By Dionne Meehan
REMEMBER Rose? She is a one-year-old donkey who has defied all odds.
Abandoned by her mother Daisy following her birth at Donegal Donkey Sanctuary last summer, there was a lot of uncertainty in the first few weeks of her life.
Visiting the new born last year, the Donegal News was told of the intense work that goes hand in hand with little foals.
With Rose left without her mother, the sanctuary had some big boots to fill.
Last year, Rose had to be bottle fed every three hours.
But just one year on, she’s thriving.
Catching up with Sanctuary Manager, Danny ‘Donkey’ Curran, after Rose’s first birthday over the weekend, he described the young donkey as a little fighter.
“Whenever a donkey foal is born and the mother rejects it, you have an awful lot of worry in the first week,” Danny said.
“They are so small and so fragile, we can only belly tube them once or twice and if you do anything wrong and damage the oesophagus it basically means there is pain then when they suck. But Rose is a little fighter.
“From the minute her mother rejected her, she wanted milk and she just kept coming forward and we never had a bother with her.
“Saying that, you get over the first week, then you have to get over the first month.
“A lot happens, a lot changes, they get that bit bigger, they start maybe looking for their mother and they realise things aren’t right. But, you just have to overcome that and work with it.”
In the first few weeks of a foal’s life, Danny said anything can go wrong.
“Rose battled and battled and never gave up,” Danny said. “This made things, from our point of view, simple. She is now a year old and doing the best.”
Rose lapping up the attention after a few head scratches.
But the next big hurdle she has to overcome is being introduced back into the herd.
“We will slowly introduce her,” Danny said. “She doesn’t understand how donkeys work, she doesn’t understand that they bite and they kick.
“Rose wants to run to humans, she is like a bottle-fed lamb, a pet.
“When she is left out with the donkeys, she can be quite scared of them especially if they get a little bit aggressive.”
Hand picking very quiet donkeys to accompany Rose in the herd, including her mother Daisy, Danny plans to introduce her slowly, but surely.
Taking a break from the more serious side of things, last weekend was all about tea and cakes, as Danny described it, as they celebrated Rose’s first birthday.
It wouldn’t be a birthday without cards, hundreds of them, sent from all over the world. Photos: Dionne Meehan
And of course, it wouldn’t be a birthday without cards, hundreds of them, sent from all over the world.
“We put a post on Facebook hoping to get some birthday cards,” Danny said.
“Last week we had nearly one hundred cards, if not over that.
“But we probably have two or three hundred now at this stage.
“So many people have sent us messages saying that they were late sending cards, so we are expecting cards to keep coming in this week.
“It is amazing; we have cards from Germany, Australia and all over the UK.”
Donegal Donkey Sanctuary Manager, Danny ‘Donkey’ Curran and Rose.
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