We first heard of Alexander a year ago.
A notorious animal/ scrap metal dealer had bought him together with an elderly pony (Frieda) and was renting him by the month to people who wanted a lilmited-time pet to play with. When our volunteer came across him, he was tied in a woman’s garden under a pistachio tree. She had no proper fencing or shelter for the donkey but most importantly, she had no knowledge about donkey care.
She hugged him and kissed him and fed him inappropriate food and kept him tied 24/7 . He cried a lot, the neighbours complained so the next moth she didn’t renew the rent .
The donkey went back to the dealer waiting for his next rental and pinning for his friend the pony who was rented elsewhere.
We were in a very difficult place . We wanted to help him and his friend but we have a principal never to buy animals. We are afraid that people would abuse them just so that we would buy them.
The police is not very helpful in these cases and , because this is a small island, there is always the fear of revenge if we call the police on someone.
A few agonising months passed . We were very worried about those two animals.
Then one day I met the man in town. As usual , I told him that he should donate the two friends to the farm to have a happy life. To my immense surprise , he agreed to give me the pony, Frieda . Probably because she was old and had had a couple of bouts of colic with the bad foods she was eating.
But he refused to give me the donkey who was young and healthy.
A few more months passed. Winter came. We heard no one was renting the donkey and the man was trying to sell him. So, one of our volunteers found a friend of hers who had some old metal doors and convinced him to exchange the donkey for those.
Then she brought him to the farm. What a relief!
He didn’t have a name do she named him Alexander.
Alexander is now in Vrouva and so is his elderly friend Frieda. She is not interested in him anymore because she is infatuated by the big horses. Alexander doesn’t mind. He is not tied , probably for the first time in his life. Actually, it was touching, when we took off his head collar and let him loose in his pen, he didn’t know where to go at first. He stayed within a radius of 2 metres- the length of his former rope. He looks at the other donkeys and he sings to them with the loudest voice. And finally, he can have good hay, not just bran and table scraps . His feet are less sore and his coat is starting to shine.
He is a sweet and kind donkey, 5 years old. Unfortunately, he is still in castrated so he is kept separate from the others.
We have to put a metal rod on top of the fence because he jumps very high to escape and join them.
We are looking forward to the day that he will join the donkey herd , in the near future.
