April 16, 2025 • 31 mins
For thousands of years, donkeys have walked beside us—carrying our burdens, plowing our fields, and offering quiet companionship in times of peace, war, and hardship. These remarkable beings are far more than beasts of burden; they are deeply intelligent, profoundly social, and, perhaps most importantly, natural healers. Their gentle, steady presence is exactly what the world needs right now.
In this heartfelt episode, I sit down with Suzanne Velasquez, Director of Forever Home Donkey Rescue and Sanctuary, a 30-acre safe haven in Benson, Arizona, where over 30 rescued donkeys roam freely, at last experiencing the love and kindness they deserve.
Yet, the story of donkeys is not always one of kindness. Too often, they have been misunderstood, mistreated, and unfairly judged. But if you take the time to truly see them—to look into their soulful eyes—you’ll understand the truth: donkeys are extraordinary. Their ability to sense human emotions and offer comfort as therapy animals is nothing short of life-changing. Therapy donkeys can be our partners in healing. With their deep sensitivity and unshakable calm, they have an innate ability to guide people toward safety—both physically and emotionally. For those who have endured suffering and trauma, simply standing in their presence can be transformative. Donkeys show us what it means to trust, to heal, and to find peace.
This World Donkey Day, we invite you to celebrate with us. Join The Human-Animal Connection and Forever Home Donkey Rescue in honoring and protecting these incredible animals. These stories of resilience, love, and healing will stay with you long after you’ve listened. Tune in and let the magic of donkeys touch your heart.
EPISODE NOTES: Forever Love with Donkeys
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-human-animal-connection-pet-life-radio-original--6669311/support.
In this heartfelt episode, I sit down with Suzanne Velasquez, Director of Forever Home Donkey Rescue and Sanctuary, a 30-acre safe haven in Benson, Arizona, where over 30 rescued donkeys roam freely, at last experiencing the love and kindness they deserve.
Yet, the story of donkeys is not always one of kindness. Too often, they have been misunderstood, mistreated, and unfairly judged. But if you take the time to truly see them—to look into their soulful eyes—you’ll understand the truth: donkeys are extraordinary. Their ability to sense human emotions and offer comfort as therapy animals is nothing short of life-changing. Therapy donkeys can be our partners in healing. With their deep sensitivity and unshakable calm, they have an innate ability to guide people toward safety—both physically and emotionally. For those who have endured suffering and trauma, simply standing in their presence can be transformative. Donkeys show us what it means to trust, to heal, and to find peace.
This World Donkey Day, we invite you to celebrate with us. Join The Human-Animal Connection and Forever Home Donkey Rescue in honoring and protecting these incredible animals. These stories of resilience, love, and healing will stay with you long after you’ve listened. Tune in and let the magic of donkeys touch your heart.
EPISODE NOTES: Forever Love with Donkeys
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-human-animal-connection-pet-life-radio-original--6669311/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is Pet Life Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Let's talk pets.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Welcome to the Human Animal Connection show, where we believe
we can communicate with all animals. Join us as we
explore the thirty three principles and healing methods of the
Human Animal Connection. As animal lovers, we know that you
share our commitment to making the world a kinder place
for all creatures. Together, let's embrace the transformative healing power
(00:29):
of the Human Animal Connection.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Hello everyone, Welcome to the Human Animal Connection. It's going
to be a fun show because it's all about donkeys.
Today I'm speaking with Suzanne Velaskaz and she is the
director of Forever Home Donkey Rescue and Sanctuary in Benson,
Arizona in the US. And I'm so happy to have you, Susanna,
been looking for vodkars. Yeah, so tell me just how
(00:56):
did you become How did donkeys become the center of gamers?
Speaker 4 (00:59):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Well, it wasn't the center of my universe until about
six years ago. I was full time RVN came out
for a tour by Fluke. I was just somebody just
asked me in general. I didn't even know the person
if I'd liked to join them to go with the
tour because her husband didn't want to go to see
the donkeys, which it was his mistake. There it's so yeah.
(01:23):
And we came out and I just fell in love
with the place. The rescue had already been as a
private it was a private sanctuary at the time when
I came out and her and I started volunteering four
days a week. I felt better when I was out here.
I felt healthier, I was smiling more, I was more happy.
And I asked to say for the summer to help
(01:46):
them out during the summer, volunteer during the summer, and
they had a space and RB space here and they
invited me to come with my RV here and I've
been here for six years now, lest Jay never left.
Speaker 5 (02:02):
Okay, what is it about donkeys that just got you?
Speaker 2 (02:07):
What really happened was I was I had ended a
long term marriage and I was kind of lost. I
didn't know who I was. What was you know what
my purpose is anymore? If I'm not a wife, you
know anymore? What's my purpose? And I had been sick
really six In two thousand and eight, I was treated
at Mayo Clinic for hypervigilance. I had a near death experience,
(02:29):
and then the home situation also because of adoors wasn't
real healthy for me either, and they had had me
on three xanax as a day just to keep me
like this doesn't you can't really function real well and
drive and do all that thing on three xan x's
a day. And when I started coming out here and
(02:50):
volunteering with the donkeys, I felt I felt myself feeling better,
better than I had prior to even being on medication.
And as I was here, about six months into the
time that I was here, I was walking across the
wash area between between shelters and I had adrenaline rush
(03:12):
and I haven't had an adrenaline rush in over thirty years.
So I thought I was dying. I was having a
heart attach. I was something's wrong. John the Fountain, one
of the founders here at the rescue, had to take
me a TMC and Tucson forty five mists away because
he thought I was having a heart attach too, because
my heart was just racing. And I ended up having
to go back to Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, and they
(03:34):
told me that being out around the donkeys and what
I'm doing with my life right now has brought me
down from that hypervigilance. So I was all up here
where adrenaline. I was already at adrenaline rush all the time,
and that my body was going, Oh, something's wrong. You're
not up here anymore. You need to be you need
to be up here. We need to give you this
little rush. And it took me probably about good seven
(03:56):
months after that to be off my medication, which is
huge for me. Yeah, and to be able to function
on a daily basis without having that that fearful, that hypervigilance,
that fight or flight mode all the time. And they
they attributed to the donkeys, they said, that is healing you.
(04:17):
And I truly believe it. I truly believe it. It's
really wonderful something. Yeah, it's something else and I and
that's why I'm here, that is out here. I have
to pay back. I always tell people they rescued me,
they rescued you.
Speaker 5 (04:31):
The donkeys to the rescue. I know, well, donkeys have
been you know, throughout history, they've been our constant support
in times of peace and times of war and times
of commerce and from Romeo and Juliet, I mean, there's
so many things that donkeys have done in our lives,
and they really have not gotten the respect that they deserve,
you know.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
And I found that, I found that they're almost treated
as disposable animals, that they that they don't have a purpose,
and and they have a huge purpose here and the
but here in Arizona, I found that not to be
the case. That they're disposable and people think of them
as being replaceable, and they use them for rodeo practice,
(05:12):
you know, roping practice and things, and if they break
their neck or they break their leg, they just put
them down and go get another one because they're disposable.
