished. Tables, chairs and buckets, everything is knocked over. But she is happy and content so we don’t care.

The planning permissions were put into the building department this last week, so in one month we should have the go ahead to start building. The move to the new shelter has been put back a little, till mid June, but all in all, things are moving along nicely. There will however, be people working at the new place almost every day so visitors will be welcome there. A map of directions will be put on the homepage very soon.

Thanks to you all for your continued support and interest. I do hope that many of you will be able to visit us soon and see the new shelter. By seeing it, you can see where your money is going. Not in big plush offices, not in huge great reception areas, not in massive executive wages and big colour journals, but straight where it counts, to the donkeys, their new home and their daily upkeep. And we hope, later, to make lovely special areas where you can all come and relax and enjoy the donkey’s home with them. Please come and visit and show your support - Judy

Tritsi, Kiana and Makis arrived in January. Tritsi is in good condition but very nervous and doesn’t want anything to do with us. What has happened to her in her life, to make her so mistrusting can only be guessed at, like so many donkeys we take in. Makis is a tough little donkey with no serious problems, just a lovely character. Kiana came to us from a villager who is 83 years old and could no longer ride her. Kiana is emaciated and has some sort of respiratory problem. She hardly ate at all and I really thought she would die. But with much care and attention and trial and error with feeding, her appetite has improved and we are hoping she will recover. She is a bright little donkey with an interest in life so it is a real pleasure to see the improvement. Sadly our vets do not have the experience to deal with many of the donkeys problems so it is down to us to do what we can.

Then in Feb we received a call to help a donkey abandoned near Agrofoi. We collected the donkey from a man called Theodore who had found her. So we named her Thea. We reported her movement to the local police in case her owner was traced. Then we were given Rambler, she has a very bad case of laminitis and we hope she will pull through soon. Fengari arrived, she is a beautiful white donkey and her name means moon.

The cavalry arrived in mid Feb in the form of 2 Dutch volunteers; Chantal and Diana, and 2 Dutch students; Kelly and Miranda, so at last the donkeys have enough people around to get that extra special attention they need. This week the weather was so mild that we took all the rugs off the donkeys again. Yesterday they all received a good brushing, they loved it. They looked so smart it was hard to recognize them but such a pleasure to see. Our Dutch team are super and it is a pleasure to have a full complement of people to help, for the first time since October last year.

The photo shows the 3 men who bring some of our hay supplies from Doukades, a lovely trio who constantly gabble away in Greek and we understand very little. They are very reliable. Stephanos is the boss and we are happy to give local people work and business. It all goes to keeping good relations at the new shelter.

Sadly we have another ’horse’ story.

At 4.30 am in the morning on Sunday 14th February I received a call from a Greek lady Maria. She said her boyfriend, Theodore, had witnessed a car accident with a pony at 2.30 that morning. The pony was badly damaged. The driver of the car drove away but Theodore, the boyfriend stayed to see if he could help. He called the police. They came out and tied the pony to a telegraph pole and tied two other loose ponies to another place and then they left. They said that the problem with the ponies was not theirs. Poor Theodore did not know what to do so telephoned his girlfriend Maria, to call a vet. Maria tried 2 vets and no-one would pick up the phone. They tried an Animal Rescue Charity and they also did not answer – how deep these people sleep! Then she tried Corfu Donkey Rescue. I answered. I always answer the phone in the middle of the night, it is obvious it is an emergency if someone calls at 4 in the morning. Maria asked for numbers of more vets which I gave her. I also said that if no vet would answer to call me back and I would come out. I couldn’t do much but I could give pain killers until a vet was reached. Half an hour later Maria called me, no vet would answer the phone. So I left hastily, sleepy dogs in tow. I was horrified to see the extent of the injury. The front leg of the pony was smashed and the bone was sticking out through the skin. The pony was in terrible pain and shock. I put 3 blankets on him as he was so cold and injected the pain killers. I then called my vet Dino and he answered and said he would come as soon as he could get there. I went to a friend in the nearest local village to see if he knew the owner. He came out and recognized the pony as one he had rescued 2 years before. He was so upset as he had got this pony really well and then given it to another Greek as a companion for his horse. This Greek had then sold it (to make money) and sold it to a bad person. We know who owned all 3 ponies now but no-one would speak with them, they were too afraid. By 7.30am the pony was put to sleep and at last out of pain. But he suffered excruciating pain for 5 hours.

