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Welcome to the Travel Transformation Podcast, where we talk all things travel and all things transformation. I'm your host, Jessica Grace Coleman, and I am doing a solo episode today.

I'm still in the Basque Country in Spain, still on a main road. There's still roadworks and construction going on outside, so I'm really sorry if you can hear all that, but that is just life and we're just going to carry on.

So this episode is all about a donkey. Yes, you heard that right. Colin the donkey, our beloved neighbour in the Basque Country. He's just across the road, and I wanted to tell his story. I'm recording this a few days after getting to the Basque Country, and I'm going to update it as we go. So, at the time of recording this part, I have no idea where this story is going to go or how it's going to end – and that's a bit scary, but I promise to be truthful and to tell you what happens. 

So, last year, I came to the pop-up, a co-living pop-up. Last year it was for a month, this time it's for six weeks, but I'm staying for a month. And I immediately noticed a donkey across the road. It's literally across the road. He has a little field. There's like a really creepy-looking abandoned house at the side of the field, and he has a little donkey house – like a little concrete hut in the middle of the field – but he can't always reach it because he's on a rather short tether, which is quite sad.

But I understand why they don't let him roam around because it's right on a main road, so that would not be good. He obviously has owners because his tether gets moved around, but we have never seen them once. No one in this house – and it's an Airbnb – no one from either this year or last year has ever seen any other person in his field. So that's a bit of a mystery. Maybe he is moving the tether around himself, I don't know.

Anyway, so last year I kept going to see this donkey, eventually getting closer and closer, and at the time there was a sort of fence around and you had to kind of climb over it if you wanted to get into the field, which you weren't really meant to do… but I did anyway. And I took him some food because he just looked so sad, honestly, and we never saw anyone with him. He doesn't have any donkey friends, no human friends. So I took him some food. We got loads of photos because one of the guys was really into photography and he took lots of pictures of me feeding Colin and stroking him, and it was really lovely. 

It wasn't until the last two weeks – some of us were here for four weeks, and then every two weeks, the people changed around, or some of them – and we were walking past the donkey and I was introducing him to the new group, that this guy from Germany said, ‘Oh, what's his name?’ And I was like, ‘Oh my God, I haven't given him a name!’ And this is crazy because I name everything. I name all animals I come across, basically. That was a massive truck, sorry! Anyway, so I said, ‘Well, his name's Colin,’ obviously not thinking it would stick. I called him Colin from then on, and so did the rest of the people in the house.

It was horrible saying bye. I didn't want to say bye to Colin because he looks so forlorn and sad and he hee-haws throughout the day and at night. I've looked it up and it could mean he's excited, or excited for food, or it could mean he's lonely and crying out for a donkey friend, which I just can't get over; that's too sad. And, yeah, he looks a bit mangy. We've never been able to see any bowls of water or food in the field. He obviously eats the grass. He can sometimes reach his little house, sometimes not. So this year I came back and I was a bit worried to ask before I came if Colin the donkey was still alive, because we weren't sure if he was being looked after that well.

It started two weeks before I got here, and immediately, one of the founders put a video in our WhatsApp group of Colin the donkey. And I was like, ‘Yes, Colin!’ And everyone was like, ‘Yes, Colin!’ So I got here and I found out that a lovely lady called Germaine, who was here for the last two weeks, has been looking after Colin. He's still called Colin. Everyone knows him as Colin. He has a bag in the kitchen with food for him and it's labelled Colin. She's been taking him food and hanging out with him, so that was awesome to hear. And she was also worried about his welfare.

Like, not seeing the water, and he seems really lonely and sad. And, if you go up to him and then you leave, then he'll hee-haw at you sometimes, running around in circles, obviously trying to get out of his tether. It's just not a good sight. It's really sad and I love going to see him – I go every day – but every time I go to leave, he tries to follow me and he can't. And it's so sad. I end up saying goodbye, like, ten times because I can't bear to leave him.