And it's really sad because these donkeys are have more
empathy than humans, I think, and I think they really
just are just wonderful animals that the world needs, needs
(05:32):
to say even more so.
Speaker 5 (05:34):
Yeah, I mean, I think as humans, we owe them
a great a great uh you know, we owe them
some gratitude for and we owe them some amends, you know,
for the fact that they've been misjudged, mistreated, and you know,
like you said, disposable. And I think that's the work
that we're both involved in. We just recently adopted to
miniature donkeys and they are therapy donkeys and also my
(05:58):
service donkeys, so I PTSD and they help me. They
that the level of calming of just being with them
is unbelievable.
Speaker 4 (06:08):
I mean like if you could package this, you know,
you know, oh, I know, it just makes of course
make you do. But it's all fery urchin rhythm and
people are starting to come around to find that out.
We have seen over seventeen hundred people a year now
here at the rescue. We get free tours at the
rescue and they don't want to leave when the tour
is over. We do a very casual We're on donkey time,
(06:31):
so we do a very casual tour with them and
our questions they ask so longer they can stay and
just be around. And then we have a lot of
repeat where they just want to be around the donkeys
and they don't have that wherever they live at.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
We have a lot of winter guests here in the
area and they'll travel back up to Canada and they'll
miss the donkeys, you know, you know, they'll they'll they
wash on Facebook or they do something, but they truly
miss that feeling that they have when they're around the donkeys.
And sad that not everybody gets to live the life
I get to live and have thirty one donkeys out
(07:04):
here that I get to love on every day. But
I do like like sharing those with those people. But
they do they just they just help people feel better
just still.
Speaker 5 (07:15):
I mean, it's amazing what they can do with no words.
Speaker 6 (07:18):
I know, I know, but.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Their eyes are so expressive. That's us about the donkey's eyes,
and they know exactly what you're going to I still
have my moments you said you have ptsc There's almost that.
I might go a week and be just as calm
as anything, and then one morning I wake up and
I'm I'm up here in I don't know why, you know,
(07:43):
there's not a reason why, but it just kind of
like you just hit this gear in your back up
here again. And it's usually Jasper then will tell me
that I'm like that, and then he'll put his head
in my chest and I'll just love on him a
little bit, and then I feel so much better in
the mornings, and then he usually comes up to me
and go, oh, you're not right, well let them wrong
(08:04):
about you. As he usually calms me down and he'll
just put his head in my chest and I'll be
able to rub his ears and everything, and you just
spilled them a peace come up over you. And I mean,
I truly believe they are saving me.
Speaker 5 (08:17):
They are sense. They are so wonderful.
Speaker 6 (08:20):
I know.
Speaker 5 (08:20):
I one day I was rushing because it was the
parade for Pack the Animal shelter here and we had
to go. And I it was just disrupted my timing,
my rhythm of feeding them and in the water and everything.
And I left the house with the car with the
two dogs for the parade and I got, you know,
a half mile away, and I thought, oh my god,
did I give them water? Did I the watter?
Speaker 2 (08:41):
You know, like?
Speaker 5 (08:42):
And so I ran back because like all these people
were waiting for me to get there, and you know,
so I was like in this little just routine stress mode,
but stress, you know. And I walk into the thing
and of course I had given them water. I had
turned it off. Everything was fine because you know, we
don't want the dogy feet to get wet. It's not
good for them. So this will an important thing. I
couldn't aside from not wanting to leave water running, but
(09:03):
everything was fine. But they looked at me like and
they ran for the first time ever. You know, they
just like I'm not dealing with this energy.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Ye hurt.
Speaker 4 (09:10):
Your energy is just way crazy shit, It's like, and
it was so fascinating to me.
Speaker 5 (09:15):
It was like within a second, I just sort of
moved one foot towards them. I was just going to
say goodbye and give them a little pet. No, they
wanted nothing.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Here's some of them my mess like that in the
mornings with me where I'm like, we're rushed. We're rushed
for some reason and and we try not to be
rushed around him and ours also our rescued animals were
a lot of them had been abused before, so certain
certain triggers for them. I may do a trigger that
I'm not even sure that I'm doing it, but you know,
(09:43):
grabbing their you know, rubbing them behind their ears or
touching their ears or something, and it would just be
the wrong donkey to do that too, and and that
would cause commotion a little bit of commotion or whatever.
And then usually they come back around again once say,
as you're not going to hurt them, But when they
that energy and this is just something's going on, like
I reached in too fast or something, they will do that.
Speaker 5 (10:06):
Yeah, it exactly like I really analyzed it after the fact,
I said what to do? I remember I moved a
foot forward and there was a slight lean and that
was enough. They felt the energy. They knew the difference
between me when I'm calm, which they love, and me
when I'm not calm, and they don't want any part.
And it was It's such a It was because I
hadn't realized it. I mean, of course it should have
(10:27):
been obvious to me, but it wasn't. No, I just
didn't notice. I was unconscious in that moment, and they
wanted no part of that energy, you know, And so
they can really teach us how to regulate our own
emotions by their awareness that there's sensitivity. You know, I
wouldn't necessarily want a person saying to me, hey, calm down,
you know, I'm not going to respect a human telling
(10:47):
me that. But but a donkey giving me annoyance resth
just run the you know, I mean they are or
just giving you the hag just coming up and saying,
are you okay?
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Exact I don't mind that. I don't mind bad at all,
but I do sometimes when I do go out there
and I am a little off that day that did
I mess them up for you know, I don't want
to hurt them by my energy. And then I find
out that they're just fine. They can make it lower
their own heart rates, they can take care of themselves
as a right fine, and they'll come back around and
(11:19):
they don't hold grudges.
Speaker 6 (11:20):
We do.
Speaker 5 (11:21):
They exactly We did want all for us. So it's yeah,
it's so good training. I mean, even our two little
minis our mother and daughter. We didn't know that when
we adopted them. The person didn't know it, but we
found out for the looking at their records and stuff.
But occasionally they'll have a bicker moment, like you know,
usually it's about food, but sometimes about attention. And a
bicker lasts maybe three seconds. It's like rah, you know,
(11:42):
push it and then it's over and it's over, and
then they're ready to go back to being, you know,
in sync. These two very bonded donkeys, and it's so
beautiful to be around two beings that have that kind
of grace and synchronicity. The bondedness is very I think,
very healing to watch that around, yes, yes it is,
it is, and just to see how they interact with
(12:03):
each other as very uh you We had to travel
this past weekend and I had a donkey that went
down in the trailer and I stopped at a gas
station and saw her down, and all the other donkeys
had moved over so they wouldn't hurt her, and they
were just taking care of her.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Hy I had, you know, I unload them from the
gas to the gas station and load them back and
she pops right back up. She just couldn't stand up
when I was moving. She just couldn't stand herself back up.
But she was just their stern hold that she was fine.
You know, everything was fine. They'd probably just gotten a
little scuffle and knocked over and she wasn't able to
get up. But all the other donkeys were away from her.