Theodore wanted me to write this story as he was desperately upset. Accidents happen he knows but he said it was the complete lack of interest of the police who left the scene that upset him most. The inability of 6 vets and an animal charity not to answer the telephone and the fact that the Government Services were not available to take the body away, it was Sunday. Theodore was also in despair that in the 3.5 hours it took for his girlfriend to find CDR, me, there were many people who drove past him and the pony, slowed down to stare, but not one, offered to help in any way, except, by chance his friend Dimitris passed by and gave him support. The lads did not want their photo taken, modest as they are, but I sneaked a quick picture of them.

I wanted to write this story because I wanted to thank publically Theodore who did stop and did everything he could to help this animal. He would not leave until he knew the pony was helped in some way. I hear many stories about the Greeks and how cruel they are and uncaring. But this is one story of a Greek couple who did care and did everything they could to help the pony. They are few and far between but I must say here, that in my work, I have met many caring Greek people. And I thank God for them. Maybe there are many more out there and maybe they do try to help an animal in distress but either they do not know who to call, or the phone is not answered. Maybe a lesson here for all of the charities on the Island, we must be more accessible.

May 8th has been designated by PETA as International Day of the Donkey. Fund raising and awareness events will take place all over the world. We are arranging with the authorities to take a donkey into the centre of Corfu Old Town to raise awareness of our work. So many locals still don’t know about our work. Two years ago I was in the town shopping and got to talk to a sale lady. She not only didn’t know about CDR but did not realize there were any donkeys on the Island.

El, Nadia and Mirthe, Dutch friends of ours and past volunteers here are holding a fund raising event for CDR on this day at The Ezelsocieteit near Zeist. Hopefully, if you live nearby you can visit and support them. Perhaps you can be inspired to hold an event too. We have so much money to raise to pay for everything at the new shelter along with the running costs.

I am happy to report that one of our dogs, Elsa, is now safely in a foster home in Germany. We have decided to keep Charlton. Since so many people think he is a Staffordshire mix dog, and we know there are many problems for this breed in Germany, I decided against sending him. He is a complete nut case but so adorable and I have become really fond of him. Bella is still waiting for that perfect home with a fireplace and a few children to cuddle up to. We have added a puppy, called Dax, to our menagerie. I went to the garage to buy petrol and they gave me the puppy free – in UK we usually get a set of glasses as a free gift! Dax has taken to shelter life very well and has no fear of anything and of course, has learnt all the bad habits of our older dogs already.

Things are progressing with the permits and licenses for the new land, they need to do an Environmental Impact Survey and an archeological dig first. All these different departments take their time but we are told we will have the building permissions and electric by April/May. We have some good news regarding the stables but will reveal all when it is confirmed.

Update
27th Feb – sadly our dearest Kiana died yesterday morning. The day before she was not so good in the morning but we helped her up, gave her medications and she was soon fine, eating more than she had ever done before. But at 7am yesterday morning she was down again and within 5 minutes she had died. We are so sad she did not make it, but obviously there was the underlying problem that could not be known. During her 5 weeks with us she was spoilt rotten and had every comfort she could wish for and lots of love.

Chantal and Diana left this morning. They will be much missed. Two more hard working girls you couldn’t wish for and so much fun to work with. They brought their experience of working life on a city farm to CDR and we all benefitted. Our 2 students, Kelly and Miranda are doing very well too, they learnt the job very quickly enabling them to finish the chores fast so they can give the donkeys quality time with grooming and walks.

Finally we welcome the arrival of Karuna a few days ago. A beautiful beige donkey with the sweetest temperament but a coat so full of matted dried manure that it would seem obvious her previous owner had never cleaned her stable or her. But if that, apart from old age, is the only problem she has, she will have a happy time at CDR.

We now have 20 donkeys there and it has been reassuring to know they have plenty of space and comfort. One end is knee deep in straw for them to relax on. Having donkeys in 2 different places has been difficult as I knew it would be. I have to go 2 times everyday to check them and feed them. Sometimes leaving here at 6pm to drive there and check by torch light. But in the new field there is little they can harm themselves with and I do believe the whole ambiance of the place is conducive to a happier existence than at our old shelter. There is no mud for a start! Seriously, the new place has a very special feel to it, and I love to be there and can’t wait for us all to move.