Anyway, Germaine – before I got here – spoke to a local animal rescue place, which I actually visited last year. They're not too far from here; we would walk there, as it's next to this really nice café, and sit outside. They have all kinds of really random animals that they've rescued from the Basque Country and surrounding area, stuff you wouldn't expect to find in the Basque Country in Spain, and apparently they have a donkey now. So, she immediately saw this donkey and was like, ‘Oh, Colin could have a donkey friend!’ And she spoke to the guy and he is hopefully going to come and check out Colin and his field and his circumstances. 

It's a bit of a weird one because obviously he has an owner, but most people say around here that people don't own donkeys as pets, they own them as lawnmowers, basically. I did suggest maybe clubbing together with the housemates to buy this person a lawnmower so he could take Colin, but he's going to hopefully come and do a bit of a welfare check, I'm not sure when, and I'm going to meet up with him. There's another woman in the village who he's been talking to. She's going to try and find out if she can find out who his owners are, because we don't know, because we never see them.

And, yeah, it's one of those things where you don't want to be just rocking up to a place as a foreigner, thinking you know best and saying, ‘We want to take your donkey to the rescue place.’ Like, the guy said he would happily take him in if he could speak to the owners, but they're probably not going to want to get rid of their lawnmower. On the one hand, it's none of my business. On the other hand, Germaine already set this in motion and he does look very sad. And if he doesn't have access to water and he's on a short tether and, on top of all this, there's construction work going on on the road right next to his field and actually in his field as well. He's actually sleeping next to a big pile of rubble at the moment, which is really sad… and all the noise and everything, it can't be very nice. 

Again, we don't know for sure who owns him, but we never see anyone giving him treats or water or anything like that. And I went around to check out his little house the other day and walk around the field to see if I could see any bowls of water or anything. I couldn't see anything, and he followed me the entire way, bless him, little Colin. And I've read that donkeys like being in close proximity to people they respect. So, like I said in another podcast episode, I think the feeling is mutual.

If nothing else, I just hope we can do something for him. Like maybe buy him a bowl to put water in. Maybe talk to the Airbnb owners; maybe they could mention it in the description that there's a donkey across the road that you're welcome to go and visit and hang out with. I don't know, maybe put a box in the kitchen with ‘Colin’ and a little donkey sticker on so people know it's treats for the donkey and they can buy stuff and put it in there. I don't know.

I also would really like to pimp out his donkey house, like Queer Eye style. He's not got a bed or anything, it's just a concrete floor, so maybe put a bed, maybe put up some posters of donkeys… I don't know. Make it a bit nicer. Because I have seen other donkeys – free-range donkeys – in the area where they're just roaming around fields and they seem fine. I think it's just the fact that he's on a short tether and doesn't have any friends and possibly doesn't have access to fresh water all the time, that makes it very sad.

So, hopefully we can find the owners, hopefully the guy can talk to them if they aren't treating him properly, hopefully they'll get the message, or maybe this guy will offer to take Colin in and maybe they'll be like, ‘okay, whatever,’ if they don't really care about him, I don't know. So that is the update at the moment. I am meant to be getting a message from this guy soon. I haven't had any yet, but when I do, hopefully I'll be able to meet up with him and this other woman who's seen Colin from across the road. 

It was really funny because Germaine put me in a WhatsApp group with them and they were all talking about the donkey and calling him Colin. When I named him last year, I didn't think it would stick. That's quite funny. 

So I'm going to keep you updated. I'm not going to release this episode until the end of my stay here, until we've got more of an idea of what is going to happen with Colin or if there's anything we can do. There might not be anything we can do, but like I said, maybe there are little things we could do to make his life a bit better because it's just very sad. So, yeah, that was part one of my update and stick around for part two in a moment! 

Hi again! Okay, I'm recording this a few days later, after my initial recording about Colin the donkey, and I have some updates. I met with Pedro from the local animal rescue place and, unfortunately, they don't have the room to take Colin in there. But they do have their own donkey who sounds like a bit of a crazy lady donkey who's not too used to humans, so is running around a bit and could do with some calming influence – AKA Colin. But he was hoping that maybe we could approach the owner, and ask about building a fence, although I don't think that would be able to be done for a while because they're building on the land now or doing something with the land. There's a big pile of rubble next to Colin, but if the animal rescue place could help them build a fence, and help with money, maybe Colin could roam freely and maybe they could get the other donkey from the rescue place to go and be Colin's donkey friend, which would be amazing.

