The frost was settling in on the dark roads as I headed up the Wicklow hills to my next call. This was an unusual one to say the least. An old client whom I hadn't seen for quite a while had just phoned the emergency number to seek help for an old donkey. The donkey mare had been attacked by dogs and she was none the better for her traumatic ordeal.

My client had retired from active farming several years ago when he sold up his herd of cows and fetched development prices for a tidy parcel of land. To keep his interest alive, he leased out a few acres of the remaining uphill fields to anyone who wanted pasture for grazing. The only animal of his own was this old donkey mare that he had been given many years before.