My female donkey, along with two other neighborhood donkeys was stolen
on Saturday. It is so sad, for so many reasons.

In the past 4-6 weeks she began, for the first time, to carry her
ears up and forward, rather than hanging down at the sides. My
interpretation is that she had become confident that life could be
nice. I'd had her 14 months, and she wnt from being a kicker to being
interactive and companionable.

The Donkey Sanctuary would have taken her as well as Edilegnya -- not
for the life of ease and play that awaits Edilegnya, but something
pretty good. She would have been given to a poor person as a working
donkey, and the person would have been carefully chosen and would have
had Donkey-Sanctuary training on ow to treat and care for a donkey.
Now God knows where she is and under what circumstances.

Edilegnya is upset and brays all day long, on and off. Saturday he
brayed all evening. She was his companion and mate. He was my only
donkey for 18 months. Then I got Sophie, and then Binnie was born. Now
Edilegnya is alone again and soon will be uprooted to go to his new
home. Of course that is going to be a good home, and he'll adjust.

Also, a friend of mine runs a small school in Edilegnya's new area,
and she will start an "Adopt-a-Donkey" program with the children, and
will bring them to see him regularly.

I'm so sad for poor Sophie, and I miss her. I keep forgetting, of
course, that she is gone and then am sad and grieving all over again.
She had become such a nice companion.

Within the usual Ethiopian context, female fertile donkeys are a lot
luckier than the males. They are much less abused, because they make
money for the owners by producing offspring, and the owner protects
his/her investment in the donkey's body. Nonetheless, Sophie was
abused by one of my own employees, as some of you already know, so...

Of course this makes me even more negative about living here and
relieved to be leaving.

I was in the capital for a couple of days, and missed the most recent
FML Digests till now. I give my heartfelt thanks to the people who
supported me, my character, and my current efforts.

PS,  the local police are involved. Sometimes they get results. I will
go myself to see the police chief, whom I know a little. I haven't got
a lot of faith in them, however.

[Posted in FML 7729]