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Some stories of
love
News from the
Nerja Donkey Sanctuary
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Click to visit
the
Donkey Sanctuary
website |
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These
locals, were having a quiet lunch at the Chiringuito Mauri on the
relatively little known El Playazo beach in Nerja when two rescued
baby donkeys decided to take the table next to them.
They said that the
babies were better behaved than an awful lot of other visitors and
were very impressed by their table manners, even though they are
under a year old. They were being taken for exercise by two of the
sanctuary’s younger volunteers but the donkeys insisted in taking
a detour into the Mauri, who support the work of the sanctuary by
donating any left over vegetables and bread.
The local Spanish
family that own the chiringuito give their family and friends
adoption certificates for our rescued animals for Christmas and
birthday presents and have been very helpful with local rescues
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of animals in distress or
abandoned over the years.
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The two babies,
who in fact rather rare Catalan donkeys (less than 300 left alive
today) were only brought to safety in Nerja a few months ago and
are rescues 6,133 and 6,134. They are now called Ziggy, Stardust
and rescue 6,135, also in the trailer, is called Trevor.
They are settling
in well, although it will be another six months or so before we
are sure there is no long term kidney and liver damage as a result
of their earlier lives.
Although we are a
donkey sanctuary, we also rescue horses and mules, and an
assortment of other animals, birds, and you name it.
They all seem to
come our way from time to time, such as rescue 6,403 from La
Heradura, that had to be rescued as a frisky young stallion had
decided she was either going to be his lunch or a game of football
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| We also had a rather sad case in the month where this lamb was
actually dropped over our front gates during the night, presumably by
people acting in the best interests of the animal but unfortunately
its illness was diagnosed by our vet as blue tongue, which is becoming
common in and around Nerja.
Whilst safe for humans, it is a killer to
other animals including goats, pigs and other lambs, and as we have
all of these at the sanctuary, we spent a long hard time disinfecting
everything in bit of a panic to ensure our animals were safe and well.
But the vet’s bills, safe removal and all the other costs that go with
it, meant a nasty dent of €600 in our monthly budget of €5,000 so we
would appeal to people to contact us before just dropping off animals
in this way. |
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Our volunteers that provide cover for our free 24/7 rescue service
have undertaken over 6,400 rescue call outs since 1995 and have really
seen just about all possible situations but even they were confused
when they dropped in at the Tropicana restaurant in Punta Lara last
month for a quick sandwich and a soft drink, to be asked to undertake
a rescue in the restaurant of a “beasty” that had become rather
attached, if not in love, with the machine that dispenses chocolate
eggs.
Still, we carefully collected it from the surrounding apaches
that were circling the wagon. Well, it really was the kids fancy dress
Christmas party hosted every year by Tropicana and they were all in
fancy dress.
Still, a rescue is a rescue, and we gamely caught it and
took it off to a safe and secure location where it was released into
the wild, but we decided not to record it as a rescue!
Long time resident
of Nerja, Lynda (below right) and her friend Alison, who was
visiting her for New Year, had heard that the sanctuary
desperately needed a microwave, so they set out on a mission on
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January 1,visiting Irish Annies, Slainte Bar and The Ship, and raised
€171.70.
They set off in the pouring rain to try to buy a microwave
but after waiting 45 minutes at Supersol they were told there were
none available. Undaunted, they filled a shopping trolley with all
sorts of food and treats for the animals but arrived in the pouring
rain only to find the sanctuary closed to go and rescue a donkey stuck
in a river bed.
They returned the following day with the microwave
and, in the meantime, as they were worried about the animals getting
cold, they went to the Cudeca shop and managed to swap a new pair of
jeans for a blanket and beat them down from €3 to €2 for another one.
Big thanks to Lynda, Alison and the bars concerned. |
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Our thanks too to Smiffs bookshop in Nerja which raised €280 for the
sanctuary by customers adopting a donkey in the shop. Also to Fred,
Thomas, Maribel and Anita of Sunny Palm Properties in Torrox who
organised a Christmas raffle and raised €107.50.
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Love comes in many
shapes and sizes |
And our thanks to
all those businesses and firms in and around Nerja, Torrox, and
other places that continue to help and support us and our thanks
especially to all at Soltalk who publish our articles for free,
without whose help we would have closed our doors long ago.
Our opening times
are 10am to 4pm weekdays (sometimes we have to close earlier due
to rescue call-outs) and 10am to 1pm at weekends. We are open
every day of the year and admission is free. You can find us
at E2 on the Soltalk map on
here.
If you can’t visit
us this time, then you can find out more about us, or even adopt a
donkey or other animal or donate by debit or credit card or PAYPAL
via our website
here
or email us here.
Information on
volunteering or opening hours, call Kate on (+34) 664 558 135, for
rescues, (+34) 618 46 7575 and for fund raising or helping at the
car boot stall, Irene on (+34) 690 047 350. |
You can donate in sterling or
euros, cheques payable to Nerja Donkey Sanctuary, Apartado de Correos
414, Nerja, 29780, Malaga, Spain. Bank transfers to Banco Popular
Nerja No: 0075-1458-25 060-00108-86 IBAN 700751458250600010886 BIC
POPUESMM
The Nerja Donkey Sanctuary is the founder member of Asociación de
Málaga de los Santuarios del Burro - a registered charity dedicated to
defending the environment and the rescue and care of animals,
registered number 7502 and NIF G92826304.
JIM HORNE
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