The busiest period of our lives started off innocently and routinely enough with the first call at 12.30 on March 3 from Kath Oldrige who lives on the Torrox to Cómpeta road, about a donkey running up the road causing havoc with the traffic. As it later turned out, the donkey is a regular escape artist and we thought that a picture or two of him (below) might help the rescue process next time he escapes!

As he appeared frightened of male voices, we decided to call in the ladies in the shapes of Shiela and her daughter Shell, both full time sanctuary volunteers, who climbed up and made (non male) soothing noises and managed to bring him down from his hill top perch. Kath Eldrige happily agreed we could temporarily secure him there and the ladies walked him to the safety of her drive where, as he was clearly a happy, healthy and well cared for donkey, we had no doubt his owner would be looking for him and would collect him soon. We just tied him up and reported him in as rescue call 6,486 and started spreading the word locally about where he was now located.

The next call, 6,487, was yet another road running donkey nearby and as the mobile was going again, we just had to also grab him and put a head collar on him and tie him up as we now had another two calls outstanding.

The first of these was a runaway horse, rescue 6,488, who we also caught and again tied up whilst we went on to another donkey at Torrox Park on the second call from a German couple about a donkey on the road, where we also eventually managed to catch and tie him up to a railing at a Chiringuito and recorded him as rescue 6,489. Then off we went to respond to an outstanding call on the Nerja to Torrox road by Frenchman Pierre Simone who said he caught a runaway donkey and had tied him up in a field next to the Marinas de Nerja and could we check him out. We headed down the N340 from Nerja and soon met the donkey as it was running down the middle of the road as he had chomped his way through his bit of string and taken off, again.

We managed to herd him into the Venta Miguel and to get a head collar and rope on him and tied him up and asked Miguel to try to find the owner of what was a young and frisky mule and not a donkey at all. We logged him as rescue 6,490 at 5pm.

Between then and the afternoon of Wednesday, March 5, we undertook a further 22 calls, most due to the horrible windy weather on that night and the following day which destroyed stables, fences and frightened animals into galloping around. We finished up tying the last five, which were three horses near the Chiringuito Mauri on Playa El Playazo, Nerja, and two other horses behind the petrol station.
We ended up with a final rescue call number of 6,512 which meant in just over 48 hours, we had undertaken 26 rescue calls and we also managed to answer (but not respond to) some additional 29 telephone calls about dogs and cats.

On March 6, after a long sleep, the rescue crew were delighted to hear from the sanctuary crew that most animals had been collected by various owners but, needless to say, we ended up with a loss of 19 head collars and 24 ropes, which will cost us nearly €500 to replace, so if you have any spare head collars, ropes and any type of tack (and saddles) we would be very happy to have them as it is a harsh fact of life that our rescue team loses about 30 head collars and ropes each month. But what can we do as we have to secure the animal whilst we try to find the owner or answer another rescue call, and usually, by the time we return, the animal, head collar and rope have all gone?

The exception to our one hundred percent success rate was, and yes, you guessed it, the mountain goat climbing donkey rescue call 6,486, who although tied up and in full view of anyone passing on the Torrox to Competa road and many enquiries among Spanish neighbours, was still in Kath’s drive. Although contributing plenty of stuff for the roses, he was still there and it was time he moved on. As he was not microchipped, we had no hope of tracing his owner. An animal not being microchipped is a nightmare as before we can re-home them (which we do with all healthy animals) we have to apply to the Court for a place of safety order and hold the animal in the sanctuary for 14 days (to allow the owner to reclaim them) before we can start the long and expensive process of having them microchipped and legally registered. All this costs us a lot of money and time, which is part of the reason we try hard to find the owner and secure a healthy animal where we found it, for a while at least, and only bring

them into the sanctuary as a last resort, or if they are very ill, injured or elderly and need care and treatment.

As it turned out, we had a telephone call from his owner and they were all happily re-united on March 12, although we would not release him until his owner (and lovely wife) arrived in the company of our vet with the animal’s nice new papers and a microchip was inserted. When they all left the sanctuary, his owner had a large van outside and he just said to the donkey, come on, and he happily just jumped straight into the back!

As for our part, we just said adieu as we have that feeling that we will be seeing them all, again…
 

Our opening times are 10.00 am to 4.00 pm weekdays (sometimes we have to close earlier due to rescue call-outs) and 10.00 am to 1.00 pm at weekends. We are open every day of the year and admission is free.

You can find us at E2 on the Soltalk map 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 at here, and can emailus here.

For 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

The Nerja Donkey Sanctuary is the founder member of Asociación de Malaga 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