CARIAD Bach – a two-year-old trainee 'therapy' donkey – has an unusual friend – a young steer named Hopeless.

Ann Slater of Bryndafydd Animal Assisted Therapy, an organisation based in South Wales, owns six working donkeys who play an important role in animal assisted therapy (AAT).

Hopeless was orphaned at just one-day-old and in order to save him, had to be stomach tubed and then bottle fed. His outlook wasn't great, hence his name, however Hopeless was 'adopted' into Ann's family of donkeys and with lots of love and care plus the companionship from his new donkey family, he grew stronger and Ann believes he now thinks he is also a donkey like them!

Hopeless is scared of cattle and will only be with his little band of donkeys and has formed a special attachment to one particular donkey named 'Cariad Bach' (which means 'Little Darling' in Welsh). The pair share everything, including Mollichaff Donkey – a complete fibre feed that is fed to all the donkeys at Bryndafydd and Hopeless loves it too!

Ann said: "Because Hopeless has bonded so strongly to Cariad and only wants to be with the donkeys, it would be detrimental to separate them now and we all love him so much that he could never go for beef! He has so much personality and is very gentle and friendly, so I am aiming to give him a purpose within our Animal Assisted Therapy group as he already plays a big part by letting people get close to him to stroke and groom him."