They were taking care of her. They were protecting and
(12:45):
exactly what the donkeys when they have a sick donkey.
You'll have someone watching over and one of the donkeys
will watch over it. You know, they're they're just taking
care of them. And they just have that naturally, that
empathy for each other in the herd and for and
for humans that I don't know if you could, if
you could copy that or maybe the other way. It
(13:06):
has to be ma'am. It's so amazing. I mean, obviously
there are some donkeys that are very traumatized, but it's
amazing they forgive us for everything of thousands of years
of mistreatment and they're still nice to us. We had,
you know, we had a roping donkey that was out here, Cisco.
He passed away last year. It took three years for
John and Tish once he got here. He was young,
(13:27):
he was only ten years old. Once he got here.
It took three years for them to be able to
handle him and stuff. And he's the first one when
I came in six years ago. He's the first one
that I did his hooves, you know, I cleaned his hands.
He'd be the one that you know, he just real
lovey lovey, and his life prior to coming here was horrific.
There he had a lot of medical issues from that,
(13:50):
like that roping life beforehand, and he just forgave us.
And we just said he had the most gentle soul
ever because it most forgiving soul, because he just he
loved us. And how that I don't know if I
could be like that as a human, if someone mistreated
me that badly, if I could ever trust a human again.
(14:12):
But he did. He trusted everybody. He trusted everybody that
came around him after that.
Speaker 5 (14:16):
That is so beautiful and it's a real lesson because
we humans need we have trouble, we don't.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Oh yeah, even when we want.
Speaker 5 (14:24):
To forgive, we were still holding energy. And to watch
how these donkeys can see the new moment, be in
the moment and has let go of even a lifetime
of horror is just And I mean, there's such good
role models for healing for us. I wish I could
be more like I know, I wish I could a donkey. Well,
(14:47):
I it is wonderful. Well, we're going to take a
short little break, but when we come back, I want
to talk a little bit about how donkeys can help
us find our own sense of safety. So we'll talk
about that in just a moment.
Speaker 7 (15:04):
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Speaker 1 (15:44):
Hey friends. If you like what you're hearing and want
to learn more, check out doctor Joseph's book, The Human
Animal Connection, Deepening Relationships with Animals and ourselves, or visit
the website The Human Animal Connection dot org to book
an online consultation. Thank you for loving animals. Now back
(16:06):
to the show.
Speaker 6 (16:09):
Let's Talk Pets on Petlife Radio dot com.
Speaker 8 (16:18):
Welcome back to The Human Animal Connection Podcast. I'm Jeanie Joseph,
and today we're talking all about donkeys with Suzanne Velasquz
and she is the director of Forever Home Donkey Rescue
and Sanctuary in Benson, Arizona. So one of the things
that I love working with donkeys is people who have
(16:38):
been traumatized have When people are traumatized, they lose a
sense of safety. And one of the things that donkey
the way we work with our therapy donkeys with people
is we help them see how donkeys put safety as
their priority. They won't put a foot forward that they
don't want to put forward. They are absolutely attuned to
what is safe what is not safe. They orient towards
(17:00):
what is safe. They remove themselves from what is unsafe.
And this is something that humans when they've been traumatized,
their their sense of safety gets really messed with, you know,
like they they will literally gravitate to what's familiar if
they've been you know, traumatized over a long period of time,
and it's instead of moving away from what's unsafe, they
(17:20):
can move towards it, which is much to their detriments.
So this is one of the ways that in our
therapeutic program working with donkeys, that we help people reconnect
with what this idea of what we call towards in
a way meaning we want to orient moving towards what
feels safe and good and away from what is not
safe and not good. And the donkeys, you don't need
to teach them this because this is what they're It's
(17:42):
in their DNA, yes, and so just watching that seeing
that process, you know, watching them, you know, the wind
changes or a dog barks and they just look up
and look. But if they're feeling safe, they go right
back to eating or whatever. You know, it's just a moment.
It's not something that endures. And just watching the whole
of being alert, not being alert, being relaxed. And this
(18:04):
is something that we help the humans find that in
themselves again through working with the donkeys. So I wonder
if you've noticed anything like that.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Yeah, And the thing about donkeys is that people think
that they're stubborn and really not. They're really thinking about
their safety on anything that they do, even if you're
just leaving them and walking them around there. You wash
their ears, we'll move, their mouth will move when they're thinking,
and they're constantly thinking about that. What I found for
myself safety wise, is that I let others around me
(18:36):
tell me that, oh, you're taking too long to figure
this out. You know, you have all these different voices
that are telling you how to handle your fears. Find
hypervigilance is very fearful. You're in a fight or flight
all the time. And I was listening to the outside
voices instead of listening to my own, and being around
(18:56):
the donkeys, I see how they operate and how they
do it, and then I can actually go okay, if
it takes me five minutes to do this, to get
over this sphere. I'm gonna take the five minutes. I'm
not gonna worry if it's gonna hold someone else up,
I'm not gonna worry about other people. I'm gonna start worrying.
Just take care of myself. And that's really hard for
(19:16):
people to do, is to take care of themselves, and
that's what they need to do. But the donkeys do that.
The donkeys care of themselves first. They do take care
of people. If you're walking with them and you fall
or whatever, they try not to step on you. I
mean they try. They have the sense to not hurt you.
They don't want to hurt you. But that's the main
(19:37):
thing about them is that is that they are so
self They have such a strong self preservation gene in
them that it makes you grow your own It really does.
It makes you feel like, Okay, I can take their
time too. If it's gonna If they're gonna take five
minutes across the river, then I'm gonna take five minutes
and do this. You know, I'm gonna take five minutes
(19:59):
and get over this sphear of mine and uh, I
find that they're very helpful it's bad doing that, And
for me it's it's been huge because it just just
took all them. You have those voices in your head
that are telling you that you know, you should, you know,
I should be doing this. Everybody else does this faster,
or everybody or this or everybody else can go into
(20:20):
a store and I and I have a problem some
days where I'm not going around people that day, things
like that, so the everybody else can do it. And
you have that negative talk and donkeys don't have that.
They just want to do what'sever positive and whatever. And
then and just watching them and being around them, you
start learning yourself how to how to self, how to
(20:41):
do self care for yourself and that.
Speaker 5 (20:43):
Yeah, that's huge for me. It's yeah, it's so important
in all these crazy terms for donkeys that that you know,
it implied that they're stupid or stubborn or just all
they're just ignorant, ignorant, ignorant, you know who. You are
here to educate people about their wisdom and about their
grace and about their empathy. And it's just so beautiful.
(21:03):
So one of the things I love about the shelter
that you're with is that the donkeys have a lot
of freedom. Can you tell us like the routine of
the day and how they they do have freedom.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
We let the donkeys out after evening feed at eight
thirty at night. We have thirty acres. They're able to
roam on all thirty acres. We bring them in for breakfast.