I haven't been able to talk to the owner yet, but who knows, he might be up for having a free donkey. I don't know. The guy from the animal rescue place, Pedro, was really nice, bless him. He was in a back brace because he'd had an accident – possibly from running around after the other donkey, I'm not sure. So he was a bit limited in movement but he knows someone in the area who might know who the owner is, because he knows everyone, and we might be able to talk to him through this guy. 

The main concern is that he doesn't have any fresh water. I did do a bit of an investigation of his field, and behind his little house, I found some sort of crates and buckets. And one of them was quite a tall bucket, and it was full of water, but, like, dirty rainwater. It didn't look very appealing, but at least it's water, so that's something. But it'd be great if we could get him some fresh water every day, which doesn't seem to be happening at the moment. 

Another thing – I think I might have met his actual owner, though ‘met’ is a loose word because he drove past me on a tiny digger on the way to the rubble pile in Colin's field. But he saw me stroking Colin and sort of smiled at me and did a little ‘hee-haw!’ at Colin. Colin seemed really happy to see this guy. He was running around, he was on his back, rolling around in the dirt – which could have just been his way of cooling down, as I think that's what donkeys do – but he seemed pretty happy, so hopefully he's a good owner to Colin. 

Basically, we hope we could get him a little fence, a little friend, and some fresh water. Again, I’m not sure how feasible any of this is. If the guy can contact his owner and be in touch with him, maybe make some suggestions, maybe ask if he wants another donkey, maybe that would be a good ending… but it might take a while. I don't think this guy from the animal place has this guy's number, and he’s in the back brace so he can't keep coming down and knocking on his door. Maybe I should find a Spanish speaker and go and speak to him by myself. but I don't think that'll be very good coming from a random foreigner who's just rocked up and started talking about his donkey.

But yes, all we want is the best for Colin, and if we get in some fresh water, that would be amazing – and a friend, that would be beyond amazing. So, I'll keep you updated and see what happens. 

Actually, I went to see Colin this morning to give him some breakfast – a little treat – and as I got there I saw some people walking off into the distance with some dogs, no one from the house where I'm staying, and Colin was just standing there with half a baguette hanging out his mouth. He obviously has friends in other places and we never noticed anyone taking any notice of him before, but since we've been here, several of us in the house have been going to visit him every day just to hang out with him, stroke him occasionally, and give him a treat. Maybe the other people have seen us do that. I know there are a lot of construction workers who have been watching me go every day and being like, ‘What the hell is she doing?’ Because I don't think they're very affectionate with donkey-type animals around here; they just have them to mow the grass and kind of thing.

But who knows? Maybe some of the villagers have seen us hanging out with Colin, stroking him, seeing how tame and lovely he is, and have decided to go and say hi to him as well. So hopefully that's the case. Hopefully he will be less lonely going forward, because that's the main thing. We want him to be healthy and happy, and if we can get him some water and some friends, I think that would be a really good outcome. 

So that's the update for now. Germaine and I – the other lady who is interested in Colin – offered to keep in contact with this animal rescue guy. But yeah, it is one of those things where you don't want to just come in and disrupt things that have nothing to do with you. It's none of our business. But, at the same time, I'm not the kind of person who turns a blind eye to potential cruelty. I don't think it's cruelty – I think it's more neglect if anything – but, again, I think that's just how animals are treated around here. It's not ideal. If we could just get him some fresh drinking water, I'd be happy with that. 

So let's see, and I will stop rambling. Hopefully you can hear this a bit better; I am recording from the chapel, which is the Zoom room in the house, and it's amazing. I'm going to put some photos and videos on my social media @traveltransformationcoach on Instagram. And yes, I will be in touch hopefully with some more news soon. Bye!

Okay, I'm back, and I have got some updates for you, some Colin donkey updates. I just want to apologise again for the sound; I'm recording in my bedroom again, and the cars are going back and forth, but there's no construction work this time, so that's something, at least. 

