In December 2022, a local friend rode past a little donkey whose feet were in the worst state yet that we’ve had to deal with.
As soon as we heard, we got straight onto it, and with the help of a few people, we were able to get our lovely Gareth round there. It was a delicate situation with the owner as he was elderly and not in good health. We met Pauline, the sweetest kindest girl, hobbling on her terribly deformed feet. Gareth did all he could, and already this darling girl was feeling better and nowhere near as lame. We gave her some pain relief to help her with the transition from long deformed hooves to shorter ones. Sadly the front one was so bad that she needed X-rays to determine what had happened to the bones, so Gareth and the vet could see what state they were in and would have a better idea on how to proceed.
We tried to persuade the owner to sign Pauline over as he was often hospitalised, but he refused.
We couldn’t just walk away, so with his permission, we made her another paddock at his property that had more grass and a shelter. She was much more comfortable. We wormed her and had her feet trimmed regularly. We visited 4 or 5 times a week to give her decent hay and a groom. She was very lonely, just stuck in a field on her own.
We could only hope that one day he would let her come to HeeHaws, where we could give her a lovely paddock, donkey company, and lots of TLC.
We worked very hard for this poor girl for 8 months. We invested lots of time, hard work, and money to keep her comfortable, and then one day, she just disappeared, as did her owner. We found out she had been moved but we didn’t know where. When we did find out, there was nothing we could do to help her.
Then suddenly, one of the HeeHaws team, Christine, had a break through, and managed to track her and her owner down. He finally agreed that we could bring her here.! We moved very quickly to get a team together, and on the 7th August 2023 she finally arrived at here, her new home!!
Pauline loved her life here, she was very demanding of grooming and cuddles and we all willingly obliged. But sadly, 1 year and 1 day after her arrival, after 2 weeks of vet visits and treatment for a growth on her deformed hoof, an Xray showed that her bones had deteriorated rapidly and she was now in a lot of pain. So one morning, after some of her friends had arrived and plied her with ginger biscuits and carrots, Pauline went to sleep.
No more pain Pauline, run free darling, buck and kick and gallop now, because you can.
