Donkey sanctuary still busy

Dear donkey lovers

Im hoping all these photos will come through to you.  This is what ive recently posted on facebook on our page Liberte des Anes. Follow us on facebook if you can for our latest news ?  (anyone not wanting to receive our updates please let me know and I'll delete your e mail address).

These photos show some of our happy family here at Lavolvene....

Today we sit with 24 donkeys, 5 dogs and 9 cats.  Over the past few weeks 2 new donkeys have come in,  3 donkeys were delivered to a lovely new home and 2 cats have been reserved for collection soon.

When I wrote on facebook about little Bambi my post reached 4112 people, yes over 4000 shares !  Normally we only reach a few hundred.  I don't usually ask for funds as we usually scrape through the year with donations and our fund raising lunches but its been far too hot to think about organising and cooking for 35 people so if any of those 4112 people who shared our news or indeed any of YOU can afford to make a tiny donation it would make all the difference to our efforts here and help us to help even more needy animals. Our paypal is .. libertedesanes@gmail.com or you can send a cheque in euros or pounds to Assoc. Liberte des Anes, Lavolvene 82150 Belveze, France. If you'd prefer to make a direct bank transfer I can forward our account details if you send me an e mail on ...

libertedesanes@gmail.com. 

Thank you in advance, your donation will help to replenish our stocks of hay/straw/bedding.  We have almost zero grass now in the fields and are just starting to feed bigger quantities of hay and barley straw to keep everyone happy and stop them trying to escape !!

For those folks local to us I have the need of volunteers from say 10 till 12 on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings, or if you cant make those important donkey times there's always lots of other jobs to be done during the day.

If I can think of an interesting menu I'm planning a lunch at the beginning of September, so will be looking for anyone who can cook for 6/8 people so that makes it less work for one person.

Im hoping to hear from some of you !!  Enjoy our photos !

Thank you so much for your support, I cant do this without you !

Jan xx

Lunching with donkeys

Greetings from Liberte des Anes

We thought we'd invite you to lunch on Sunday 26 March here at Liberte des Anes to visit the donkeys who are loving any sunny weather being sent our way. 

Here's our menu with as much as you can eat and drink for 17 euros, all proceeds go to the donkeys.  Please let me know if you can come, I see its Mothers Day in the UK so maybe thats a good excuse to come along support us here at Lavovene, 82150 Belveze.

Starting with an Aperitif

Choose between Homemade Tomato or Leek and Potato soup, then

A very tasty slightly spiced creamy Pasta, please advise if you'd prefer a vegetarian dish

Followed by either a caramel and banana icecream or the cheeseboard

Tea or coffee 

If you can find the time I'm going along with a table of goodies to sell on Friday 24 March to La Sirene in Montaigu de Quercy for the Nearly New Clothes and Accessory Sale in aid of Sue Glibbery's Poor Paws.  May see you there too ?

This lunch is in two weeks time so please reserve your place as soon as possible.  The grass has just started to grow and our place is full of cowslips, violets and orchids, just beautiful !  We hope you will want to meet our three new donkeys who are arriving next week.  They would have been homeless and are going to stay here whilst looking for their new home !!

Thank you all so much, I couldn't continue without your valued support.

Jan: libertedesanes@gmail.com

Next lunch with donkeys

Jan Lemmy at Liberte des Anes, near Belveze (82) has finalised the next lunch on Friday 20th January. To start with we'll offer you a greek salad and for dessert either dame blanche or crunchy fruit yoghurt, all nice and light to compliment your fish and chip for lunch on Friday 20th January here at Lavolvene, 17 euros a head to include an aperitif, wine and as much as you can eat.

Also Jan has three Shetland ponies that she would like to re-home.

One of Jan's shetlands

contact libertedesanes@gmail.com

Next donkey lunch sounds good, and kittens to good home

Firstly im hoping the photos of the kittens I have here for rehoming are attached this time ! if not you can meet them when you come along to our Christmas Lunch to be held in aid of the donkeys on Thursday 1st December at Lavolvene, 82150.  If its your first visit we look forward to meeting you and for the regulars you'll be pleased to know that our track has at last been resurfaced by the Mairie, we are very grateful !

