A Summerland seven-year-old and his friends have donated $110 toward the veterinary care of Critteraid’s new donkey.
Deborah Silk, Critteraid president, said the organization recently received a call from Terri Parsons saying her son Grady wanted to turn his birthday party into a special event for Critteraid, “besides having seven-year-old fun stuff.”
He asked his guests to bring donations for Critteraid when they came to his birthday party.
After the party Grady and his family visited Critteraid Farm to present the collected donations.
That was the same day a donkey named Maya arrived at the animal sanctuary. In fact, Maya, a standard-size donkey, arrived at the farm only two hours before Grady did.
Silk said everybody was pretty taken with Maya, especially Skippy, Critteraid’s miniature donkey who had probably never seen another donkey except for his mom when he was very young.
“Skippy was mesmerized by her. Of course they went through all the obligatory sniffings and when Skippy got too personal, Maya would kick out, often planting a nasty blow to Skippy’s head,” said Silk.
“Skippy is enchanted with this big, beautiful lady donkey and it is hopefully the beginning of a fairy tale for these two special animals.”
Silk asked Grady what he would like all this money to be put toward and Grady pondered this responsibility seriously. In the end, after meeting cats and guinea pigs and the cow, he asked for the $110 to be put toward veterinary costs for Maya.
“Although her body seemed to be in fine shape, her hooves were pretty nasty and it was going to take a lot of work between the veterinarian and the farrier to get Maya to grow new ones so that she could walk properly in the future,” said Silk.
Grady presented his birthday money to Emily Molland, one of Critteraid’s Youth Ambassadors who spends a lot of time with the animals at the farm.
So, turning seven, Grady Parsons has begun his life as a philanthropist. He and his brother Nathan had informed their parents that April was National Animal Cruelty Prevention Month.
“Let’s hope the world turns out more caring and compassionate young people just like these boys,” said Silk.