I come out of the house at seven. They bray
at me at five when I get up and they're
already telling me it's getting ready for breakfast. But I
come out at seven o'clock and we start putting them
in and we feed them. By about eight o'clock they're fed,
(21:35):
They have their hay. They each one have their individual pins,
so there's no herd feeding being done so each one
of them because of the history that each one of
them comes from. Some of them came in overweight where
they had funds of food, and then some of them
have come very very skinny where they were starving because
they were beginning kicked off that herd feeding. It just
(21:56):
didn't work for them. So we make sure that we
know exactly how much they're eating, and we do free
tours out here at the rescue and then about eleven
thirty twelve o'clock, the donkeys will be let out again
after breakfasts and tours, and they'll come back in at
four o'clock four thirty for evening feed again and then
at eight thirty at night we do it all over again.
(22:17):
So they're mainly out on the thirty acres. This is
a sanctuary home for them. They're safe out here and
run the place. If we're working on a vehicle and
we have tools laying around, we have donkeys with us.
They're helping us. So they're very social animals out here,
and we love having the public come out for tours.
(22:40):
When we do our tours that they can get more
socialization and we can just bring all those people in
and get them donkey love and everything.
Speaker 5 (22:50):
So get them donkey fied. Yeah, donka bibe yep. Okay,
So your tours are by reservation only, right, yeah, right,
you appointment only.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
We are working ranch out here. We have well the
humans have to go to the doctors sometimes, so it
goes to the you know, we have to plan our
month and so the earlier you could tell us when
you can come out, you know, to see if we
have availability, the better it is. But we ask for
at least twenty four hours now it's getting closer to
(23:18):
forty eight hours. We're getting so full with tours right
now that it's you know, we're booking up days, so
we're asking for forty eight as soon as you know
you're coming out. I have tours scheduled for in September already,
so okay, I'm right. That's that's really We love talking
about the donkeys. And we do have two open houses
(23:39):
where you don't need an appointment to come at one
of next weekend, the twenty second March. One of them
is then, so I can find some information on our website,
but we have we do that where we open it
up to the public, no appointments necessary, and they do
self guided tours. But we're here. We have like music, kids, crafts,
things like that. Everything's free, so just have a good time.
(24:01):
And the more people we can educate about donkeys and
get them interested in donkeys and learn more about them,
the better it is for us, the better it is
for the donkeys in the future. That's just wonderful. And
let's give folks your website. We'll do it again at
the end. But what's your website. It's www dot Forever
Home Donkey Rescue at sorry dot com.
Speaker 5 (24:22):
Sorry dot dot com or dot org, dot com, dot
com dot com Okay, wonderful. Yes, And what I'm excited
about is our two organizations, both our nonprofit, the Human
Animal Connection and your organization. We're going to collaborate on
World Donkey Day, which is May eighth, twenty twenty five here,
and we're going to do an event in Tucson. We
will be announcing the details as well you do your folks,
(24:44):
but we just want to let people know that it's
free event. They can come and get a hug, they
can do some brushing, they can do some approved treats
that will be visiting here. So there's just it's a
it's a wonderful experience. You know, come get a pick,
sure of yourself and the donkey, and it'll just you know,
it'll just when you have a rough woman and you
(25:05):
just look at that that donkey looking at you with
those big brown eyes, those big soulful eyes, and and
just that feeling of deep peace that comes when you
when you are willing to connect with a being at
a level that's respectful and kind, and they respect. If
we come with like one hundred percent respect, they come
with two hundred percent respect. They come with two hundred
(25:27):
percent love. We come with one hundred percent love. They
come with a thousand percent. You know, they just are
so more advanced in terms of the ability to just
connect with us without any terms, without any conditions. You know,
they just are.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
Ready to love. Yeah, they're just they're just amazing animals.
Speaker 5 (25:46):
They really are.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
They are. And I and I call them people. That's
how much how safety they are? I said, exactly, Yes,
when this or someone's doing this and it's a donkey,
I'm talking about, it's not it's a dog, right, So
I asked, it's been like it's junior, and yeah it is.
Speaker 5 (26:02):
Yeah, yeah, one of the donkeys that you have in
your sanctuary. We're so grateful he's there. Is a junior.
He didn't belong to us, He belonged to someone else,
but he was in a situation it wasn't as good
for him as the one he's in now with you guys,
and we're so happy to see him thrive. And we
just started working with him where we've been working with
him for about three years, and we were just beginning
(26:22):
to put people down on a massage table in his
corral and let him do whatever he wanted, which was
so interesting because he would go around and kind of
sniff the areas where people had pain, and so he
would just take a moment of just kind of being putting,
resting his nose on a hip or on his shoulder,
you know, a head of foot, you know, and it
(26:43):
was it was one hundred percent accurate where he was
sensing where the person needed the comfort and healing. Is
it's just so exciting the possibility of a partnership with
donkeys based on this mutual respect. And you know, we
don't want them to become tools of that's not our method,
but partners and healings where we are willing to say, okay,
(27:06):
I'm ready to heal. I want to heal. And just
by loving a donkey is a very healing experience for
us because there are parts of us that have felt
abused and misused and misunderstood and you know, burdened and
all this other stuff, and to see to give a
donkey love is a way of releasing some of our own.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Baggage, right right it is. We actually took Jr. And
three other donkeys out to a retirement community this past Wednesday,
and so he is getting out and doing his therapy.
They re take him out to do to you know, kids,
We have girl scouts coming this Saturday to see the
(27:46):
donkeys and things like that. So we do take them
out and they do that. The hiking, the burrow, racing
with the donkeys, the hiking with the donkeys. That's very
Not only are you in nature, but you're with one
of one of the best animals to be ever in nature,
with the dons as you're walking them or as you're
running them. And we found that the runners, the runners
(28:08):
that actually adopt donkeys to have a partner, a race
partner with. They treat them nicer, they feed them, They
actually love this animal and it gives this animal and
this human a connection and they go run, you know,
like California all up to twenty nine mile or Colorado
all the way up to twenty nine miles at ten
(28:29):
thousand feet. They're with donkeys and you have to have
that bond between them and it's wonderful. But all the
people at the retirement community came out with their some
of them had walkers with their walkers. They all wanted
to see it. They were on their balconies looking down
at the donkeys. They were all involved with the donkeys.
(28:49):
They had wonderful They treated us very nicely there, but
the donkeys were the hit of this. Yeah, they had
a source of contest going on, but it's all about
the donkeys. It was really really nice and I really
enjoy that. I love seeing the faces of people where
you see, oh my gosh, they're so happy, they're so
(29:10):
and they'll and they'll say it, I missed the donkeys.
I need to get my donkey fixed. I need to
do this. And I love that about about being able
to share that with people.
Speaker 5 (29:19):
Yeah, it's just really wonderful because it's I mean, all
animals are wonderful. It's not like one is better than
another better, but there is something. You know, for some people,
a horse might be too big, too scary. You know,
a donkey is half that size about or you know,
and it's just in the we have many donkeys, so
it's just the it's just the fear dissolves and the
(29:40):
joy emerges.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
It does, it does, and you can see it. It
just transforms people. And just in the tour you can
see it. And then you see kids that have never
seen a donkey, or adults that's never been around a donkey,
just learn more about a donkey and then they go, oh,
a donkey's my favorite animal, or a donkey's you know
that this is my favorite and I really like that.
