When most people think of house pets, they think of cats or dogs. Some may even go as far as to imagine a bird, small rodent, or bunny.
But for Darragh, she couldn’t see why donkeys weren’t perfectly suitable house pets as well!
Darragh was born on a donkey rescue in the Irish countryside, but she was rejected by her mom. The poor donkey would’ve been left for dead, but their human owner, Torsten Islei, stepped in to play “mom” for the little baby.
Torsten is no stranger to caring for unwanted donkeys. In an interview with GeoBeats, he explained, “A lot of donkeys in Ireland are just unwanted, and what usually happens is they end up in dog food.” Since he lives in the countryside on five acres of land, he decided to start taking the unwanted donkeys and offering them a forever home.
With the help of his wife, Torsten cares for several donkeys that would’ve otherwise had grim fates. When one of them became pregnant, they feared she would reject the baby and that’s exactly what happened.
Caring for a newborn donkey isn’t for the faint of heart.
Just like newborn babies, they require milk feedings every three hours, day and night, for months. It’s exhausting and thankless, but Torsten and his partner were fully dedicated to seeing their little foal survive and thrive.
Since the foal needed care like a newborn baby, that’s exactly how they treated him! He was welcomed into their house, went on car drives with them, and would even fall asleep in their laps.
It seemed he was starting to think he was a human child or at least a dog.
Torsten told GeoBeats that they ended up having to give Darragh a “fair amount of time with the herd so he doesn’t forget he’s actually a donkey.”
While he may know that he is, indeed, a donkey, he still thinks of Torsten as his parent and would enjoy being a lap pet on occasions.
Watch the video below:
You can keep up with Torsten and the donkeys on Instagram, @donkeys_of_thor.
This articles was originally published on The Animal Rescue Site.