Many of you will remember our Christmas orphan who came into our care in December 2007. She was still trying to suckle her dead mother when our driver, Patrick Barrett Jnr, and veterinary nurse, Tina Buckley, collected her. It was decided to call her Tinsel as it was so near Christmas. They brought her back to the Sanctuary where she was bottle fed three hourly around the clock. She was loved by all the staff and thought Eileen Barrett was her surrogate mother, and to the amusement of our visitors, followed her around the yard and up the walkways during exercise time.

However Tinsel began to think she was queen and to get attention had a tendency to bite. She became very boisterous and the other donkeys in the group felt they had to stand back and leave Tinsel through. The staff became concerned that Tinsel may bite one of our many young visitors in her effort to get attention and it was decided in September 2009 to move her to Hannigan’s Farm away from the public until she learned some manners.

Tinsel was placed in the main group at Hannigans. She still craved the attention of humans but with so many other donkeys in the group, did not always get the individual human attention she was used to. She eventually started to understand that she was a donkey and not a human and made friends with two other donkeys - Blackey and Needles.

This week we hope to bring Tinsel back to meet her adoring public where she will reside along with her friends Blackey and Needles in The Oldie Group adjacent to The Visitor Centre. Let's hope she will behave and won’t revert back to her old ways.