I’m Jana Appleyard and I live with my donkeys and cats on Hvar island, Croatia where I teach yoga retreats and have a small B&B. I met my first donkey Pano in 2013. He and his friends have led me to discover even more about myself and our journey together has become part of my spiritual practice.
Check out “donkeys are great” very own facebook page, written by Pano himself!
September is a lovely month to walk in slightly cooler weather when we can set off around 2pm and return around 7pm . We love to meet new people who enjoy a relaxed donkey walk . Today too many people rush and don’t get chance to appreciate the beauty around them and we cherish our walks so much with people who enjoy the nature have time to chat and admire the scenery . Of course their highlight was cuddling all of us as we walked as there’s nothing better than a donkey 🫏 or pony hugs
Please if anyone in the island sees this kitten please contact us . He needs medication and was coming to stay with us when his rescuers had to return home
This content isn't available right now
When this happens, it's usually because the owner only shared it with a small group of people, changed who can see it or it's been deleted.Beautiful Paca is the birthday donkey this month ! During the week we went for a lovely walk up to one of our favourite places . Paca is now 5 years old and such a sweetheart . ❤️❤️❤️❤️
This month I celebrated my 10th birthday !!! I wanted to make a post on the actual day which is 9th July but Janas internet wasn’t working and she couldn’t get my birthday fundraiser up on time so here it is ..
👇👇👇
gofund.me/d56c3e44
👆👆👆
I just wanted to ask you all that as 10 is a special landmark year of double figures for me that I will sacrifice all my gifts for money towards this go fund me for all my family and animal friends. Please read through the fundraiser to see what the money will go towards . And here’s a photo of me looking very handsome . Love from Pano who’s now 10 years old ❤️❤️❤️
As you can see it takes a lot of work to take care of me and my family ! Jana and her wonderful volunteers have spent the past few mornings moving these very heavy hay rolls into the barn. They even have had time and energy to take us out walking too ! Thank you so much to our volunteers Jana ( German) ,klaudi and Misa (Czech) Laura ( Australia) and Molly (uk) ❤️❤️❤️❤️
Happy summer solstice! Here’s my sister Lula , my dear lily rose and sweet Juliette with the pretty flowers of the day , lavender, imortella and rosemary 🫏❤️🫏❤️🫏❤️
Today we want to write about beautiful Juliette ❤️ when we all met Juliette she was very shy and it wasn’t easy to approach her let alone put a headcollar on her. She was still feeding her daughter Paca who she had at a very ( too young ) age and she was pregnant with Mathilda who’s father was our much missed Romeo.
Since joining our family Juliette has really come out of her shell and after eating lots of special food that Jana gives to pregnant ladies and also to help build them up ,Juliette is looking and feeling amazing 😻. She helps lily-rose keep us all in line! And loves cuddles and to be brushed .
All animals deserve the best care and love ❤️
When Jana took this photo on Saturday morning she had no idea that when she returned to take lady Penelope and Daphne for their daily walk that they would not be there …😭
The owners after 5 months had taken them back . Penelope is back to being tied to a tree and currently we are having very heavy rain (why take them away from freedom and a roof over their head to be tied permanently on a tree with no shelter?🙀🙀🙀). Daphne is only 6 weeks old . What kind of people subject animals to this ? We will tell you… people who exploit animals for tourism. They think it will make their guests happy to give a donkey a carrot and look at the baby , maybe take a photo . Here we are in hvar island a top and very expensive tourist destination. Top hotels , private boats , expensive restaurants. But the animal welfare here on hvar is non existent. No inspections, no support , no education. Some people are doing their best to help animals but we can name many places who are making good money but treating their animals this way . Shame on them and Shame on touristic places who pat themselves on the back each year to say how amazing they are at tourism and turn a blind eye to the care and welfare of the animals
Do you know today is international world donkey day ! Yes we have a special day all for us . Jana told us it’s so important to have a day like this although then I heard her whispering under her breath … ‘ but for you lot everyday is a special day 😹’
Today we have all been out for a walk in the woods to eat lots of nice things . My mum lady Penelope and my new sister Daphne went out this morning and we went this afternoon .
We wish that all donkeys receive good care and love and that more and more people educate themselves on the needs of us wonderful animals ! 😻
If anyone in the island would like to buy some poop 💩💩💩 for their gardens please let us know ! We work really hard eating lots of natures best food while out walking and then at home where we have hay all the way from the mainland ! We are certain it’s top grade poop💩 😹
All the proceeds go straight back into our tummies in the form of hay which is very expensive to buy from the mainland.
We are also saving up to get an equine dentist to visit us as there are no programmes in Croatia to help equines especially on the island with dental or hoof care
Here is zena modelling by our poop 💩pile . You can bring your trailer or bags and if you don’t have time to fill it Jana will do it as she has nothing better to do all day 😹 and we will supervise her to make sure she works hard !