And hopefully we can get more people involved with donkeys
(30:04):
so they're not disposable anymore. So they do have a
value here in Arizona, and that'd be a huge goal
to meet.
Speaker 5 (30:14):
Yeah, wonderful, wonderful. Well, I think if you're just learning
about donkeys for the first time, you've got to go
find yourself somebody who's got some donkeys. You can get
some donkey love, or help another organization, you know, in
whatever way you can help us. We love your donations
and join us for a World Donkey Day on May eighth,
or join us online and keep in touch with us.
(30:36):
Suzanne Leascos, thank you for all the love and all
the good work that you're doing, and we can't wait
to see you on May eight.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
Yeah, thank you, I appreciate it. Thank you Even.
Speaker 5 (30:45):
Listening to the Human Animal Connection podcast. I'm Jeanie Joseph
and we'll see you in the next episode. Bye for now.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
Thank you for tuning in to the Human Animal Connection Show.
Please visit our website The Human Animal Connection. There you
can sign up for our free email newsletter, book a consultation,
or check out our blogs and resources. Our best selling book,
The Human Animal Connection is available on Amazon, and your
(31:13):
donation of any amount keeps our nonprofit organization providing life
changing services.
Speaker 6 (31:19):
Let's Talk Pets every week on demand only on petlight
radio dot com
This is Pet Life Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Let's talk pets.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Welcome to the Human Animal Connection show, where we believe
we can communicate with all animals. Join us as we
explore the thirty three principles and healing methods of the
Human Animal Connection. As animal lovers, we know that you
share our commitment to making the world a kinder place
for all creatures. Together, let's embrace the transformative healing power
(00:29):
of the Human Animal Connection.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Hello everyone, Welcome to the Human Animal Connection. It's going
to be a fun show because it's all about donkeys.
Today I'm speaking with Suzanne Velaskaz and she is the
director of Forever Home Donkey Rescue and Sanctuary in Benson,
Arizona in the US. And I'm so happy to have you, Susanna,
been looking for vodkars. Yeah, so tell me just how
(00:56):
did you become How did donkeys become the center of gamers?
Speaker 4 (00:59):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Well, it wasn't the center of my universe until about
six years ago. I was full time RVN came out
for a tour by Fluke. I was just somebody just
asked me in general. I didn't even know the person
if I'd liked to join them to go with the
tour because her husband didn't want to go to see
the donkeys, which it was his mistake. There it's so yeah.
(01:23):
And we came out and I just fell in love
with the place. The rescue had already been as a
private it was a private sanctuary at the time when
I came out and her and I started volunteering four
days a week. I felt better when I was out here.
I felt healthier, I was smiling more, I was more happy.
And I asked to say for the summer to help
(01:46):
them out during the summer, volunteer during the summer, and
they had a space and RB space here and they
invited me to come with my RV here and I've
been here for six years now, lest Jay never left.
Speaker 5 (02:02):
Okay, what is it about donkeys that just got you?
Speaker 2 (02:07):
What really happened was I was I had ended a
long term marriage and I was kind of lost. I
didn't know who I was. What was you know what
my purpose is anymore? If I'm not a wife, you
know anymore? What's my purpose? And I had been sick
really six In two thousand and eight, I was treated
at Mayo Clinic for hypervigilance. I had a near death experience,
(02:29):
and then the home situation also because of adoors wasn't
real healthy for me either, and they had had me
on three xanax as a day just to keep me
like this doesn't you can't really function real well and
drive and do all that thing on three xan x's
a day. And when I started coming out here and
(02:50):
volunteering with the donkeys, I felt I felt myself feeling better,
better than I had prior to even being on medication.
And as I was here, about six months into the
time that I was here, I was walking across the
wash area between between shelters and I had adrenaline rush
(03:12):
and I haven't had an adrenaline rush in over thirty years.
So I thought I was dying. I was having a
heart attach. I was something's wrong. John the Fountain, one
of the founders here at the rescue, had to take
me a TMC and Tucson forty five mists away because
he thought I was having a heart attach too, because
my heart was just racing. And I ended up having
to go back to Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, and they
(03:34):
told me that being out around the donkeys and what
I'm doing with my life right now has brought me
down from that hypervigilance. So I was all up here
where adrenaline. I was already at adrenaline rush all the time,
and that my body was going, Oh, something's wrong. You're
not up here anymore. You need to be you need
to be up here. We need to give you this
little rush. And it took me probably about good seven
(03:56):
months after that to be off my medication, which is
huge for me. Yeah, and to be able to function
on a daily basis without having that that fearful, that hypervigilance,
that fight or flight mode all the time. And they
they attributed to the donkeys, they said, that is healing you.
(04:17):
And I truly believe it. I truly believe it. It's
really wonderful something. Yeah, it's something else and I and
that's why I'm here, that is out here. I have
to pay back. I always tell people they rescued me,
they rescued you.
Speaker 5 (04:31):
The donkeys to the rescue. I know, well, donkeys have
been you know, throughout history, they've been our constant support
in times of peace and times of war and times
of commerce and from Romeo and Juliet, I mean, there's
so many things that donkeys have done in our lives,
and they really have not gotten the respect that they deserve,
you know.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
And I found that, I found that they're almost treated
as disposable animals, that they that they don't have a purpose,
and and they have a huge purpose here and the
but here in Arizona, I found that not to be
the case. That they're disposable and people think of them
as being replaceable, and they use them for rodeo practice,
(05:12):
you know, roping practice and things, and if they break
their neck or they break their leg, they just put
them down and go get another one because they're disposable.
And it's really sad because these donkeys are have more
empathy than humans, I think, and I think they really
just are just wonderful animals that the world needs, needs
(05:32):
to say even more so.
Speaker 5 (05:34):
Yeah, I mean, I think as humans, we owe them
a great a great uh you know, we owe them
some gratitude for and we owe them some amends, you know,
for the fact that they've been misjudged, mistreated, and you know,
like you said, disposable. And I think that's the work
that we're both involved in. We just recently adopted to
miniature donkeys and they are therapy donkeys and also my
(05:58):
service donkeys, so I PTSD and they help me. They
that the level of calming of just being with them
is unbelievable.
Speaker 4 (06:08):
I mean like if you could package this, you know,
you know, oh, I know, it just makes of course
make you do. But it's all fery urchin rhythm and
people are starting to come around to find that out.
We have seen over seventeen hundred people a year now
here at the rescue. We get free tours at the
rescue and they don't want to leave when the tour
is over. We do a very casual We're on donkey time,
(06:31):
so we do a very casual tour with them and
our questions they ask so longer they can stay and
just be around. And then we have a lot of
repeat where they just want to be around the donkeys
and they don't have that wherever they live at.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
We have a lot of winter guests here in the
area and they'll travel back up to Canada and they'll
miss the donkeys, you know, you know, they'll they'll they
wash on Facebook or they do something, but they truly
miss that feeling that they have when they're around the donkeys.