So, I'm on my third week in the house. It is Tuesday, 16th May, and I've got quite a few updates, like I said. The first thing is that Germaine and I organised a meeting with the owner of the animal rescue place, which is called Basondo, and it's in the Basque Country. I'm not sure exactly which town it’s in because it's about a five-minute drive from where we're staying in Gautegiz Arteaga – I'm probably saying that totally wrong. But it's called Basondo, and it's amazing. And we met Pedro there, and Roberto, who is the owner; he has owned that place for 23 years. He founded it himself. He lives in Madrid, I believe, in the week, but he comes back on some weekends to be on the ground. And we had a meeting with them at the Basondo place.

Honestly, we weren't sure how it was going to go, because it's a pretty weird thing to request a meeting about, but the meeting itself is really great. We already knew Pedro was great, and Roberto is amazing, too. He's really into animals, really into helping them out. And what made the meeting even more amazing was that when we were there, this guy appeared and he was talking to this… something… on the ground that we couldn't see. And I assumed it was a dog or something, which… amazing, I love dogs… but then there appeared this tiny fawn, this baby deer, month-old Nina, the cutest little thing ever. 

She was just trotting along, eating some leaves or grass or something, and Pedro has been looking after her because her mother is there, but she can't produce milk or something like that. So he's been helping to hand-rear her. And she was just wandering around while we were having this meeting outside, and it was the cutest thing ever. Very distracting, but in a good way. So that alone was worth going to the meeting for, to be honest. Cutest thing ever. But we actually had a really good meeting.

We explained the situation, said we wanted to help, offered financial help, and wondered what the options were. We already knew that they couldn't take the donkey in; they didn't have room. And we found out that the donkey they already have there, they probably don't want to move that donkey because it has now got a new friend, a sheep bestie. Yes, that's right. Donkeys and sheep get on really, really well, apparently. And you'll often find a donkey with a best friend that's a sheep. And this is just the cutest thing ever.

The animal rescue place also used to have an old blind camel. And, again, I'm not sure why they had a camel in the Basque Country; they've just been rescuing animals from the area. And someone obviously had a camel and didn't know what to do with it, and that camel became best friends with a lamb, a baby sheep. Oh my god, I can't – it's just too cute. 

Anyway, so the idea of maybe putting the other donkey with Colin was not really on the table, because it's happy with its sheep friend in the animal place, and we don't want to wreck that. But they came up with another idea, because they have a spare sheep – in their words, they have ‘a sheep we don't need,’ and they would be willing to give it to this guy if they could help him build a fence. Because the field, as it is, doesn't have a proper fence, and it's also on a main road. So obviously that's a huge no-go to plonk a sheep there if there is no fence. Also, a little electric fence, which is what most fields have around here, wouldn't necessarily keep a sheep out, we don't think. He said they'd need a big proper fence. 

They build all their own fences at the animal place. They have the tools, they have the equipment, they have the materials, they have the knowledge, they know how to do it. So, they could help build a fence for the owner and give him a sheep to be Colin's best friend. I mean, hopefully… I'm just assuming that Colin will love the sheep, but you never know. I also don't know how old Colin is, so we don't know how set in his ways he is; that's another thing I need to find out. 

So, yeah, the meeting was very fruitful. But something else came out of the meeting, which was very unexpected. Bearing in mind that I've only just met Germaine, who is the other lady organising all this, and actually, for most of the time she's been here, she hasn't been here. She rented a car and she went travelling around the area, so I literally only met her two or three times maybe. 

And then we went to this meeting for an hour, and we asked the guys at the animal place… we were like, ‘It would be great if you could help us with this or at least try and help us. We don't know how far we'd actually get with the owner.’ And then we said, ‘What can we do in return?’ We'd happily provide financial support, donations, pay for the fence, pay for the sheep, anything like that. We said, ‘What do you need?’ And the guy said, ‘What we need more than money is help spreading the word about the place,’ like spreading awareness, doing marketing. They have a website at the moment, but it's only in Spanish and Basque. It's not in English or any other languages. 

They have social media, but again, it's only in Basque or Spanish and it's not updated very much. They have a tech guy who does that stuff for them, but he doesn't update things really. And they were also interested in maybe partnering with animal places in the UK and the Netherlands – Germaine’s from the Netherlands – and just help spreading the word, getting people to visit, all that kind of stuff, and they asked if we could help with that.