We will start at 1 oclock and warm you from the inside out with some MULLED WINE, followed by

CELERY with BLUE CHEESE SOUP

SWEET and SOUR PORK with RICE and PEAS, or for our vegetarians

CURRIED VEGETABLES with BASMATI RICE

APPLE and ALMOND MERINGUE ROULADE or

LEMON SORBET with LIMONCELLO

We hope you'll want to visit the donkeys after your COFFEE and TEA.

We'll ask for 17 euros a head. All the proceeds go to the donkeys. Following on from such a dry summer we have no grass at all this year and now its turned colder the donkeys are eating their way through 9 small bales of hay a day !

Thank you all for your support and the help from everyone to make these meals so successful.  Im looking forward to seeing you all the day.

Jan libertedesanes@gmail.com

Tales of Donkeys

Jan Lemmy at Liberté des Anes writes

NOW TO DONKEYS

if anyone knows of a dry space suitable for a shop I have some lovely items for resale which will all get damp this winter so its such a shame not to be able to have a shop like other small charities in this area.  We wont be able to pay any rent but someone may just have some ideas ? 

Thanks to all who came to our last lunch and made it a success. Time has passed so quickly and we are hoping to hold a pre Christmas lunch, maybe around 1 December when we are not all rushing around with last minute present buying.

Is there anyone who can help by offering to cook a main course for say 6 or 8 people. I have a few ideas but would welcome some input if you think you could just this once cook a dish.  This is a really busy time of year for me as the weather has changed and I have to feed double the amount we were feeding only a month or so ago when it was still warm.

Last Saturday we had another farrier visit so I'm feeling happy now that everyone's hooves are trimmed and neat.  The dentist is due in December as its been a year since his visit, but as no one has any problems I think ill wait until the spring as its not funny trying to hold donkeys for their dentistry with the wind and rain blowing outside. Its also a very expensive vets bill to attend to all their teeth.   Im sure they feel the same about the dentist as we do !

So please any volunteers to help me put up some decorations and cook a little or help on the day either with the parking or in the shop.

Thanks everyone for all your support, I know there are many causes pleading for help.

Ive taken on these donkeys, nearly all of them would otherwise have been killed prematurely for meat, which because of the journeys involved and stress of the situation isnt quick and peaceful as it should be.  However, they take a lot of looking after and I pride myself in the fact that they are all a perfect weight and they live in ideal conditions to give them a happy and healthy life, but of course it all comes at a cost, not only financial but my time also.  

Any help at all would be appreciated.  Thank you.

Jan Lemmy  libertedesanes@gmail.com

New date to lunch with donkeys

Dear, dear friends

So for our next fundraising lunch for the Donkeys we now wish to invite you here to Lavolvene, 82150 Belveze on Thursday 6th October at 1 oclock to eat, aperitives from 12 oclock onwards. (not on the Wednesday now !)

Our menu will be

QUICHE LORRAINE, with a delicious vegetarian quiche aswell

MOUSSAKA, again with a vegetarian version served with mozzarella cheese

Flavour of the month, PLUM TART of course with cream, or

CHOCOLATE TORTE, which was so incredibly successful the last time we served it !

Please let us know if you can come along, we hope to have another successful Day. 17 euros a head for as much as you can eat and drink. 

Everyone tells us how they enjoy these days at our happy Donkey Sanctuary so please do come along and support us.

Many thanks

Jan Lemmy 

libertedesanes@gmail.com

Rain stopped play

There is nothing like a nice afternoon cleaning out a donkey stable. And today was nothing like a nice afternoon. Malc decided that it was time to get out with barrow and spade to clear away a couple of days' pooh and straw, but halfway through the afternoon it started to pour down. The donkeys sensibly took shelter in the newly cleaned stable, watching with sympathy whilst Malc shovelled away.

Eventually they indicated that there was room for three and invited the shoveller into the shelter, where all three watched and waited until the showers passed. Smart animals those donks.
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Bertrand says

Did Malcolm find there a new home with his pairs , after this beautiful  50 years anniversary party?

Val replies,he is often in the dog house!but out with the donkeys is too harsh

Donkey talk

After another escape the night before last so the donkeys are back in the field behind our house. I love having them close to us and they seem happy themselves to be back. The field has had time to refresh itself and there is some good grazing for a short while. Another month and we will be supplementing by giving them hay.  We have a farmer / fencer coming to dig in the wooden stakes next week, so there will be a bit of moving around of electric fencing whilst that happens.
At the end of November Julia who owns Filou and  Coco is moving to a rented farm at Espinas where there is a field and barn, so after a couple of years of  us looking after them the boys will leave.
Malc and I will miss them as will Lucy and Rosie, but managing two will definitely be less work. Mucking out the stable and cleaning  the fields is quite a job.
When a donkey lovingly rests its head on your shoulder you know it is worth the work.
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Ca tombe bien/ it falls well: meaning it could not have worked better.

