Greek islands and donkeys go hand-in-hand, and the small but sturdy beasts have charmed me since I first set foot on Sifnos. I love the clip clop of their hooves against stone as they walk through the alleys of Apollonia in early morning. I love to meet them on the trails far from town. I love to pass them in my car on the road and if the owner is Konstantinos, a farmer whose acquaintance I’ve made, to stop for the short conversation we can manage between us.

It was when I met Lindaki mou, though, that I saw how little about donkeys I really know. She’s the Canadian woman I’ve written about before, who as an adventurous backpacking teenager in the 1970s, found her way to Sifnos and lived there for six months. She’d left home with little money and wherever she went on her two year trek through…