And we were like, ‘Yes, of course, that would be wonderful!’ because we already love animals, we love helping animals, and we want to help Colin and we want to help the animal place as well. It's win-win.

So we kind of joked that we left the house for an hour, Germaine and I, and somehow accidentally created a side hustle to do with helping animals and helping animal rescue places. And, as the coliving we're staying at is called Sun and Co., I jokingly said, ‘Oh, it could be called Colin and Co., a little side hustle, but I'm not sure it's actually a joke anymore. I think it's actually happening!

This is not something we planned, but both of us have said that we'd really like to do something helping animals. And, both this year and last year at the pop-up, I've had people ask me why I don't do anything to help animals as part of my job, because that seems to be my biggest passion. And I'm like, ‘That's a good point. I don't know why.’ So maybe Colin and Co. could be a part of The Travel Transformation Company. I already partner with Give The Goodness Global – as you know if you listen to this podcast – in Southeast Asia, so maybe this could be another partnership.

Maybe I could donate some of my earnings to Give The Goodness Global and to Colin and Co., or just have Colin and Co. as a separate thing to help spread awareness of animals and animal rescue places. I'm still trying to figure it out. Germaine's left now, but we're going to have a meeting soon online about how we can help the animal place with their marketing and all that kind of stuff, and with connecting them with other places, and we're going to figure some more stuff out for Colin and Co.

Also, a Colin TikTok is still on the table. I'm still considering doing that. Maybe it'll be a Colin and Co. TikTok, so it won't just be pictures and videos of Colin; it will be other animals as well. That would be quite cool.

Oh, there was another update before we went to the meeting. I'm doing this a bit out of sync. So, before we met up with Pedro and Roberto, Pedro did what he said he was going to do and he talked to the neighbour who knows everyone around here, trying to find out who the owner is. And this got a bit dicey, I have to say, and I was a bit worried that we'd stirred up something in the village and started some beef between the locals and the animal place, which is not good – it's not what we want! 

He was asking about Colin's welfare, and the guy he knows apparently got a bit defensive and said, ‘Colin's owner is great. He looks after Colin very well.’ I don't think he called him Colin, though! And he got a bit defensive about the whole thing, which I do not blame him for. So I was a little bit worried after that, I have to say, but then something else happened. A whole roller coaster, this!

So, Fernando – Fer, who is the host here at Sun and Co. and at the pop-up – he speaks Spanish and he was out walking past Colin’s field one day when the owner appeared. I checked with him – I said, ‘Is he an older dude with white hair?’ as that's who I saw on the digger, and he said yes. And he struck up a conversation with the owner, just casually saying that we're staying in the house and people have been coming to visit Colin and give him treats and basically asking, is that okay with him? And he was like, yeah, yeah. And apparently he was really happy that people here were visiting him and Colin was getting attention, so that's a really good sign. 

He said the owner was very nice, very nice to him. They had a nice conversation, and the reason the owner was there when Fernando walked past was because Colin had broken through his tether that's keeping him in the field and he'd been wandering off in the surrounding fields, which is a little concerning because we are right next to a main road, as you can probably hear the cars going past. We get a lot of trucks going past. I think it's a main road from, say, Bilbao and Guernica to San Sebastian and that area, so you get a lot of traffic and they go really fast as well along this road. 

As part of the construction work that they've been doing, they put up one of those speed awareness signs which has, like, a happy face if you're going under the speed limit, and an angry face if you're going over it. And the amount of times I look out my window – and I look out my window a lot because I can see Colin from my window – and see cars going past, creating the angry face on the sign, is slightly concerning considering Colin could be wandering around. 

And also, obviously, we don't want to add a sheep into the mix until there is a proper fence. But the fact that Fer spoke to this guy and he seemed nice, he seemed happy that we were visiting Colin, and he was having a problem with the tether, makes me think that maybe he would welcome some help in that area. And if he had a proper fence, he wouldn't have to bother with the tether and keep having to come and replace it or repair it or whatever he was doing. So there is hope.

