From Canada comes the story of a lonely donkey who fell in love with a yoga ball.

Captivating thousands with his videos of pushing the yoga ball around his paddock, Earl Grey the donkey received donations of dozens of yoga balls after his first one deflated.

Homes for Hooves animal rescue shelter in British Columbia took in a rescue donkey in 2024 that had lived its whole adult life alone, which for a herd animal can be extremely detrimental.

“His original name was Eeyore,” Michelle Singleton, owner of Homes for Hooves, told CTV News. “Which kind of tells you he was a sad, lonely donkey.”

Scheduling play dates with other animals didn’t go well, but what turned things around was a chance encounter with a yoga ball. After that, Eeyore and the ball became inseparable—and he became so happy, he needed a name change.

“The excitement was just pure joy for him,” Michelle said. “He just had the time of his life, he had so much fun.”

Day after day he would exhaust himself pushing, biting, and kicking the yoga ball across his enclosure, until one day the inevitable happened: a hole, a rush of air, and stillness.

Singleton put out a call to action, hoping that because many people opt to make donations to her shelter in cash, perhaps others were storing unwanted yoga balls in their closets and would gladly donate them.

Donated balls arrived from across the province until Earl Grey was left like a kid in a candy store; with more balls than he knew what to do with.

The donations which totaled more than 40 yoga balls were followed by the arrival of three rescue donkeys, the chance at regaining a herd which Singleton always hoped would come for the once depressed animal.

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Having been separated from his kind for his whole adult life, he didn’t know how to behave or what was acceptable, and it took 6 months for him to get the hang of, well, ‘donkeying.’

The CTV News report concludes with Earl finally being accepted into the herd. Singleton has been left with only one concern—can the new donkeys keep up with Earl’s ball skills, and will they form a ball team?