He owes his name to the fact that he was found in Sjabururi. That in itself is quite a story. At first catching him was a breeze: together with someone from the fire brigade we lured him into a garden, but then the main artery in an old  wound in his behind burst and it became a bloody situation. Once in the trailer the vet was called and he came in to stitch the wound and remove a rusty can from one of his hind legs. When Buri was healed he jumped the gate and disappeared in the cunucu. What we did not know at the time was that the vet had provided Buri with a chip. Years later a gorgeous, castrated white donkey was standing in front of our gate. Because we had no idea who it was, we looked for a chip.  We could not find one, so we baptized him Mystery Man and chipped him. Two years later we discovered that Mystery Man already had a chip from the vet as well. And yes: Buri and Mystery Man proved to be one and the same. We had not recognized him as he had a reddish fur at the time; now he was very light in color.

Together with her son Maestro she was roaming the island and that is a hazardous occupation. Lots of traffic and wild dogs make life very difficult for a roaming donkey. It took quite a few tries, but finally our volunteers succeeded in capturing the two donkeys by luring them into a garden at Rooi Master. Bunny was named Bunny because of the fact that she was caught around Easter; Maestro refers to Master, as in Rooi Master. But Bunny had a treat for us: two weeks after being caught she delivered a baby boy, whom we baptized Amadeus. So here we are proudly presenting Bunny, Maestro and Amadeus, a great little donkey family.

For a really long time I roamed the island on my own, but finding food proved to be more and more difficult. Increasing traffic made things even more hazardous. My name is easy to remember, for I was found in the district of Bringamosa. For a few weeks, however, I have a nickname: Smiley. Because I always smile when I get a carrot from a volunteer or a visitor. People think I am laughing, so that is fine, as I will get even more carrots that way. I even `smile’

when people ask for it: I lift my lips when they say smile.

For a long time I roamed the island, but finding food became more and more difficult. And with increasing traffic a donkey’s life became hard to live.

I got my name because I had to be shot with an anesthetic pistol in Rooi Lamoenchi. They thought I had a broken leg, but fortunately my leg was not broken, but badly injured. They had to chase me for two afternoons before I could be `shot down’. This may not sound very friendly, but that is how my namesake always calls it. Because of the anesthesia I was stiff for three weeks. Each morning they had to lift me up to put me on my feet.

After a while I jumped over the gate, because I needed to find my Angelina. For five years I was back on the streets, but in the end I decided to go back to the nice people of the Sanctuary. So, on a fine morning, I was standing in front of the gate of the Santa Lucia Sanctuary.

And to make the party complete I had recruited seven extra donkeys that were roaming the streets.