Tilly, Merry and Bilbo

by Madeline
(Roda, Corfu, Greece)

This is my true story of my donkeys....
Me and my family decided to get a donkey once we moved from England to Greece so we would have room for it, we kept searching and searching until we found one, we decided to rescue this female i think she was 12 years old and grey with a gingery blonde mane and a brown cross on her back, she had a overgrown hoof with a nail stuck in it and no food or water and was very skinny and was left to die so we bought her for 50 euros and named her Tilly about 3 weeks later a farrier came and told us i think you should just give her to the donkey sanctuary in town, but we refused we were going to keep her until she was better about 2 months later we decided to get another one for company and we rescued her too she was kept in a barn all day in the dark and had never had a farrier on her hoofs and they looked like christmas elves shoes she was brown with a black mane and a dark brown cross and dark legs, she was a little bit grumpy so for a joke we called her Merry, a few months of healing and caring for them they got better Tilly had her hoof cut shorter and was no longer skinny. Merry had her hoofs cut and the farrier couldnt believe that Tilly had gotten better.

By now it was cold febuary(2008) and one night i forgot to put their rugs on, and Merry had left in the cold she went missing for a few days and we were upset then one of our friends told us that a brown donkey had been hit by a car up the road, we suspected it was Merry but i wouldn't believe it a month later we decided it must have been her, so we got another one, Bilbo he had no injuries or anything and was very healthy.
About a year later(19-10-09)though, I came home from school to hear that Tilly had liver disease and the vet thought about putting her down but gave her an injection to keep her alive a bit longer, i ran over to her and there was a body lying on the floor and she could only move her head, i burst out crying and ran off i came back and sat with her all day, then mum told me the vet said if we can get her to stand up tonight she'll live, but it will probably be the end if we cant, we tried and tried to lift her up we eventually did but her legs wouldn't move so we left her, then later that night she died, gone and was never coming back my best friend had left me i was so upset

i don't even think bilbo cared, we still have bilbo but he's around 26 so maybe he has 10 years or so. Now i'm getting 2 shetland ponys 1 mare and 1 stallion they are mother and son and theyre so cute <3

If you can understand how it feels to loose something so close you are a true equine lover <3