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All of us here in Luxor were looking forward to moving to our new ACE centre with its mod cons for both animals and vets. But when we did, eight months ago – eight, already! – we were nearly overwhelmed by what awaited us, and by what we could do.

Everyone who has been to visit us has been so impressed by the huge leap that ACE has made by the move. Everybody loves the new building and can’t stop saying how clean and beautiful it all is. We also have enough foreign veterinary volunteers to cover us through the whole year and I can’t express what a huge weight off my mind this is. Now we have to make sure we can afford to do the job well.

Sometimes, but not often, people show their appreciation of ACE’s work...A grateful client gave our vet, Dr David, this present!

There is so much more room than we had in “old ACE”, and more work. Within ten days of opening, 23 of our 25 hospital stables were occupied by inpatients. The animal attendants, used to mucking out only eight stables, were just a little tired at first!

Unfortunately, here, in and around Luxor, equines truly are in need of veterinary care and the standard of husbandry that should be routine. Regretably, experience has shown us the cruel reality. There have been only three days in the last six months when we have been below eighty per cent occupancy. At the moment the stables are completely full and our inpatients are having to double up.

There have been many pleasures and a few teething problems – but that is not surprising. The move was a major operation.

One of the main pleasures has been re-homing so many dogs, cats, kittens and even donkeys. One of these is now the most spoilt donkey on the West Bank of Luxor, but when he came to us he was very badly burned.

Apart from the extensive burns on his body, the fire had also shrivelled his ears, and for a while we called him funny ears – better than calling him by his admission number. The name of this little white donkey now, though, is Nar Boy. It was given to him by his new owner, Farida, who is a Swiss resident and long-time supporter of ACE. At first, Farida was only going to foster him until he had recovered enough to go back to work, but she fell in love with him and thanks to a kind ex-pat who bought him from his owner so that he would not have to work again, Nar Boy now has the chance to spend the rest of his life in peace (and donkey luxury).

Such a Short Life

A pair of donkeys were brought to ACE a couple of months ago by a man who owned both of them. They had been well looked after, unlike most of the donkeys here, and seemed in good condition – apart from the burns, that is. The roof on their shelter had somehow caught fire and collapsed on to the animals. One was so badly burnt that, reluctantly, the decision had to be taken to put it to sleep. We simply could not allow it to continue suffering.

The second donkey is only three and, happily, with constant TLC, we were able to save his life. Donkeys in Egypt are not given names, so we nicknamed him Burney. After six weeks of intensive care including burn treatments both conventional and natural (Aloe Vera), pain relief, cold hosing and, when he could bear it, plenty of grooming, he went back to a grateful owner.

Foals and baby donkeys are “trained” from a very early age by being allowed to trot beside their mothers in the fumes and traffic of the city. One white, baby donkey we were recently called out to was crashed into by a car.. She was in great physical pain and deeply distressed. She had a compound fracture and we had no choice but to put her to sleep. We were all depressed; when a baby animal dies it is somehow doubly tragic. Her death, of course, was completely avoidable. Tradition has a lot to answer for.

The message is getting around. Children and puppies do go together!

This little donkey was just one of the 33 animals we had to put down during the last month. We are determined that every animal is as happy as we can make it and treated with respect at its end. This is not a pleasant subject, I know, but I think you, our supporters, are all kind animal lovers who would be happy to help us with the very serious problem of rising prices. Drugs are getting more and more expensive. But for the sake of suffering animals, we just cannot stop to think of the cost – ever!

Best wishes,
Kim

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