Also, when Fer was talking to the owner, he asked him where he lived and the owner pointed vaguely in the direction of a few houses and said, ‘I'm in the house over there,’ so we have a lead as to where he lives. I mean, that’s a lot more information than we had just a week ago, so that is really good. 

Another interesting point was that he asked Colin’s owner about the access to water, and I'd already found this sort of barrel of rainwater behind his house, and the owner said he's never once seen Colin drink, like ever. And I'm thinking, well, I wouldn't want to drink out of a dirty, filthy rain barrel with muddy brown water either. But yeah, never mind. So I don't know if he's getting the water from the grass or if he's just an actual magical miracle donkey.

I mean, that is the other option, that's the other explanation. 

So, yeah, we've got a lot more information, and I've somehow managed to start a side hustle called Colin and Co. with a lady from the Netherlands who I've just met. We're going to set up an Evernote project for Colin that we can share with each other to come up with ideas for how to help him. 

Another thing is that a guy called Jon who was one of the hosts here last year, who is from the Basque Country, he doesn't work for Sun and Co. anymore but he still does consultations for colivings and he's helping the Airbnb that we're staying in do marketing and things like that. So I think we're going to contact him and ask him if there's any way they could incorporate Colin into their marketing materials because I think it's good for animal lovers. It's a really good thing to add to your Airbnb listing, like ‘Come visit the local donkey across the road. He's called Colin, he's really friendly.’ Maybe he could be added to the Airbnb welcome pack and to the description on the Airbnb page.

My friend Caitlin suggested I write a review on Google and mention Colin, and just mention Colin wherever I can review it – on Airbnb and everything else. I think I've said this before, but we could maybe put a basket with Colin's name on in the kitchen to remind them that they can go visit the donkey, like all future guests. I don't know.

My former housemate, Kathy, suggested we mark Colin as a local landmark on Google Maps, which made me laugh, but it might actually be a good idea. And then she sent me an article of a town in Poland where the highest-rated tourist attraction is this cat, and people literally go to the town to meet this celebrity cat. And that reminded me of another place, I can't remember which country it is, but they elected a cat as their mayor, so maybe Colin could be mayor of this little village. That would be incredible. So those are the things we're considering, but yeah, those are the main updates. 

We've got some new housemates that came on Saturday, and in our family meeting yesterday, I did a public service announcement on behalf of Germaine and I – Colin and Co. – encouraging people to go and visit him and also asking them if anyone had any ideas on how to best approach this with the owner, though I've come up with some ideas myself and I also asked ChatGPT to give me some ideas of how to approach this. And it's all stuff about: appeal to the compassion of the person, remind them of the fact that donkeys do get lonely and that they prefer having friends, and how sheep make great friends for donkeys. We're not there to attack him; we're there to help and ask if there's anything we can do to help. 

And it could be a win-win for everyone. And, yeah, just present it in a way that makes it seem as if we're there just to help out the donkey and not to say we think he's being treated badly… because he could do with some fresh water, yes, but other than that, I think it's circumstantial reasons why he's on a tether. It's because the fence is broken and he's on a main road, so that's the only way to keep him safe.

So it makes sense, but yes. I've got some ideas, and now that Germaine and I are working with the animal place, we can come from the angle of saying we're working with them. We just happened to notice your donkey. We were talking to them about their donkey and their sheep friend and we thought perhaps that would be a good idea for Colin and just say it casually like that. So it's not this huge thing we're plonking on him; we're just going in, testing the waters, and seeing how he responds. 

Anyway, today is Tuesday the 16th. I met with Fer earlier and checked he's okay to come with me, because he speaks Spanish and I do not. And he's already met the owner and seemed to get on well with him, and we don't know exactly which house the owner lives in, but we have an idea. So, tomorrow at noon, we're going to head out, we're going to knock on some doors, and see if we can track down this owner guy. We don't know his name, but we know what he looks like, and we’ll see if we can just talk to him and figure out if he'd be up for getting a new fence and a new sheep. 

It's a bit of a random thing and, honestly, I think it's a big long shot. Even though it would be a win-win in my eyes, he'd still obviously have to look after a sheep and, even if we're helping with the fence, it’s still this whole big thing. So it would be a lot easier for him to say no and just tell us to piss off, honestly. And part of me is expecting that because who are we to rock up and make all these big changes for him? But you never know! We're going to appeal to his sense of compassion, I think. He seems to like Colin. Colin seems to like him. He doesn't seem to just be like a heartless owner, so we're going to see how it goes. 

