23/09/2026
There is no such thing as a standard donkey. 🐴
I learned that slowly, over years of pulling them out of trouble. Every one that came through here was different, and not only in temperament. In build. In coat. In what it could take and what it couldn't.
So I went looking for why, and ended up writing down 74 of them.
The Poitou in France grows a coat that hangs in cords to the ground, never clipped on the old farms. The Miniature Mediterranean stops growing at the height of a large dog. The Somali still wears the barred legs of the wild ass it came from, because the drylands never gave it a reason to lose them. And the grey donkey standing in most South African kraals has a name and a history of its own, which rarely gets written down anywhere.
Here is the part that stayed with me. Of the donkey breeds on the world register, 122 have their risk status listed as unknown. Not endangered. Not safe. Unknown. There is no reliable count of how many are left.
The book is free. Free to read, free to keep, free to send to somebody else.
https://lindaleevisser-hub.github.io/inibos-creations/shop.html
