Donkey takes to the dusty road

Friday 30th December 2005, 12:00AM GMT.

DOLLY the donkey could have been heading for Bethlehem when she left her field in St Mary on Christmas Day night.

After all, the Bethlehem Methodist Church is only a short way away.

But the animal’s disappearance caused something of a Christmas crisis for new owner Frank Raimbault, who had inadvertently left the gate to Dolly’s enclosure open.

She evidently decided that a seasonal adventure was an appropriate way to mark the night that celebrates the birth of Jesus.

Whether or not she was looking for a stable we shall probably never know, but she did make her way through a field of cauliflower and over another grass field on her night out.

Mr Raimbault, who lives at Le Pignon de Haut in Rue ès Bouefs, said that Dolly, who is nine years old, was missing overnight before she turned up safe and well on Boxing Day.

‘I had only had her for two days and just forgot to shut the gate,’ he said.

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