Nebbia: from surgery to Renata's love

A trauma to the jaw, followed by a bad infection: poor Nebbia's story had not started in the best way ever.

The costs of surgery were too high for his owner, who was also scared by the delicacy of post-surgery specialist care; so she contacted our Rifugio to release the donkey.

Nebbia was operated in the University Clinic of Perugia, the only facility able to do this in Italy, by Professor Marco Pepe and his staff, who had already given us a big support during the Colleferro's seizure.

The surgery was perfectly executed and the clinic, which also made a discounted rate.

When Nebbia arrived at our Rifugio, he had half of his face covered with a scar and an understandable distrust of humans, who associated to the pain and discomfort of therapies.

At first it was a lonely boy, and even the playful Bandit company, which had been put together to help him acclimate, seemed to alter his antisocial character.

After a few months Nebbia, now fully healed from a physical point of view, was inserted into the larger group of Il Rifugio, along with forty other donkeys. And there it came his transformation: from a lonely, "anonymous" donkey, he became one of the most affectionate guests, loved and well known by our supporters (also because he is one of the main protagonists of "donkeyselfies", shared by our visitors on Facebook!).

His friendly attitude has won many, including Renata, who met him for the first time in November 2015, during a tour in Sala Biellese with a stop at Il Rifugio.

"Nebbia has remained in the hearts of all: even when we got back on the bus, his name returned in our chats".

That meeting was so important that, when she came home, Renata decided to sponsor him: "We can say that Nebbia was adopted by me financially, but virtually by all the group of "old boys" from ANPI section of Legnano".

And, as Sala Biellese is not around the corner, instead of real Nebbia, his terracotta statuette has become the mascot of the section!