Meet the newest guy at SYA, Joe. Joe arrived Saturday and has merged in with the donkey herd beautifully. He has some impressive striped markings on his legs, he is going to be beautiful when he sheds out. Joe was adopted from SYA 13 YEARS ago with his companion, Vito who has since passed on. Joe had a horse companion for a little while until he, too needed to be let go from the earthly realm. If you’re new here, all of the SYA donkeys are adopted with a contract stating that they must come back to SYA if they for any reason can not continue to be cared for in their adoptive home. In this case, the owner was not in a position to get another donkey for Joe so she reached out to us to schedule his return. Contracts like this keep our animals safe from being passed around and possibly ending up in bad situations. Joe is 20 years old, just a teenager in donkey years, and he is a standard sized donkey. He’s as sweet as they come and has the softest brown ears. We are still getting to know him but we will have more details available on his website bio soon. Ps. Joe refused to put his ears forward for his portrait, and the 37 others I took coaxing him to do so. (fb)

The surgery went great! Thank you to Dr. Heather, Dr. Jesse and Vet tech Emma for making this happen today, always a pleasure to work with these ladies. He is still a bit groggy and will need some pain meds in the morning but we suspect he will start acting calmer very soon. He’s on his way to a much better and less stressful life! (fb)