Let me introduce you to Annie and Penny, these two are the inspiration behind long ears farm.  It all started because the pony that I was fostering found his forever home, my one horse was lonely out there on pasture all by himself.

You see,  I have owned donkeys previously, and one night as I lay in bed listening to the unexpectedly lonely horse whinny out on pasture, I began to ponder the idea of getting him a companion, and why not a donkey!

Once the search for a donkey began, the flood gates of opportunity opened up, there were so many to chose from.
I decided to go and visit a gentleman who saw my ad and reached out about the several donkeys he had.
Once I arrived at his property, it became apparent that there were a ton of options to chose from, he had at least 10 donkeys on his pasture, and due to his age and retirement status, he was downsizing his herd.
The first donkey that caught my eye was gorgeous, she had brown and white spots, really neat to see on a donkey.

However, she did not have the temperament to go with her looks. she was very much an alpha and in control of the group,  I could not take the groups leader away from the group.  Donkeys are very dependent upon each other and more times than not they have bonded relationships.
I moved on down the pen and as I met and scratched all the donkeys behind the ears, I came across this very sweet girl who was standing in a corner with another mare tucked in behind her.
The sweetness in her ears and eyes just melted my heart. I reached out to try and touch the other donkey behind her, and all she did was pin her ears at me, it kind of made me giggle, there so much expression in her ears.

As I meet each donkey, I just could not get that one particular donkey out of my thoughts, the way she was so sweet and liked my attempts to scratch her ears, she was forgiving and very accepting to me and my touches.
It was almost like we had met before and already knew each other.
The sweet old man was super happy with my offer to adopt 2 donkeys, the sweet forgiving one and the shy grumpy donkey as the two of them were attached to each other at the hip.
Come to find out these two girls were sisters and had been together all their lives, the older man was given ownership over them when his neighbor of 25 years had died and left the donkey herd to him
I was over the moon with excitement to know that I was able to keep the sisters together. I also knew that in time Ms.grumpy would come around, she had soft sweet eyes.

Time has passed, Annie and Penny have been here with me, and yes Penny the grumpy one has come around, she still has many rules about being touched, and she is not as loving as her sister Annie who will talk a cookie out of my pocket if I let her.  Penny has learned to trust all that is, and accept much more.  These days you can see the pair out on pasture, perhaps Annie is at the water and Penny is up by the big tree, however they always know where each one is.  Annie is the best protector I could ask for, this is her pasture and she will stomp at and chase off any predator that comes close to the chicken pen.   Oh and by the way the horse is no longer lonely, he is quite content now , as I was able to rescue another horse for him to talk to.