And sad that not everybody gets to live the life
I get to live and have thirty one donkeys out
(07:04):
here that I get to love on every day. But
I do like like sharing those with those people. But
they do they just they just help people feel better
just still.
Speaker 5 (07:15):
I mean, it's amazing what they can do with no words.
Speaker 6 (07:18):
I know, I know, but.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Their eyes are so expressive. That's us about the donkey's eyes,
and they know exactly what you're going to I still
have my moments you said you have ptsc There's almost that.
I might go a week and be just as calm
as anything, and then one morning I wake up and
I'm I'm up here in I don't know why, you know,
(07:43):
there's not a reason why, but it just kind of
like you just hit this gear in your back up
here again. And it's usually Jasper then will tell me
that I'm like that, and then he'll put his head
in my chest and I'll just love on him a
little bit, and then I feel so much better in
the mornings, and then he usually comes up to me
and go, oh, you're not right, well let them wrong
(08:04):
about you. As he usually calms me down and he'll
just put his head in my chest and I'll be
able to rub his ears and everything, and you just
spilled them a peace come up over you. And I mean,
I truly believe they are saving me.
Speaker 5 (08:17):
They are sense. They are so wonderful.
Speaker 6 (08:20):
I know.
Speaker 5 (08:20):
I one day I was rushing because it was the
parade for Pack the Animal shelter here and we had
to go. And I it was just disrupted my timing,
my rhythm of feeding them and in the water and everything.
And I left the house with the car with the
two dogs for the parade and I got, you know,
a half mile away, and I thought, oh my god,
did I give them water? Did I the watter?
Speaker 2 (08:41):
You know, like?
Speaker 5 (08:42):
And so I ran back because like all these people
were waiting for me to get there, and you know,
so I was like in this little just routine stress mode,
but stress, you know. And I walk into the thing
and of course I had given them water. I had
turned it off. Everything was fine because you know, we
don't want the dogy feet to get wet. It's not
good for them. So this will an important thing. I
couldn't aside from not wanting to leave water running, but
(09:03):
everything was fine. But they looked at me like and
they ran for the first time ever. You know, they
just like I'm not dealing with this energy.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Ye hurt.
Speaker 4 (09:10):
Your energy is just way crazy shit, It's like, and
it was so fascinating to me.
Speaker 5 (09:15):
It was like within a second, I just sort of
moved one foot towards them. I was just going to
say goodbye and give them a little pet. No, they
wanted nothing.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Here's some of them my mess like that in the
mornings with me where I'm like, we're rushed. We're rushed
for some reason and and we try not to be
rushed around him and ours also our rescued animals were
a lot of them had been abused before, so certain
certain triggers for them. I may do a trigger that
I'm not even sure that I'm doing it, but you know,
(09:43):
grabbing their you know, rubbing them behind their ears or
touching their ears or something, and it would just be
the wrong donkey to do that too, and and that
would cause commotion a little bit of commotion or whatever.
And then usually they come back around again once say,
as you're not going to hurt them, But when they
that energy and this is just something's going on, like
I reached in too fast or something, they will do that.
Speaker 5 (10:06):
Yeah, it exactly like I really analyzed it after the fact,
I said what to do? I remember I moved a
foot forward and there was a slight lean and that
was enough. They felt the energy. They knew the difference
between me when I'm calm, which they love, and me
when I'm not calm, and they don't want any part.
And it was It's such a It was because I
hadn't realized it. I mean, of course it should have
(10:27):
been obvious to me, but it wasn't. No, I just
didn't notice. I was unconscious in that moment, and they
wanted no part of that energy, you know, And so
they can really teach us how to regulate our own
emotions by their awareness that there's sensitivity. You know, I
wouldn't necessarily want a person saying to me, hey, calm down,
you know, I'm not going to respect a human telling
(10:47):
me that. But but a donkey giving me annoyance resth
just run the you know, I mean they are or
just giving you the hag just coming up and saying,
are you okay?
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Exact I don't mind that. I don't mind bad at all,
but I do sometimes when I do go out there
and I am a little off that day that did
I mess them up for you know, I don't want
to hurt them by my energy. And then I find
out that they're just fine. They can make it lower
their own heart rates, they can take care of themselves
as a right fine, and they'll come back around and
(11:19):
they don't hold grudges.
Speaker 6 (11:20):
We do.
Speaker 5 (11:21):
They exactly We did want all for us. So it's yeah,
it's so good training. I mean, even our two little
minis our mother and daughter. We didn't know that when
we adopted them. The person didn't know it, but we
found out for the looking at their records and stuff.
But occasionally they'll have a bicker moment, like you know,
usually it's about food, but sometimes about attention. And a
bicker lasts maybe three seconds. It's like rah, you know,
(11:42):
push it and then it's over and it's over, and
then they're ready to go back to being, you know,
in sync. These two very bonded donkeys, and it's so
beautiful to be around two beings that have that kind
of grace and synchronicity. The bondedness is very I think,
very healing to watch that around, yes, yes it is,
it is, and just to see how they interact with
(12:03):
each other as very uh you We had to travel
this past weekend and I had a donkey that went
down in the trailer and I stopped at a gas
station and saw her down, and all the other donkeys
had moved over so they wouldn't hurt her, and they
were just taking care of her.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Hy I had, you know, I unload them from the
gas to the gas station and load them back and
she pops right back up. She just couldn't stand up
when I was moving. She just couldn't stand herself back up.
But she was just their stern hold that she was fine.
You know, everything was fine. They'd probably just gotten a
little scuffle and knocked over and she wasn't able to
get up. But all the other donkeys were away from her.
They were taking care of her. They were protecting and
(12:45):
exactly what the donkeys when they have a sick donkey.
You'll have someone watching over and one of the donkeys
will watch over it. You know, they're they're just taking
care of them. And they just have that naturally, that
empathy for each other in the herd and for and
for humans that I don't know if you could, if
you could copy that or maybe the other way. It
(13:06):
has to be ma'am. It's so amazing. I mean, obviously
there are some donkeys that are very traumatized, but it's
amazing they forgive us for everything of thousands of years
of mistreatment and they're still nice to us. We had,
you know, we had a roping donkey that was out here, Cisco.
He passed away last year. It took three years for
John and Tish once he got here. He was young,
(13:27):
he was only ten years old. Once he got here.
It took three years for them to be able to
handle him and stuff. And he's the first one when
I came in six years ago. He's the first one
that I did his hooves, you know, I cleaned his hands.
He'd be the one that you know, he just real
lovey lovey, and his life prior to coming here was horrific.
There he had a lot of medical issues from that,
(13:50):
like that roping life beforehand, and he just forgave us.
And we just said he had the most gentle soul
ever because it most forgiving soul, because he just he
loved us. And how that I don't know if I
could be like that as a human, if someone mistreated
me that badly, if I could ever trust a human again.
(14:12):
But he did. He trusted everybody. He trusted everybody that
came around him after that.
Speaker 5 (14:16):
That is so beautiful and it's a real lesson because
we humans need we have trouble, we don't.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Oh yeah, even when we want.
