Henri's Page

Henri

In Memoriam

With great sorrow we announce the death on the 22nd March 2007 of our sweet darling Henri.

Dear Henri's health had been declining for the last couple of years due to arthritis and his impressive age of nearly 50 years. He was on medication to relieve pain, but he kept losing muscle mass, to the point that over the last few months when he was lying on the ground he could get up only with the assistance of May and some volunteers who were rostered twice a day to help him. Once he was on his feet he was fine and he was still enjoying life.

Despite this, we knew that the day would soon come when it would be kinder to let him go, and sadly, on Thursday evening, despite his own efforts and those of May, Kath and Rhonda, he was unable to get to his feet. The last act of love we could show him was to help him gently leave this life, and so the vet was called to euthanase him, and he died peacefully amongst the people who loved him so dearly.

Henri was a fixture at Donkey Shelter and because of the extra handling he had required over the years he had a special place in our hearts.

We will miss him so much, but are so grateful that we were lucky enough to have known such a special boy.

Henri's story

Henri is one of three lovely geldings who arrived at Donkey Shelter in January 2000. He is of special interest as he is part Poitou Donkey(Baudet du Poitou). Purebred Poitou donkeys are a species peculiar to the South of France.

At about 43 years of age(we think he was born about 1960), he is a very wise old man. Henri has severe problems with his feet, as a result of laminitis. Over a period of time, this led to multiple abscesses and because of the chronic damage caused by the laminitis, he will always have feet problems, especially in wet weather.

Consequently he will always be kept in the Intensive Care paddock, but this is not ideal, as even there it does not stay dry enough for his feet when it rains. Our goal is to build intensive care stables which will have the conditions he needs so badly.

As he is such a rare donkey here in Australia, Henri gets a lot of attention at Donkey Shelter, and everybody is totally besotted with him.

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