Hopefully we can find him – that'll be the first thing. I've also sent messages to Pedro asking for clarification on the whole sheep/fence situation and exactly what we can offer the farmer; hopefully they will be able to offer ongoing support if he needs help with the sheep. I've said that Germaine and I – and maybe some of our housemates who are interested in Colin – would be able to donate money to cover the cost of the materials, even though they said it wouldn't be much, and also the cost of the time and labour and all that kind of stuff. And, yeah, hopefully we can reach some resolution together. But, as I say, I think it's a long shot so I don't want to get everyone's hopes up. I'm trying not to get my hopes up, and who knows how this meeting will go tomorrow – if we can even find the guy. 

So that's all I have for now. I'm going to sign off, and the next time you hear from me… well, who knows what answer I will have for you. I'll either be telling you that Colin is getting a new sheep friend or I'll be recording this from a different village because I will have been run out of this place by villagers with pitchforks, telling me to stay away from their livestock. I don't know. Anyway, I can only try. That's what I keep saying. And, I said to Fer as well, at least we'll know we've tried if we go and talk to the owner. So let's see how it goes and I will hopefully talk to you soon. 

Guys… I wish I had better news. Also, there's a fly in my room, so if you hear something buzzing around, that's what that is. I’ve tried to get rid of it, and I got rid of one and then another one appeared. But anyway…

So, today is Wednesday, the 17th May, and I've just come back from seeing Colin's owner. Yes… and you can probably guess by the tone of my voice, and what I said, that it didn't go as well as I would hope, but let's get into it. 

So, I went with Fernando, who is the host here. He can speak Spanish, he'd already met the owner, and even though this is really not in his job description – I guess it's not really in anyone's job description – he agreed to come and help me talk to the owner. So, we went to the house that we believed was his house, the one he'd pointed out before, and we met his wife, who said he was out talking to the construction workers down the road. 

She seemed very nice, and Fernando – or Fer – asked what the name of the donkey was and she said Perico, which is very cute. But, funnily enough, Fur was laughing and I was like, ‘What are you laughing at?’ and he said, well, in Spanish slang, Perico means cocaine. So there's that!

We then walked down the road to where the construction work is going on and we saw the guy there and he seemed to be walking towards us, but it was really, really noisy. So we started walking off back towards his house, hoping he'd catch up with us and we could talk to him where it was a bit quieter. But then he seemed to vanish and I was like, ‘Oh no, we had him right there!’ It was all very mysterious; he'd just vanished in the puff of smoke.

We couldn't really walk on the road too easily with all the construction going on, so we went around Colin’s field, said hi to Colin on the way, and then we found him at the end of that road and we went up to him. And I can't tell you exactly how the conversation went because it was all in very quick Spanish and I only picked up a few words here and there. I picked up that they mentioned donkey several times, they mentioned Perico. At one point I could tell Fer was about to say Colin and then he changed it and said Perico, because the owner has no idea that we call him Colin. And yeah, the owner was really, really nice, a very nice, smiley, happy man. But I could tell immediately that it was a no just by the way he was speaking.

He was still very happy and friendly with us. I think he found it a bit weird what we were offering, but he wasn't offended or anything like that. So that was good. And yeah, we basically offered help with getting a sheep and getting the fence and he just wasn't interested basically, which I thought he wouldn't be. It was a very long shot but we had to try. 

So, basically, he said that he didn't want the responsibility of another animal because you have to have an inspection every year and there's load of paperwork and all that kind of stuff. And, also, he was really worried about a sheep getting out onto the road because it is right next to a main road as I said, which is fair enough, though we mentioned the fence and he said that they did have a fence. You can still see the remains of the fence around Colin’s field – it's quite high – and he said Colin used to jump over it, which is why he's now on a tether. He was on a really short tether today. It was very sad. 

So we tried offering him this solution, and I think he was grateful for the offer, but he said no, he couldn't do it, which is fair enough. And then I asked how old the donkey was and he said five years old, which in donkey years I think is quite young. So he's a baby really, and he's definitely male, because we weren't sure about that.