Speaker 5 (14:24):
To forgive, we were still holding energy. And to watch
how these donkeys can see the new moment, be in
the moment and has let go of even a lifetime
of horror is just And I mean, there's such good
role models for healing for us. I wish I could
be more like I know, I wish I could a donkey. Well,
(14:47):
I it is wonderful. Well, we're going to take a
short little break, but when we come back, I want
to talk a little bit about how donkeys can help
us find our own sense of safety. So we'll talk
about that in just a moment.
Speaker 7 (15:04):
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Speaker 1 (15:44):
Hey friends. If you like what you're hearing and want
to learn more, check out doctor Joseph's book, The Human
Animal Connection, Deepening Relationships with Animals and ourselves, or visit
the website The Human Animal Connection dot org to book
an online consultation. Thank you for loving animals. Now back
(16:06):
to the show.
Speaker 6 (16:09):
Let's Talk Pets on Petlife Radio dot com.
Speaker 8 (16:18):
Welcome back to The Human Animal Connection Podcast. I'm Jeanie Joseph,
and today we're talking all about donkeys with Suzanne Velasquz
and she is the director of Forever Home Donkey Rescue
and Sanctuary in Benson, Arizona. So one of the things
that I love working with donkeys is people who have
(16:38):
been traumatized have When people are traumatized, they lose a
sense of safety. And one of the things that donkey
the way we work with our therapy donkeys with people
is we help them see how donkeys put safety as
their priority. They won't put a foot forward that they
don't want to put forward. They are absolutely attuned to
what is safe what is not safe. They orient towards
(17:00):
what is safe. They remove themselves from what is unsafe.
And this is something that humans when they've been traumatized,
their their sense of safety gets really messed with, you know,
like they they will literally gravitate to what's familiar if
they've been you know, traumatized over a long period of time,
and it's instead of moving away from what's unsafe, they
(17:20):
can move towards it, which is much to their detriments.
So this is one of the ways that in our
therapeutic program working with donkeys, that we help people reconnect
with what this idea of what we call towards in
a way meaning we want to orient moving towards what
feels safe and good and away from what is not
safe and not good. And the donkeys, you don't need
to teach them this because this is what they're It's
(17:42):
in their DNA, yes, and so just watching that seeing
that process, you know, watching them, you know, the wind
changes or a dog barks and they just look up
and look. But if they're feeling safe, they go right
back to eating or whatever. You know, it's just a moment.
It's not something that endures. And just watching the whole
of being alert, not being alert, being relaxed. And this
(18:04):
is something that we help the humans find that in
themselves again through working with the donkeys. So I wonder
if you've noticed anything like that.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Yeah, And the thing about donkeys is that people think
that they're stubborn and really not. They're really thinking about
their safety on anything that they do, even if you're
just leaving them and walking them around there. You wash
their ears, we'll move, their mouth will move when they're thinking,
and they're constantly thinking about that. What I found for
myself safety wise, is that I let others around me
(18:36):
tell me that, oh, you're taking too long to figure
this out. You know, you have all these different voices
that are telling you how to handle your fears. Find
hypervigilance is very fearful. You're in a fight or flight
all the time. And I was listening to the outside
voices instead of listening to my own, and being around
(18:56):
the donkeys, I see how they operate and how they
do it, and then I can actually go okay, if
it takes me five minutes to do this, to get
over this sphere. I'm gonna take the five minutes. I'm
not gonna worry if it's gonna hold someone else up,
I'm not gonna worry about other people. I'm gonna start worrying.
Just take care of myself. And that's really hard for
(19:16):
people to do, is to take care of themselves, and
that's what they need to do. But the donkeys do that.
The donkeys care of themselves first. They do take care
of people. If you're walking with them and you fall
or whatever, they try not to step on you. I
mean they try. They have the sense to not hurt you.
They don't want to hurt you. But that's the main
(19:37):
thing about them is that is that they are so
self They have such a strong self preservation gene in
them that it makes you grow your own It really does.
It makes you feel like, Okay, I can take their
time too. If it's gonna If they're gonna take five
minutes across the river, then I'm gonna take five minutes
and do this. You know, I'm gonna take five minutes
(19:59):
and get over this sphear of mine and uh, I
find that they're very helpful it's bad doing that, And
for me it's it's been huge because it just just
took all them. You have those voices in your head
that are telling you that you know, you should, you know,
I should be doing this. Everybody else does this faster,
or everybody or this or everybody else can go into
(20:20):
a store and I and I have a problem some
days where I'm not going around people that day, things
like that, so the everybody else can do it. And
you have that negative talk and donkeys don't have that.
They just want to do what'sever positive and whatever. And
then and just watching them and being around them, you
start learning yourself how to how to self, how to
(20:41):
do self care for yourself and that.
Speaker 5 (20:43):
Yeah, that's huge for me. It's yeah, it's so important
in all these crazy terms for donkeys that that you know,
it implied that they're stupid or stubborn or just all
they're just ignorant, ignorant, ignorant, you know who. You are
here to educate people about their wisdom and about their
grace and about their empathy. And it's just so beautiful.
(21:03):
So one of the things I love about the shelter
that you're with is that the donkeys have a lot
of freedom. Can you tell us like the routine of
the day and how they they do have freedom.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
We let the donkeys out after evening feed at eight
thirty at night. We have thirty acres. They're able to
roam on all thirty acres. We bring them in for breakfast.
I come out of the house at seven. They bray
at me at five when I get up and they're
already telling me it's getting ready for breakfast. But I
come out at seven o'clock and we start putting them
in and we feed them. By about eight o'clock they're fed,
(21:35):
They have their hay. They each one have their individual pins,
so there's no herd feeding being done so each one
of them because of the history that each one of
them comes from. Some of them came in overweight where
they had funds of food, and then some of them
have come very very skinny where they were starving because
they were beginning kicked off that herd feeding. It just
(21:56):
didn't work for them. So we make sure that we
know exactly how much they're eating, and we do free
tours out here at the rescue and then about eleven
thirty twelve o'clock, the donkeys will be let out again
after breakfasts and tours, and they'll come back in at
four o'clock four thirty for evening feed again and then
at eight thirty at night we do it all over again.
(22:17):
So they're mainly out on the thirty acres. This is
a sanctuary home for them. They're safe out here and
run the place. If we're working on a vehicle and
we have tools laying around, we have donkeys with us.
They're helping us. So they're very social animals out here,
and we love having the public come out for tours.
(22:40):
When we do our tours that they can get more
socialization and we can just bring all those people in
and get them donkey love and everything.
