A fluffy surprise: meet litte Molly!

A few days ago, Lucy had a totally unexpected birth at her sanctuary, when one of her rescued donkeys, Grace, gave birth to a female foal in the field. Lucy decided to call the little foal - an utterly beautiful and adorable fluffy little silver girl - Molly. Molly is extremely friendly and inquisitive, even though mama is still being very protective at the moment.

Of course being a sanctuary rescuing abused and injured donkeys, Lucy has a strict no breeding policy. All rescued male donkeys are gelded as soon as possible when they get to the sanctuary, and kept separate from the ladies until they have been gelded. So we are all rather dumbfounded as to how or when Grace conceived, as she has been with with Lucy since mid-summer 2016!

The only possible explanation was an event around a year ago, when a brown donkey, a stallion, showed up at Lucy’s previous sanctuary in Qalansuwa. He was just outside the gate and, out of concern, Lucy took him in. However, as he was a stallion, she closed off a special, secure (or so Lucy thought!) area for him. After a while, Lucy was contacted by the stallion’s owner who had been looking for him. He was very thankful that she’d taken him in and asked if the donkey could stay with Lucy until the next day when he could come to take him, to which Lucy agreed.

Lucy has always heard it said that stallion donkeys are the greatest Houdinis when around female donkeys, and sure enough, he did get out. It was for no more than about five minutes, but it is possible, in fact probable, that in those five minutes, little Molly was conceived.

At just two hours old, Molly already started to jump about and frisk like a lamb, thoroughly enthralled with her new, safe, little world! Have a look at the pictures below to see Lucy's latest sanctuary inhabitant.

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