How did Donner react to becoming a big brother? It seems like an adorable scenario.
Donner and Rudy are not actually related by blood, but they still think of each other as brothers!
At the age of 17, Donner officially became a long distance delivery caribou. His first year was spent far from home traveling from town to town, village to village, delivering packages and letters. Whenever he wanted a quick break from his travels, he would volunteer at the local caribou boarding school and play with the calves and teach them survival skills. That was how he eventually met Rudy.
At the time, Rudy had been in mourning for a long time following the disappearance of his parents and it left him frail, listless, and generally not flourishing as a young calf. Donner was extremely worried about him and dedicated much of his volunteer time to caring for Rudy, making sure that he ate and slept and spent time with the other calves rather than being sad and alone.
After a few weeks of attention, Rudy was showing marked improvement, but Donner’s funds were drying up and he couldn’t stay forever. Rudy had warmed up to him a lot and Donner was concerned that leaving the calf would send Rudy spiraling back into depression. It took several difficult conversations with the headmaster of the school, but Donner was able to negotiate taking Rudy in as a dependant and an adopted sibling. They’ve been traveling together ever since!
So it’s less about Donner’s reaction to getting a little brother and more his parents’ reaction to suddenly getting another son!
They love Rudy, of course.








