Donkeys are the animals of legend, spirituality, work and adventure. They have always been portrayed as the partners of humans on the journey through life, through chance. Napoleon rode a donkey across the Alps, Sancho Panza rode Dapple across Spain seeking dreams and angels and Jesus and the Holy Family rode donkeys through the Holy Land, Juan Ramon Jimenez rode a donkey to a Nobel prize.

A donkey is the first recorded animal rescue in human history. According to legend, a farmer was about to slaughter his donkey, he was too small and weak to work. His children prevailed upon him to tie the donkey to a tree in the hopes someone would want him. The next day two men appeared and asked about the donkey. Nobody wants him, said the farmer, he is useless. “Jesus Christ wants him,” said the two disciples and they brought him to Jesus who rode him into Jerusalem. Jesus accepted the donkey, treated him well, and rode him until his death.

In a curious way, and regardless of faith, this story, in the Old and the New Testament, set the template for animal rescue, for human beings taking into their lives animals who were neglected or mistreated. Animal rescue became an act of human faith, a testament to the better side of being a human being. Writing my book about Simon, I am struck at how his life mirrors this ancient story – abandonment, neglect, salvation, rebirth and a partnership with his human being. Donkeys carry the richest spiritual history in the animal world.