That said, it is my plan to move lock stock and barrel in the 3rd/4th week of May. During that time we have a team of Belgium students coming over for a week to help out and so this makes perfect sense for the move to take place then – ready or not. Of course the stables etc won’t be completed by then but the weather will be good enough for all donkeys to live out if they want or live in the tent if they want. We will build around them, in between them, over them and under them as and when we have the money. But we will get them out of this old place so they can all appreciate the calming and beautiful setting of the new.

I wanted to thank John Cartier and his Greek friend; they have voluntarily helped to do many repairs to our stable and tools, repairs by welding. John even managed to resurrect our old little donkey trailer when I thought it was ready for a final journey to Corfu metal recycling! It will live on for a few years yet,

I also wanted to say a thank you to a lady called Edith from Germany who has sent several generous donations, however on the bank papers there is only a street address and so we have been unable to thank her personally. If you do read this Edith, we would love to have your full address.

I have had several emails and a phone call from various people, Greek and Scottish asking to buy or borrow stallion donkeys so they can mate with their female donkeys. Although we have some stallions, (only because we have no vet to castrate them) we do not encourage breeding. When you see the amount of unwanted donkeys selling for a few euros then I can see no reason to breed more. They live for up to 40-50 years and no person can ever ensure that their homebred will always have a loving a permanent home for life. We respect everyone’s right to breed should they wish but using the stock from CDR is not an option.

3 new donkeys came in during December, Timoni, Soukia and Nymfes. All have their problems, lameness of course the main problem, but all seem able to cope. Yesterday we received out first donkey for 2010 and we have called her Pagi. She was unwanted by her owner and happily for us she seems very strong and healthy. As soon as we can we will take her to the new place. It is so interesting to watch the new donkeys. They spend many days standing away from the others and just watching. I wonder what they think.

Just before Christmas we were asked to help a man who had taken in a horse that was very ill. The gelding was very thin, I called him Grandee. He had obviously been a well bred handsome horse, imported into the country. I had seen this horse in the summer and he was indeed magnificent. Now he was a walking skeleton. He was plainly very ill and although he wanted to eat he could not, whatever delicacy was tempted. For a week the man had tried every feed available and suggested to him.. A vet was not called as this would cost money and it’s a rare Greek who pays money for an animal unless there is a good chance he will recover the money. When we were called in it was plain it was too late to help and no vet on the Island had the knowledge or skills to know where to begin. When we told the man that the horse should be euthanized he refused. This would cost him money, the horse must be left to die he said. This we could not allow and offered to arrange and pay for euthanasia, which we did. I hope you agree we did the right thing for Grandee who though not a donkey was in much need of our help in his final days.

2009 Overview
January started grimly with the loss of our beloved donkey Shine and throughout the year additions and losses. Each loss painful for us and each gain a joyous moment, another life to help if possible.

April saw the final signing of the contracts for the new land. The donkeys finally have a permanent home to live out their lives in peace.

Early May saw me go to Austria and Holland to see the donkeys that had been rehomed there in the last 3 years. Despite a few losses the remaining donkeys were happy and very well cared for in both shelters.

Late May the transport for Austria, Gut Aiderbichl finally left. 14 more donkeys destined for a new life. I had never given up hope despite the State vets putting every obstacle in our way – even inventing laws that did not exist! But I kept returning and telling them that “I will not go away until my donkeys have the export papers they need”. And so eventually the donkeys left for their new home in Austria, another battle won here. But there should have been no battle.

June was the month the new field was finally fenced and enclosed meaning we could move some 7 donkeys onto the land. The 12th was the day we went to court to fight for the right to stay at the old shelter until we could move to the new. June also brought Mark the farrier from UK to help our donkeys.

The summer months brought plenty of students, volunteers, visitors and old friends back to the shelter. It is a good time for the donkeys with all the attention and for those of us who do the work, to know how much it is appreciated. Sadly our dog Meli was stolen and 5 cats were poisoned.