I get so excited, you cannot believe what I am like, unless you know me well.
When do you get a chance at nearly 70 to take a young handsome chap in to a beautiful meadow and kiss him all over. Well I got that chance today.
Malc says "steady on you only kissed him on both cheeks," I would have kissed him on any cheek presented I was so happy.
So you want the story from the beginning?

One of my donkey chums in Varen is Maxim who lives in an hameau near us, works in Unicor in Varen and is a really nice steady young man. We have an affinity being animal lovers and I have known for some time he had a donkey. Often as we have talked I have said "but you need two donkeys" He has always replied, my donkey lives with a brebis ( for those learning French pronounced "brubis" and meaning a sheep)
He has always impressed me with his love of animals and we have spent many times discussing attelage and training donkeys to pull carriages. He has spent the time training and now his donkey is quite adept at carriage pulling and is often seen around the lanes.
Anyway today I was telling him the Coco story and he admitted he felt his castrated male donkey needed a friend.
We arranged in his lunchtime to go and see Coco to see how he felt about him. When we arrived Coco was peeping shyly out of his tin shed, I called him and he came out, but I left it to Maxim to make the running. Maxim stroked his ears talking gently, then calmly picked up his hooves to look at his badly deformed sabots. I assured him we had the marechal/ blacksmith coming Tuesday or Wednesday and that they would be sorted.
The big question was " did he like him"
Maxim said "he is a beauty, I like him and I would love to have him" It was at this point I unrestrainedly threw myself upon him, Maxim not the donkey. The young lad then took lots of pictures on his phone, you know when someone is really pleased. He has plans to train the two donkeys for attelage. I know he spends hours with his one donkey and will do the same with Coco.
From this lunchtime meeting Malc and I went to Charlie's for lunch and I had to go round all the French people (many I knew) telling them of the happy story. It was obvious I was delighted and I think it made the diners happy as well. Charlie was full of smiles and said to customers " it had nothing to do with me, it was Mme. Johnstone!"
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Ann says   Love a happy ending, and a new beginning
Lorraine says    you know how to make people smile.
Jeannine says   Wow! I cried
Malc says   - one less donkey for us  phew!

Lucy Johnstone is on the mend

Our Lucy is an " ange" sometimes, and today with the vet Charles from Laguepie she showed what a calm donkey she can be. She had her hoof cleaned and pared, an  antibiotic injection  all without batting an eye. The vets opinion is the stones in her hoof (which we found yesterday) had punctured the corium which as she is showing a bit of fourmiliere (a type of fungal infection)  is causing her pain.
I have some powders to give one a day with a compote but as I have never given her a compote I will probably stick it in half an apple. If any donkey or horse  people know of a compote, please let me know.

She should be walking better in a few days and even today one can see a difference after removing the stones yesterday.
All the donkeys are due a tetanus injection which lasts 3 years but is obligatory to have in France as is being puced.( having their identifying number in their neck)
People ask " are they cheap to keep donkeys, I suppose you stick them in the field and they eat the grass."
 If only it was that simple.
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Lucy has a limp, elle boite

The first time in 6 years we will need the vet to look at poor limping Lucy. Yesterday I noticed her not standing on her right front sabot so tied her up and cleaned out the hoof. There was a small stone which came out but this morning she is still limping quite markedly. Limping in French is the verb boiter, elle boite, I think if  I had not put the " e" elle boit, it would mean she drinks. So complicated the French language!
I will let you know how she progresses.
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Riding in style

Dear Malcolm & Valerie,

Doesn’t this inspire you get some schooling before next summer? The Dalmatians and other spotted items are not obligatory! 

Sally.

