Darling boy Zachariah - tortured, maimed and left without his eyes...

He was found at the Syrian border and so cruelly had both his eyes gouged out and was stabbed each side of his neck.

We are determined to do everything in our power to keep the sanctuary going so that Lucy can always be there for tortured, abused and neglected donkeys who need her help, like Zachariah.

Here’s a little update for the many who love him to show his amazing progress.

​He is less and less fearful with time. Lucy always needs to talk as she approaches him and so long as she touches him first on his neck and strokes him and talks all the time to him, he really enjoys attention.

He loves to be groomed which is needed often as he adores rolling around in the sawdust on his stable floor and he also enjoys being sprayed with anti-fly spray probably because it feels lovely and cool.

Some days he even allows Lucy to gently rub some anti-fly ointment around his eyes but she has to start by tickling his cheek for quite a while and gently and slowly move round his eye area and then he accepts it. It is particularly remarkable because it was not that long ago that his trauma prevented Lucy from doing anything. His fear and anxiety were so intense that she could barely get anywhere near him generally. To have touched his eye area would have been completely impossible.

He does still have moments where he is less relaxed than others and that’s ok too, Lucy never pushes him. If he isn’t in the mood for something then Lucy won’t do it.

Every day he has carrots in his bucket of grain which he loves and Lucy goes to great lengths each day to find him some lush grass still growing somewhere to pick for him. Finding fresh grass is not an easy task because of course as the very hot summer in Israel progresses, grass simply dries up.

The one thing that Zachariah seems to do less than the other donkeys is to drink water, and green grass helps to hydrate him.

Luckily there are still odd patches here and there in orchards and places that receive water, so Lucy gathers his daily portion and soaks it in water for a while before giving it to him. We don’t know why he doesn’t drink very much but he has his automatic water trough in his stable and Lucy also daily fills a separate, big water bucket for him so he can choose where he prefers to drink.

If you want to help maintain Lucy's peaceful sanctuary in Israel, please consider making a donation. Found out how.