And yes, before we left they exchanged phone numbers, and we left on good terms. I'm really glad we did it because now he knows that the offer is on the table. He knows that the animal place – he already knew of the animal place, he sort of pointed it out on the horizon – he knows that they're interested in helping if he ever needs any help and that they're willing to help with whatever he needs, whether it be a sheep, a fence, maintenance, help with Colin, anything like that.

So at least he knows now. And he is in the middle of a lot of stuff, like the construction work that's going on is going through his land and I think he's having an issue with it. There was a lot going on, so maybe he'll take some time to think about it and, in the future, who knows? Maybe he'll take them up on the offer. At least he knows it's there and we've connected those people now.

I sent a message to Pedro from the animal place explaining and he was great. He was like, ‘Yeah, I thought he would say that,’ but maybe we can stay in touch and he can check up on Colin every now and then, and he could just check if he needs any help – and he's boots on the ground. So, even when I am gone, and Fernando's gone, and Germaine's already gone, we'll still be in contact with someone in the area who can keep us updated on Colin, which would be amazing, and we're still going to be helping Basondo – that’s the name of the animal place – with their marketing and spreading the word and all that good stuff. 

I looked on their website and you can sponsor an animal. They have their own donkey, so I'm going to sponsor their donkey on behalf of Colin, in Colin's name. You can be a friend of Basondo as well, like pay an annual fee to help out with money for feeding the animals and all that kind of stuff. So, I'm going to do that, and I'm going to put the website in the show notes. It’s just in Spanish at the moment, but obviously you can use Google Translate to figure out what they're saying. And one of the things we're going to be helping them with, I think, is doing an English version of their website, and social media. 

So, I'm going to be meeting up with Germaine next week online to come up with a proposal to send to Basondo on behalf of Colin and Co., which is now a thing thanks to all this, and we'll see where that goes. They've been so great helping with Colin, trying to help connect us with the owner, and offering all these solutions, and they really didn't have to. We want to help them in return, even though nothing came of it in the end – though there still might be hope, I think – we really want to help them. 

So I'll put their website in the show notes; please check them out. And, if you also want to donate some money or sponsor an animal on behalf of Colin, because I think he's captured the hearts of quite a few of my friends and family since I've been posting on social media about him, as well as a lot of the people who are living in the villa this year and last year, so he definitely has some fans out there.

Maybe one day he will be a Google landmark. He's young, so he's got time to get there and to be the mayor of the village. But, yeah, I'm feeling sad that we couldn't offer him a friend because I do think he's lonely and the tether isn't ideal, but we did all we could to help and we're going to continue offering help.

Like I say, we have now connected the guy with the animal place, so who knows what could come of that in the future? And Pedro is going to keep me updated and maybe just try again in the future to see if he needs any help with anything else, which is all really cool and very nice. And, yeah, I do feel sad, but I feel hopeful that something else could come from this, something good. We're going to help spread the word about the animal place, Basondo, and we're going to keep in contact about Colin.

And, yes, like I said, I messaged Pedro and updated him, and English isn't his first language, but I think in this instance it’s a good thing because what he said to me actually sounded very, very poetic, and I don't think that would have happened coming from a native English speaker. What he said to me was… well, he asked for the contact details of the owner so he could contact him in the future, and then he said: ‘I think that if we have to help Colin, the moment will come. My heart is connected and my attention will capture the moment.’ 

And I think that's a perfect way to end this podcast. I'll obviously do an update – do another podcast episode – if anything else happens, but for now, I think that's a good place to end, with hope for helping Colin in the future and a new beginning for Germaine and I with Colin and Co., working with Pedro and Roberto at Basondo Wildlife Refuge in Kortezubi, the Basque Country, Spain. Thank you for listening. 

Please let me know if you want to help Colin, or if you want to help the animals at Basondo, and I will get you in touch with the right people and we can sort that out. And, yes, thank you so much for listening, Colin really appreciates it – or Perico, but I'm still going to call him Colin.

Okay, thank you very much and, until next time, I'll catch you on the flip side, bye! 

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