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Dem Donkeys

Eat, bray, love: amorous donkey couple reunited after protests at separation
http://gu.com/p/4xq86

If you should ever need a story about donkeys....Love
Sarah
Val says and reader J of Varen  will be pleased the story is from the Guardian
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Happy Donkeys at Liberte des Anes

Our local donkey sanctuary Liberte des Anes will be happy this week as I am sending cheques from adverts adding up to 90 euros.
 Kick up your heels, you happy donkeys.
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Up with the lark

Yesterday I redid the fencing on the far field and let the rascals in. The field next to the house is pretty much eaten over and it was time to trust the escapees. I was up at the crack of dawn and could see  and hear no donkeys. My heart sinks! and I walked over to the second stable with little hope of them being there.
A sleepy eyed Rosie popped out her head and the other three lay cuddled up together. There must be some awful kicks given to each other. Imagine one of them having nightmares with flaying hooves/ sabots.
Whatever,  the relief of not having to undergo another early morning trek was tremendous and I could enjoy the breaking dawn and bird song as I walked back to the top stable  to start making buckets of breakfast for four.
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Rosie, Rosie, you are a little madame.

I have just asked Malc what the old gentleman yesterday  laughingly called Rosie our naughty donkey.
I did not know the meaning of the word but the man said " they are all gentils but that one is a little salaud."  Malc tells me it means " bastard"
He was about right but I do wonder what she had been up to before we arrived there. She is  easy for people who know her to catch but I cannot see her responding kindly to being caught or chased  by just anyone, a quick  flip of her  back heels in a high spirited way is not unknown.
... and I thought he was being complimentary!
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They had booked a jacuzzi for four

Now we know why the donkeys had gone to the vilage of Lez, they fancied a romantic evening in a jacuzzi. Rosie is " en chaleur again"
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Photo opportunity at Lez

No heehaws at 7 am signalled alarm calls to me. The donkeys were nowhere in sight and all I had was a dead hen in the poulailler, Black Peck  is no more. She died never having laid an egg other than 3 pigeon sized ones. We know she has always been a sick hen, nothing contagious and her pal Penny continues in her dotage ( past egg laying)

Malc went with the dogs looking for the donkeys and when we arrived back home from different directions after searching, he told me the dogs had run off.
At this point  a neighbour arrived to take some photos of our location, saying "what a great day!!"
(I will tell you about the photos another time.)
Bonny then came racing home and Twister limped back, so one good result.
Two and a half hours later Julie who owns two donkeys woke up to listen to her answerphone and said she would come and join the search.

I had been down the slippery steep slope  in the woods to see where donkeys might be, another break in the fence was obvious... but no donkeys responded to my shouts as they normally do.
Back on the lane came a car with an elderly driver who said " follow me Madame, 4 donkeys are at Lez"
 I had to get Malc, who in turn had to phone Julia. Me walking 4 donkeys back, over two crossroads and quite a distance did not appeal.

We arrived in the village to create many photo opportunities, people like donkeys. The donkeys had found an apple tree and were gorging on the windfall apples. They meekly put on their licols / bridles, gave a few swishes of tails and smiled at the cameras before setting home. We left with villagers saying "what sweet, gentle donkeys"  ringing in their  big donkey ears and so we bade a farewell to all at Lez
I am exhausted and you, you  may be fed up of donkey tails / tales but you are not the only one.
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The next donkey dinner

dear everyone

here is our menu for next friday 15th, tasty and exciting as always.

starting with:

crab filhol pastry savoury or asparagus/artichoke/cheese filhol pastry savoury

followed by:

smoked chicken/bacon lasagne orsalmon and asparagus lasagne

then:  

mint chocolate cheesecake or

apricot with almond stuffing or

plum tarte tatin

please let us know by tuesday 12th if youd like to come and also let us

have your choices of menu.

to offer the vegetarian option for friday 15 august, of:

 roasted red peppers and tomato cannelloni

 all meals will be served with seasonal salads

jan

Many thanks for all your support, i hope you will want to visit venus when you come over and i am hoping there will be two more elderly donks for you to meet aswell.

Jan     libertedesanes@gmail.com

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A quick donkey story for the chums fans.

Every morning Julia, Malc and I, are walking the donkeys down the road for them to clear an area of field of grass and brambles. I love it that  they are are being useful and also that they are getting out and walked each day. The little darlings run up to have their head collars and leads put on, they know full well that means a walk.
It is just like the dogs, who get excited when you say " walkies".
In the evening we go and collect them and they are delighted again to come home. As soon as they are back in their field they go into the stable, lay down and sleep. They are so calm on the walk that Malc managed our two donkeys Rosie and Lucy on his own tonight and I walked with Filou and Coco. When Julia came to help, we were proud to say " all done and dusted" well actually as she is French, I think I might have said " c'est fait"
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