Speaker 5 (22:50):
So get them donkey fied. Yeah, donka bibe yep. Okay,
So your tours are by reservation only, right, yeah, right,
you appointment only.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
We are working ranch out here. We have well the
humans have to go to the doctors sometimes, so it
goes to the you know, we have to plan our
month and so the earlier you could tell us when
you can come out, you know, to see if we
have availability, the better it is. But we ask for
at least twenty four hours now it's getting closer to
(23:18):
forty eight hours. We're getting so full with tours right
now that it's you know, we're booking up days, so
we're asking for forty eight as soon as you know
you're coming out. I have tours scheduled for in September already,
so okay, I'm right. That's that's really We love talking
about the donkeys. And we do have two open houses
(23:39):
where you don't need an appointment to come at one
of next weekend, the twenty second March. One of them
is then, so I can find some information on our website,
but we have we do that where we open it
up to the public, no appointments necessary, and they do
self guided tours. But we're here. We have like music, kids, crafts,
things like that. Everything's free, so just have a good time.
(24:01):
And the more people we can educate about donkeys and
get them interested in donkeys and learn more about them,
the better it is for us, the better it is
for the donkeys in the future. That's just wonderful. And
let's give folks your website. We'll do it again at
the end. But what's your website. It's www dot Forever
Home Donkey Rescue at sorry dot com.
Speaker 5 (24:22):
Sorry dot dot com or dot org, dot com, dot
com dot com Okay, wonderful. Yes, And what I'm excited
about is our two organizations, both our nonprofit, the Human
Animal Connection and your organization. We're going to collaborate on
World Donkey Day, which is May eighth, twenty twenty five here,
and we're going to do an event in Tucson. We
will be announcing the details as well you do your folks,
(24:44):
but we just want to let people know that it's
free event. They can come and get a hug, they
can do some brushing, they can do some approved treats
that will be visiting here. So there's just it's a
it's a wonderful experience. You know, come get a pick,
sure of yourself and the donkey, and it'll just you know,
it'll just when you have a rough woman and you
(25:05):
just look at that that donkey looking at you with
those big brown eyes, those big soulful eyes, and and
just that feeling of deep peace that comes when you
when you are willing to connect with a being at
a level that's respectful and kind, and they respect. If
we come with like one hundred percent respect, they come
with two hundred percent respect. They come with two hundred
(25:27):
percent love. We come with one hundred percent love. They
come with a thousand percent. You know, they just are
so more advanced in terms of the ability to just
connect with us without any terms, without any conditions. You know,
they just are.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
Ready to love. Yeah, they're just they're just amazing animals.
Speaker 5 (25:46):
They really are.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
They are. And I and I call them people. That's
how much how safety they are? I said, exactly, Yes,
when this or someone's doing this and it's a donkey,
I'm talking about, it's not it's a dog, right, So
I asked, it's been like it's junior, and yeah it is.
Speaker 5 (26:02):
Yeah, yeah, one of the donkeys that you have in
your sanctuary. We're so grateful he's there. Is a junior.
He didn't belong to us, He belonged to someone else,
but he was in a situation it wasn't as good
for him as the one he's in now with you guys,
and we're so happy to see him thrive. And we
just started working with him where we've been working with
him for about three years, and we were just beginning
(26:22):
to put people down on a massage table in his
corral and let him do whatever he wanted, which was
so interesting because he would go around and kind of
sniff the areas where people had pain, and so he
would just take a moment of just kind of being putting,
resting his nose on a hip or on his shoulder,
you know, a head of foot, you know, and it
(26:43):
was it was one hundred percent accurate where he was
sensing where the person needed the comfort and healing. Is
it's just so exciting the possibility of a partnership with
donkeys based on this mutual respect. And you know, we
don't want them to become tools of that's not our method,
but partners and healings where we are willing to say, okay,
(27:06):
I'm ready to heal. I want to heal. And just
by loving a donkey is a very healing experience for
us because there are parts of us that have felt
abused and misused and misunderstood and you know, burdened and
all this other stuff, and to see to give a
donkey love is a way of releasing some of our own.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Baggage, right right it is. We actually took Jr. And
three other donkeys out to a retirement community this past Wednesday,
and so he is getting out and doing his therapy.
They re take him out to do to you know, kids,
We have girl scouts coming this Saturday to see the
(27:46):
donkeys and things like that. So we do take them
out and they do that. The hiking, the burrow, racing
with the donkeys, the hiking with the donkeys. That's very
Not only are you in nature, but you're with one
of one of the best animals to be ever in nature,
with the dons as you're walking them or as you're
running them. And we found that the runners, the runners
(28:08):
that actually adopt donkeys to have a partner, a race
partner with. They treat them nicer, they feed them, They
actually love this animal and it gives this animal and
this human a connection and they go run, you know,
like California all up to twenty nine mile or Colorado
all the way up to twenty nine miles at ten
(28:29):
thousand feet. They're with donkeys and you have to have
that bond between them and it's wonderful. But all the
people at the retirement community came out with their some
of them had walkers with their walkers. They all wanted
to see it. They were on their balconies looking down
at the donkeys. They were all involved with the donkeys.
(28:49):
They had wonderful They treated us very nicely there, but
the donkeys were the hit of this. Yeah, they had
a source of contest going on, but it's all about
the donkeys. It was really really nice and I really
enjoy that. I love seeing the faces of people where
you see, oh my gosh, they're so happy, they're so
(29:10):
and they'll and they'll say it, I missed the donkeys.
I need to get my donkey fixed. I need to
do this. And I love that about about being able
to share that with people.
Speaker 5 (29:19):
Yeah, it's just really wonderful because it's I mean, all
animals are wonderful. It's not like one is better than
another better, but there is something. You know, for some people,
a horse might be too big, too scary. You know,
a donkey is half that size about or you know,
and it's just in the we have many donkeys, so
it's just the it's just the fear dissolves and the
(29:40):
joy emerges.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
It does, it does, and you can see it. It
just transforms people. And just in the tour you can
see it. And then you see kids that have never
seen a donkey, or adults that's never been around a donkey,
just learn more about a donkey and then they go, oh,
a donkey's my favorite animal, or a donkey's you know
that this is my favorite and I really like that.
And hopefully we can get more people involved with donkeys
(30:04):
so they're not disposable anymore. So they do have a
value here in Arizona, and that'd be a huge goal
to meet.
Speaker 5 (30:14):
Yeah, wonderful, wonderful. Well, I think if you're just learning
about donkeys for the first time, you've got to go
find yourself somebody who's got some donkeys. You can get
some donkey love, or help another organization, you know, in
whatever way you can help us. We love your donations
and join us for a World Donkey Day on May eighth,
or join us online and keep in touch with us.
(30:36):
Suzanne Leascos, thank you for all the love and all
the good work that you're doing, and we can't wait
to see you on May eight.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
Yeah, thank you, I appreciate it. Thank you Even.
Speaker 5 (30:45):
Listening to the Human Animal Connection podcast. I'm Jeanie Joseph
and we'll see you in the next episode. Bye for now.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
Thank you for tuning in to the Human Animal Connection Show.
Please visit our website The Human Animal Connection. There you
can sign up for our free email newsletter, book a consultation,
or check out our blogs and resources. Our best selling book,
The Human Animal Connection is available on Amazon, and your
(31:13):
donation of any amount keeps our nonprofit organization providing life
changing services.
Speaker 6 (31:19):
Let's Talk Pets every week on demand only on petlight
radio dot com
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