Meet the DONKEY WHISPERER
Running a sanctuary for the injured and unwanted is all in a day’s work for Sandy
She is little, gorgeous and cheeky – just never remind May May that she is also a donkey.
Ever since the two-year-old was saved at birth by veteran “donkey whisperer” Sandy Kokas-magnussen, the characterful May May has become more than just another head in the herd. “She is very spoilt, the little darling,” laughs Sandy, who runs the Good Samaritan Donkey Sanctuary in the NSW Hunter Valley.
“But May May hates being a donkey. She would much rather be with my dog Queenie than the herd. She thinks she is special... and she is.’’
It’s perhaps no surprise May May thinks she’s a household pet. At birth her mum immediately rejected her, and May May was given a home in Sandy’s bathroom.
As she grew, she rode in the back seat of Sandy’s car to events and play dates, and still follows her best mate, Queenie, around like a puppy.
“It’s rare they are rejected but it is Mother Nature. Mum must have thought something was wrong,” says Sandy.
It turned out, Mum was right: May May has a heart murmur and may not live quite as long as some donkeys who can get to the ripe old age of 50.
But May May isn’t the only donkey getting TLC from Sandy and her family, who look after between 70 and 150 animals at any one time.
ALL IN THE FAMILY
The sanctuary was the creation of Sandy’s mum Jo-anne Kokas. And although it was set up in name in 1990, Jo-anne had been saving donkeys since at least 1972, a love she first inherited from her father, former WWII spitfire pilot Clifford Gumbley.
“He had a big ranch at Terrey Hills in Sydney where [musician] Smoky Dawson’s ranch is now,” says Sandy.
“Back in the ’50s and ’60s, my grandfather used to have rodeos there. At half-time, the clowns would have donkeys to help them entertain the crowds.”
Jo-anne’s job at the time was to look after and feed the donkeys when they were back in the stables. “Mum fell in love with them,” explains Sandy, who started riding them at just two-years-old.
Jo-anne still lives on the property but Sandy, 52, has taken over the day-to-day running of the sanctuary, alongside her husband Barry Magnussen. And the love of the sometimes marginalised donkey is just as strong in Sandy.
While standing in the special care section on one of the registered charity’s two properties, she is quick to stop mid-sentence as she lovingly berates two sick donkeys as they hiss and snort.
‘They are very forgiving [and] are very intelligent’
SPECIAL CARE
“Hey, you two are naughty. Shame on you, Jessica. The language! You two are supposed to be gentle and get along,” Sandy tells them.
Other parts of the farm are known as the “retirement village”, where unwanted donkeys live out their lives after being discarded.
“Some don’t have a lot of teeth, some have arthritis, some donkeys are deaf and we have some blind ones. They are all here because it is the safest spot and I can keep a good eye on them all the time,” she says.
“Any donkey that comes in, comes in here first. They are wormed, they have their feet checked, they get their teeth done.”
After the physical checks, Sandy assesses their behaviour and mannerisms.
“Then I can judge where they can go. Whether they stay here if they are not very well, or they can go out to the main sanctuary farm and be either with the herd or in special care.”
But it is an expensive business, costing a minimum of $20,000 a month to keep the animals fed and healthy. And the huge majority of that comes from donations, large and small.
The second property is where the healthier donkeys live, some of which will eventually be rehomed. But whatever their future holds, Sandy gets to know them all.
And, explains the donkey expert, they’re as trainable as May May’s friend Queenie.
“Educating a donkey is probably more similar to training a dog than it is a horse. They are like a dog in so far as their mannerisms and personalities,” she says.
But there is one stereotype Sandy won’t abide.
“They are very forgiving, they are very intelligent and they remember. They have a great memory,” she says, before adding with a smile, “They are not stubborn.”
Penny Callaghan will never be able to thank the hundreds of volunteers who helped search for her son – but she’s determined to try.
The mother-of-two faced every parent’s nightmare when eldest son William, who is non-verbal and autistic, went missing on a bushwalk at Mount Disappointment on June 8, 2020.
A year later, Penny, 48, reunited with crew members from the Whittlesea SES, who had scoured bushland to find her boy.
“It was emotional,” Penny tells Woman’s Day. “For the team, these searches don’t often end well, and it was so good for all of us to meet again and share in that really good outcome.
“I wanted to give back to them. For the effort, the amazing show of support and the positive strength they showed me – how can I possibly say thank you enough?”
William, now 15, and his brother Robin, 13, had been visiting their father when William wandered ahead into the dense Victorian bush.
For two days and nights, more than 500 police and volunteers combed through the scrub for him.
“The turnout was amazing... it buoyed my spirit, and gave me the courage to keep going,” says Penny. “People genuinely felt for Will and wanted to be there looking.
“All the volunteers helped me – offering blankets and food. I would have been really lost without them.”
DESPERATE SEARCH
She remembers being so desperate to join the hunt, she was ready to run into bushland but the authorities advised against it.
“Because the bush was really dense they said, ‘We can't have two of you going missing,'” explains Penny, who couldn't stop thinking of her son stuck in the freezing conditions as temperatures plunged to around zero degrees Celsius.
“The first night was excruciatingly awful, everything just seemed to go really slowly... I was frustrated and annoyed that I couldn't do more.”
Search teams worked hard to adapt their methods to find William, who they knew would find it impossible to call out for help.
Careful to avoid making loud noises that could cause him to be frightened and hide, rescuers sang as they searched instead of shouting his name, and played his favourite song, the Thomas The Tank Engine theme, to coax him from the bush.
On the third day of searching, Penny received word from her partner Nathan, 44, that William had been found alive 1.5km from the search command area. It's a moment she will never forget.
“I didn't want to picture any worst-case scenarios... so when they said he was alive I just was over the moon,” Penny recalls.
REUNITED WITH MUM
Finally, mum and son were reunited. “Holding Will in my arms... it was beautiful,” says Penny, her voice heavy with emotion.
After a night in Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital, where doctors X-rayed William's foot to check for breaks and removed dirt from his ears, the teenager returned home to begin his road to recovery.
“His feet were swollen for weeks. I could see he'd lost weight,” says Penny. “I could see he'd been struggling.”
But it wasn't just the physical injuries that needed time to heal. “Going through that ordeal for anyone is awful, but particularly for someone who gets very confused by the world,” she explains. “But William's such a strong little man, I'm so proud of him.”
Reuniting with the Whittlesea SES crew a year after their ordeal, Penny was especially excited to thank unit controller Gary Doorbar who, together with his team, helped execute the search for William.
“Seeing Gary again was lovely and very emotional,” she says.
William was all smiles as he jumped in the SES truck to explore. It was a moment Gary couldn't have been happier to see, overjoyed to finally meet the teen after having missed the moment of his rescue due to work commitments.
“Outcomes like Will's motivate me to keep going”, says Gary, who led 120 SES volunteers in the search. “Seeing the family again was a really happy day, Will is a great kid and you can see how people see him as being an angel.”
During those nightmarish days and nights of searching, Gary, 54, had even arranged for a caravan to be delivered for the family to use, so they had some privacy and space to sleep. It was an act of kindness Penny will never forget.
“Everyone was doing all they could to help, it kept me going,” she says. “I just want to thank everyone involved, we are so grateful that Will is here with us.”
‘Holding Will in my arms... it was beautiful’
The Callaghans hope to build a pool to aid William’s therapy, and he will continue to need ongoing support. To donate to the family, visit gofundme.com/willcallaghan-support-fund