Bill.

I went to a smallholder auction two weeks ago as there was one Grey Faced Dartmoor ewe entered. I've always wanted a Grey Faced Dartmoor and as my ewes are now dying off fairly frequently due to old age I thought now would be a good time to buy one.

Needless to say the ewe didn't arrive on the day but there were some donkeys there including a 5yo gelding with a very sad, world weary air about him. The donkeys were sold last so I spent quite a lot of time with him and he seemed like a very nice donkey.

He was quite large and very handsome (I thought). He spent a very long day at the sale tied up in baking hot sunshine and he had a badly swollen front leg. No-one else seemed to want him and I had a friend there with a trailer so you can probably guess the rest.....

Bill is a lovely, kind, steady, long suffering chap and he needs to be as he now shares a paddock and a trailer with two young thugs called Rhys and Louis!!! I was worried there wouldn't be enough room for them all to take shelter in it but they were all lying down inside last night - Rhys flat out!

Bill loves horses and I think he's probably lived with them rather than his own kind before but he's just about keeping order with the two boys and he seems very happy in his new home. His leg went down very quickly and he's just had his first tetanus vaccination which he made no fuss about at all.

He still flinches a bit when you touch his quarters as the people who sold him were a bit stick and welly happy, and he was a bit touchy about having his back feet picked up to start with but a few treats for being good soon cured that as he's very intelligent.

He's a delight to lead and very co-operative in every way. Everyone here loves him, he seems very fond of us already and I'm really glad he's part of our family now. I think he's had a bit of a tough time in the past so it's lovely to be able to spoil him a bit now.