I am soon travelling to Andalucia for a shortened version of the trip I have been planning for a long time: the visit to Pepe Selfa’s donkey stud farm to see how the Andalusian breed was saved from extinction.
As I prepared for my trip, I was approached by someone I only knew from one conversation in a local village a couple of months back. He phoned me about some donkeys in a situation of neglect and abuse: a matter of concern to him and several neighbours in the area nearby the donkeys. I’m not naming the district here. I said I would use my contacts to help but the neighbours needed to denounce the person responsible: I would support in whatever way I could.
I saw the donkeys in their confined space with their overgrown hooves and bleeding sores on their legs and it was shocking. I have done everything possible to help but the authorities are very slow to act. This has occupied me as a matter of urgency during the month of November so far…
Overlapping the extreme urgency of this situation, another worry was introduced last week. Some people on a long leisurely road trip in a camper van planned to stay here at El Parral and care for my donkeys while I went away. The dates were set by them in August and I went by their dates tp book my travel.
They decided to re-book their travel arrangements and leave earlier than planned, even knowing that I had my return railway journey already arranged and paid for weeks ago. Reluctantly, I wrote to them on Friday to say I would change my plans and buy another train ticket! I said I could come back several days earlier to leave them to pursue their changed travel plans. My suggested solution to their problem was completely ignored and the donkey sitters now said they were not coming at all!
Fortunately, I have good friends locally who agreed at the last minute to step in and help: alternating to provide morning and evening donkey care. So it is all sorted: I will now go on a shortened trip to Andalucia – see previous post – and I am really looking forward to it. Nothing lost really – except trust in human arrangements!
But here is the point. After fifteen years of life with donkeys, I know their moods and they know mine. The distress I felt about the donkey maltreatment case last week was immediately picked up by my donkeys. As I did my routine cleaning jobs around the stable and field, they were seeking out my company – nuzzling and drawing alongside to brush close to me – to show care and affection. It was very noticeable empathy.
Then, as the added layer of stress about being let down by the donkey sitters developed at the end of the week, on top of the maltreatment issue, I was emotionally overloaded! We lead a quiet life here. For years, as readers will be aware, it has been a haven of peace and stability until the quarry issue blew up earlier this year, disrupting our possible life here in future. As if this year hasn’t given us enough stress! A worn out and bothered Peasant is not what the donkeys were used to before 2025!
But here’s the positive point! Now they pick up immediately and deliver instant therapy. They learned this year that the Peasant is not only here to respond to their daily needs and signs of debility or possible ill health; but the Peasant also has moments of need and vulnerability. They closely followed me every moment I entered the field over this weekend. Then they offered prolonged periods of standing next to me, occasionally nuzzling. I first noticed it yesterday morning, from Matilde, Rubí and Morris; but even from Aitana who is usually the most aloof!
Last night I had a donkey dream, which I confess is rare, as my daily life has more than enough donkeys in it! I was a guest speaker at a symposium on “The Wisdom of Donkeys“. It was the title of a book I once reviewed here on my blog fifteen years ago. In the dream I was speaking to a bunch of social scientists who were sneering and goading me, accusing me of “pathetic fallacy” (a poetic device in origin) meaning projecting human attributes and emotions onto non-human subjects.
In the dream the poor little confined and abused donkeys in their shed suddenly broke into the symposium in playful chaos, kicking over chairs and trampling everyone underfoot before gathering around me and gently nuzzling and baring their teeth in that well-known donkey expression of equusasinus pleasure. I saw they were all now healthy, healed of their wounds and had immaculately trimmed and polished hooves.
And I awoke to a string of Whatsapps sent at this early hour on Sunday morning from the person who was no longer coming to look after my donkeys, and ranting on with an angry narrative about train timetables and boat sailings and who was to blame for misinterpreting whatever… etc. etc. (The Whatsapp messages in a ” stream of consciousness“ started at 03.50 and ended at 05.01! Who in their right mind does that?)
It was now 05.30 and I finished reading the mad Whatsapp narrative… now aware that the Whatsapp notifications must have been why I awoke from the dream at 5 o’clock! (Note to self: turn off notifications if you can’t trust your contacts not to disturb you with their rants in the middle of the night.)
And the miracle was this. I was still so filled with the positive warmth and mystery of the resurrected and rejuvenated donkeys in the dream that I simply laughed at the absurdity of the Whatsapps sent in anger, only designed to provoke a reaction. (In fact, I only sent a brief response many hours later just to say goodbye and make clear I was not interested in angry arguments.) And sitting there – unusually awake at this early hour on a Sunday – I heard braying sounds from the field.
That was also unusual at this hour – on any day – so I got up and went to investigate. It was still dark. The donkeys were pleased to see me. There was nothing wrong. I told them I was OK too: just human stuff… angry Whatsapps getting in the way of the natural cycles of life and polite behaviour.
You know the thing. Even donkeys know better.
