Grace was named after the woman who spotted her, injured and alone; the Rest Ur Ass Donkey Sanctuary collected her and got her the medical help needed to recover.
Johannesburg, South Africa (22 November 2021) – Lloreen Le Roux reached out to share the story of Grace, a donkey that was rescued from Mpumalanga. Grace had a broken leg and instead of having her put down the team at “Rest Ur Ass” decided to help her heal.
Rest Ur Ass is a donkey sanctuary based in Johannesburg. They provide a forever home to abused and abandoned donkeys. The sanctuary is currently caring for 107 donkeys.
“On 25 September 2021, I received a call about a female donkey, who was found abandoned in a field, pregnant and with what looks like a fractured leg. She was in Amsterdam in Mpumalanga, 2500km away.
The next morning, we drove through to Mpumalanga to collect her. We put her in a makeshift sling in the horsebox, to keep the weight off her leg.
The earth angel who found her has named her Grace…
Our vet came out the next morning, to do an x-ray, which confirmed that her leg had a clean break. Normal protocol would be to euthanize her, but we wanted to give her a chance.”
Lloreen explained that Dr Felipe Corrêa, the equine surgery resident at Equine Clinic of the University of Pretoria at Onderstepoort opted to put a plate in her leg. It is not usually done on donkeys or even horses. The cost for her surgery was R56 000.
The surgery took 7 hours, after which she recovered for 2 hours, before walking back to her clinic stable, with the assistance of the nursing students.
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GRACE now has 2 plates and 18 pins in her leg.
Unfortunately, she was 7 months pregnant and had a miscarriage. The stress and trauma she had been through was just too much.
She was at the clinic for 4 weeks, with 24/7 royal care and treatment!!”
Grace captivated the hearts of everyone working on her case. Lloreen drove from Johannesburg to Pretoria North every day to visit her just so she wouldn’t feel abandoned.
The surgery has meant Grace, who is only 5-years-old, will have a long life ahead of her. She was discharged on the 23rd of October 2021 into the care of the ‘Rest Ur Ass’ team. She was not allowed to do much for the first 6 weeks. Each day she got to do a 15-minute walk on the grass to keep her spirits up.
Lloreen explained that they had managed to get the Tshwane Metro Police to help with getting Grace home. The cops on duty even made her peanut butter and oat balls as a treat.
“Because the stopping and starting would have been really heavy on her leg, I was able to arrange with Tswane Metro Police and BCI Security to escort her through the traffic lights and toll gate, so that we could slowly proceed without having to stop.”
So many people have been touched by Grace.
“I cannot thank Dr Michael, Dr Felipe and his students, Tswane Metro Police and BCI Security enough, for treating this precious little donkey with so much dignity and respect.”
The sanctuary allows the public to adopt a donkey (hello Christmas gift idea). The donkey will remain at the sanctuary but your adoption will mean many of the costs to care for the donkey are covered. Lloreen is still raising funds to cover the remainder of Grace’s surgery, you can reach out to her via email to find out how.
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