September came and the decision of the court was beyond our expectations. We were given leave to remain at the old shelter indefinitely, albeit with a limit on numbers. A resounding win. No-one could quite believe it. The end of another 2 year battle.

October brought the architects plans for the design of the new shelter. Things were beginning to take shape. Also the Dutch team from the Ezelsocieteit with a farrier and dentist and volunteers and friends to help the donkeys once again. Also Paul, Tina and the Richter family arrived and this meant many repairs were done to see us through the winter in the old shelter and a small field shelter was built at the new place (all with 2nd hand materials costing nothing) which meant we could move another 5 donkeys.

December brought the tent from Austria and meant we could have in total 19 donkeys on the new land. We have 5 more to move but the problem is we use the trailer as a storage for our food supplies which means it is out of action unless between deliveries. Nothing is straight forward here.

Also news from UK that our application for charity commission status in UK is finally completed and hopefully we will have full UK registration in a few months. We will keep our UK supporters informed on this.
Although we will move to the new land next May it will take time to set up and build the new shelter. This is not just for financial reasons but because we must do this legally and this is often where time is a problem. Things move slowly and for each set of progress we make with licenses and permits to build etc, this costs us money in fees. If we don’t have this money we cannot make progress legally. We will be asking the government for help. We will be asking you all for help. But I am sure, for those of you who visit us this year and see our new land and the hope it holds for the Corfu donkey’s future, you will see for yourself that it is a very worthwhile cause. Many of you will have followed our progress over the years and see how far we have come.

Thanks to you all I am very optimistic for the future of CDR and all its inhabitants. For 5 years we have been at this old shelter, please help me see it through the next 5 years at the new, and see what a difference we can all make. Happy New Year to you all.

3 Dogs Needing Homes
I don’t normally ask for help with rehoming dogs but this winter 3 dogs came my way and I have had to take them in to save their lives. It is very difficult for us here to cope with all the dogs and the donkeys; it has not been easy at all, not to mention the additional expense. I also feed several street dogs and all this food adds to the expense. When we take in cats as special cases, Agni Animal Welfare Fund, whose main remit is cat protection, always offer their help and have even set up a monthly standing order to help pay for the food. Unfortunately the dog charities refused to help us by taking these dogs in. Though I should add that Cheryl does take any puppies I find and Tierhilfe Korfu did agree to sterilize Charlton and a mother and daughter owned by a poor Greek family.

Charlton
He is a robust castrated male, cross bred dog about 2 years old. He was left chained up to the gate at the new shelter several months ago. From his behavior it would seem he has spent his life chained up, everything is new to him and very exciting. He is exceptionally friendly with people and dogs. He is bottom of the pecking order and if my own 2 dogs attack him he rolls over and submits immediately then comes running to me for reassurance. There is not a bad bone in his body, a truly super dog but will need some training to curb his exuberance. He is great with children but because he is strong and excitable he will be better with older children.

Bella
I found on a dirt track just off the main Paleocastritsa Road. Immediately she jumped in the jeep and became my shadow. She is a setter or spaniel. She has obviously had several litters of puppies previously. She is no trouble at all. But a nervous little soul who seems to think everyone and everything is out ‘to get her’. If you want a medium size, light weight, loyal dog who is more than happy to curl up on your lap or in your bed, Bella is for you. Excellent with children, she just lives for cuddles. She is a hunting dog and when cuddles are short she loves running, her one faux pas, if you like gardens, she likes to dig for frogs, mice, insects etc.

Elsa
I found her in exactly the same place as Bella. She was a bag of bones and near to death. She also has a problem with her front leg which is broken in 3 places. These are old breaks and cannot be repaired here, maybe in Germany? However, it does not stop her leading a perfectly normal life. She also has Leishamania but since putting her on a daily dose of tablets she has improved no end. She is looking 100% better now. She is also very sweet and loyal and excellent with children. Tierhilfe Korfu have a foster home in Germany for Elsa but we need a flugpaten for her or someone travelling to Germany by car to offer to take her so she can get that important treatment for her leg.

All the dogs are happy to ride in the car together, most days I take all the dogs, 6, it’s a bit crowded but try leaving one behind when I go to the new shelter each morning. They are good with other dogs, cats and donkeys.