My mum lady Penelope recently had her baby ! Lula and me have a new baby sister 😻 . I’m surrounded by women 🙀😹.
Jana told us it was quite a long birth and Penelope was quite tired afterwards but we are all happy that the baby is well and most importantly my mum has had 4 months of rest , freedom , exercise and good food to make her strong 😻 ( my mum has had lots of babies so maybe it’s time for her to have a rest now ! ) Jana also told me the baby looks a lot like me ! I’m so proud 😻❤️
Today we had a lovely sunny walk for lily-roses birthday . There was lots of green grass and crunchy cut olive branches to eat . Before we went out we had lots of visitors who brought carrots 🥕 for us ! We had a great day ❤️
Do you know that mine and Lulas mum is called lady Penelope?! Jana gave that name to her when she met her. Unfortunately lady Penelopes life isn’t as fun as ours . She is tied to a tree all the time to cut grass and is often left in the same place for days . She has a baby pretty much every year which gets sold or killed for meat . Sometimes though we can take her for a holiday . This time Jana has looked after Penelope for 3 months and her baby is due very soon ! Everyday Jana takes my mum for a walk so she has exercise and can choose what she needs to eat . She has a lovely area to stay where she is free and has a house . She also gets extra special pregnant lady food ! We always hope that lady Penelope can live this way forever but sadly the owners always ask for her back so she can be used as a tourist attraction in the summer with her baby …Do tourists really want to see a permanently tied up donkey ?!🙀
We have no animal welfare or inspection on the island which is very sad and many people are not willing to educate themselves in the needs of equines , exercise, hoof care ( see photos below to see Jana working hard on Penelopes overgrown hooves ), dental care and companionship just to name a few things . Hvar is one of the most popular and expensive tourist islands but nothing is done to help big animals. At least though there are big changes in helping cats …
For the moment now though we just do as we can ourselves and let my lovely mum have the best holiday ever ❤️
I wonder what Jana and all the girls are talking about at the top of the hill ? I hope it’s something nice about me !
From left , Lily , Lula , Paca ,Juliette, Jana and Matilda ❤️
The past two weekends we have had some lovely big walks up to our favourite place high in the hills . There are two routes to get there and yesterday we walked the second route by a place called purkin kuk . There are great views there but it’s a bit hard for us all the fit in the top as the tourist board have added many benches up there ( actually a rather excessive amount ! ) so we didn’t stay long and carried on walking . The path we use which is actually a marked walking path was very difficult to pass ! Many trees had fallen down and we could not pass 🙀. Jana and Cindy had to climb and try to clear the way . It wasn’t easy. After some time a bit if a route was cleared but it was still difficult . But we had a great idea! We asked zena pony to go first and as she is larger she pushed away sone branches ! I went second to show the rest of the girls that it was safe . Teamwork !!!
This is not the first time we have had to clear this path and if anyone from the hvar tourist board is reading this , our message to you is ….. Don’t just think about the shiny new benches … what about the rest of the route ! finish the job properly , check the routes frequently if you want to encourage people to walk ! Or we can do it and you can pay us in carrots 🥕!
We have a new member of our family… he is called Bello 😻 . Our dear Scarlet is very happy and we are all helping him settle in . Matilda and me did chase him a bit 🙀but we were just checking that he can run fast .
Jana says Bello is very handsome but she quickly added but no one is as handsome as you Pano .
Big thank you to Nikola and his father who donated Bello and escorted him in the car from vrboska! ❤️
We have a very romantic video on our Instagram page ( yoga.donkeys.cats.and.more )
Can anyone on the island help our lovely chicken family member Scarlett find a special new friend for valentines? Sadly Scarlets dear Gino went to rooster heaven some days ago and her best friend Brigitte left us also a few months ago 😢
Scarlet is very brave and getting on with things but we know it would make her happy to have a feathered friend.. could be a Rooster , a hen that no longer lays eggs or a youngster. We have a lovely space here and our chickens have all the freedom they want (as well as the company of us lovely donkeys ! )
Please contact us if you can help Scarlet find a new friend for valentine’s ❤️❤️❤️
We are having a lot of rain at the moment. We tried to go out for a walk yesterday but as we were about to leave there was a rumble of thunder and zena and me looked at Jana and said noooooooooo way !
Some of you who have followed my page for a long time will know I am a very good predictor of the weather and I am wondering why some weather channel hasn’t made me an offer I can’t refuse! Today though I would like to give a shout out to all the people who work with horses, donkeys and other large animals . As you can see Jana in one day of rain has to change her clothes at least twice . However waterproof waterproofs are , the water still gets through and the key is to alternate boots and coats each trip. Good boots and coats are essential! As is a love of mud 😹😹😹😹