She’s not pregnant, she’s fat.

A slightly slimmer Susie, but getting there!

I hated to disappoint them but the reply did at least raise a few smiles.

So just how did Susie, our gorgeous Pyrenees donkey come to
be this size?  Susie is a Catalan Pyrenees so by nature is quite chunky but the simple answer is greed. She has never been known to refuse anything and obviously took full advantage of our guests’ generosity. This unfortunately was to be her downfall.

Where there's attention, there's Susie!

The first sign that all was not well was when Susie suddenly refused to eat or drink  – 6.30 pm to be precise on the very night when all of our guests were getting together for a big BBQ.  Donkeys are very stoic and by the time they let you know something is wrong they can often be very ill. A quick check on the internet (what did we do before Google?) and we knew we had to call the vet.

To get to the point her stomach had completely shut down, blocked with loads of delicious soft French baguettes, supplied by our well meaning guests. This was a serious bout of colic, potentially fatal in donkeys.

When the vet produced 3 enormous extra long syringes I recoiled in horror. So did Susie.

And then the drama began.

Susie was having none of it & let it be known with an impressive impression of a bucking bronco. With one deft flick of her hooves, the vet was on the ground, legs akimbo & brandishing the 3 syringes in the air. Amar was left there gamely trying to stop 400kgs of donkey from losing the plot completely.

Meanwhile our guests, oblivious to the real reason why Amar wasn’t in front of the BBQ, thankfully just took over & got on with the cooking!

Our guests take over, oblivious to all the drama!

The vet then decided it would be best to carry on the proceedings in the stable. I stayed outside trying to understand why anyone would think it a good idea to shut themselves (& my husband!) in an enclosed space with a frightened,unpredictable animal and it wasn’t long before my fears were confirmed. With one glance at the waiting syringe, Susie knocked the vet straight into the feeding stall – he bravely carried on from that very position with Amar now wedged firmly between the stable wall and Susie’s bulk.

You couldn’t have written this script – if it hadn’t been such a potentially serious situation it would have been downright hilarious!!

The injections somehow miraculously were all administered, including the one which snapped in half mid-syringe and all three emerged from the stable some time later shaken & very well stirred!

The vet’s parting observations were that Susie wasn’t exactly a slim little thing and she really ought to eat less.

Susie, none the worse for her ordeal!

10 days later she was more or less back to her old self.

Much to her disgust she has since been on a well monitored eating plan – guests do still give her the odd carrot & chunk of apple & I cut and thoroughly dry any bread she gets.

I don’t think any of us want to go through that again!

REALLY dry baguettes for Susie from now on!

It must have been fate.

In all honesty we didn’t have any intention of moving to the Dordogne, never mind to such a remote setting.

Les Crouquets as we found it in May 2006

We left Scotland in Sept 2005 and moved to the Loire where we wanted to stay. We searched for ages, moving further & further out and ended up driving up to 6 hrs each way to look at places which promised the earth but sadly didn’t deliver. Finally in April 2006 after viewing more than 35 properties we found it! A imposing French manoir with 4 gîtes, B&B, a small vineyard and room to expand.

To cut a long story short we agreed a price and fixed the date to finalise the sale.We spent the next 3 weeks mentally planning our future but when we phoned the night before we were due to meet, they told us they had sold it to someone else!

We were devastated not to mention a bit panicked. Knowing how hard it had been to find this we decided to cast our nets a bit wider and look at anything that even vaguely ticked the boxes.

Will we, won't we? A week of weighing up the pros & cons!

And so we found Les Crouquets. It was up & running as holiday cottages but very rundown & everything was badly in need of some TLC. There was more land than 2 people could sensibly keep on top of plus we were townies! Neither of us was sure how we would cope with jumping from the centre of Edinburgh (admittedly via 10 yrs in the Scottish Borders!) straight into the middle of nowhere! And in France too!

3 months later we arrived at our new home. It was 3am, pitch black with the most wonderful starry sky & dancing fluorescent dragonflies. Emma & Alistair were in their element -they thought we had moved to another planet!

A welcome from Mary, Biff & Buff

The next morning so did we. We opened the back door & 3 sheep strolled in. It soon became apparent that they and the other animals had been strolling all over. Everything was trampled or eaten, except the weeds which were almost waist high in some places. Rubble,scrap metal & empty boxes were strewn around and the water in the pool was turning green.If it had seemed tired in May the place was now positively exhausted. We were horrified to think the last guests had left just 4 days before …..

we would definitely be starting from a blank sheet.

Of course this is a much shortened version of events – suffice to say we haven’t regretted one minute.

After a hectic whirlwind first 6 months of decorating, furnishing & refurbishing in time for our first Summer season we have settled down and now rush around at a much slower pace!

Life couldn’t be better!