08/10/2025
We lost one of our dear old seniors on Friday. Bessie, who was closing in on 40 years old, let us know that while her mind was still willing, her body was tired and ready to move on. No one major thing took Bessie, rather, a few smaller issues finally began to take their toll on her. She spent her final morning with us, free ranging in the morning like she always did, with her best friend, Dolly, and we laid her to rest in a beautiful spot by the pond.
Bessie has been part of the Little Longears family since we rescued her at an auction with several other donkeys back in 2014. She and another donkey, Dolly, seemed to be friends, though we don't know if they came to the auction together, or became friends after we brought the group home. Either way, those two girls became inseparable. We rarely said one name without the other. Always, "Dolly and Bessie". They became affectionately referred to as our "Golden Girls".
These two were always so friendly and easy to handle, that they went out on adoption two times, and were returned to us twice when their adopters' home situation changed. These girls seemed to take everything in stride, each new place an adventure, in-between, returning "home" to us at the rescue. They were both so well-socialized that they never seemed stressed or bothered by changes in their environment or the people around them. They loved people and attention and have been a couple of the easiest donkeys we've ever had. They really are and have been two of our favorites over the years (are we allowed to have favorites :) .
Three and a half years ago, they came back home to us and this time, we knew they would be staying with us for the rest of their golden years. As Bessie aged these last few years, she became a little worried living with the senior herd. So our solution for that was that she didn't have to, she and Dolly just got to free range and come in and out of their stall at will, only getting closed in at night. The first winter we did this, Dolly and Bessie seriously covered some ground! They would slowly make their way all the way over to our neighbor's property where there was still some green grass growing in the crop fields. This was almost 1/2 mile away cutting across our land! Each afternoon, someone would have to go in the golfcart and find the girls and tell them it was time to come home for dinner. They'd look at us. like "oh hi, do you want us for something?"
Later in their adventures, Bessie learned that we had dry cat food on our porch. For some reason, she loved the cat food (high in salt I would guess), and she would make her way on to our porch and raid the cat's bowl. When we would hide that bowl, she discovered an even larger bowl of cat food down in the hay barn for the barn cats. If we ever forgot to put the cat food up and out of reach, she found it!
Bessie had very few teeth left, and was fed several meals a day of soaked senior feed, and soaked hay pellets mixed up. She LOVED her meals, and her booming bray several times a day earned her the nickname from Cheryl of "Bellowing Bessie". In her final days, Bessie was too quiet and we knew that meant the end was near. But, we take solace in knowing she never really suffered from any major illness.
Dolly was always a bit more independent than Bessie, it would always be Bessie calling for Dolly if she got out of sight. Dolly has always been a quiet donkey, and though she has two other free-ranging friends, Chloe and Matt, we are certain that she misses her best friend. She was with Bessie till the end, and she must be sad. We are keeping a very close eye on her of course and comforting her in every way.
We will miss Bessie and her big bray, the barn has been too quiet these last few days, but at the same time, we have to celebrate a strong girl who lived such a great, long life. RIP Bessie, we love you.
