Soooo, we added five new animals to the sanctuary this week! On pick up day we ran into all kinds of issues, but in the end the animals all made it safely here. They are all just too adorable! Our comedy of errors day started with a dead car battery the morning we were set to leave to start the pick-ups. it was a nine hour trip total, so there was a long day ahead and us and we wanted to get on the road as early as possible. After unsuccessfully charging the battery for about 45 minutes it finally started, but we were now setting off later than planned. Not a great start. About 20 minutes into the drive our youngest son got car sick and threw up all over himself. Thinking it was just an isolated incident we continued on because he said he felt fine, and now two families were waiting for us to pick up their animals and we had already delayed our pick ups previous weekends due to weather. We made it to our first destination, Grants Pass, later than we wanted but happy we got there with no more car sickness for the four hour drive. Sure enough after leaving Grants Pass to head to our next pick up the car sickness kicked back in, and continued off and on for the rest of the drive. Yikes! In between his bouts of throwing up he felt just fine, so that was a good thing I suppose. The second pick up was thankfully already on the drive back, but still 3+ hours from home. If I could’ve turned around and gotten home in a shorter amount of time I would’ve done that because it was I hated seeing him sick, and at this point everyone just wanted out of the car. We did the second pick up quickly, made it home, unloaded the animals and introduced them to their new digs, cleaned up my son, and headed to bed around 2am. A long day, but we went to bed happy to know the animals made it into our care safe and sound, and our son was feeling much better. So not the easiest of days, but it all worked out in the end. So now to introduce these new additions, with photos below! First, meet Summer, Rose, and Tina, the newest members of alpaca herd. These three ladies needed a retirement home as their owner was moving to Alaska but she didn’t want to sell them. We’re overjoyed that they get to stay together and live out their retirement years here. They are all between 11 and 15 years old and have really pretty coloring, and quirky personalities. The next additions are two goats - Maizy and her younger brother Ollie. Both goats are Nubian and Nigerian mixes. Maizy is 4 years old, and Ollie is ten months old. Ollie was still nursing from his mom, something his owner didn’t want happening, but she didn’t have the space to separate them. We know that goats listed on Craigslist always run the risk of being bought to be eaten sadly, even if the buyer promises that won’t happen. The owner had rescued animals her whole life, and wanted a nice, safe home for Ollie, so we said we could take him. She then asked if he could go with his big sister, and we said of course! We like to keep families together whenever possible, and knowing this, the owner said she may reach out to us next year and give us their mom too. That would be such a great thing if Maizy and Ollie got to be reunited with their mom, so fingers crossed that happens. We have two more animals arriving this weekend, and possibly one more in April, but more on them later. Our intakes come from private owners, rescue organizations, and other sanctuaries networks. The goal with taking in animals is to never just go by if we have the space, but more do we have the space PLUS herd dynamics PLUS our current and projected workload, what’s our bandwidth so to speak. Last thing we want to do is take in too many animals and then feel spread too thin constantly. Ideally we’d never ever have that feeling, but realistically caring for this many animals it’s hard to feel like you have enough time and energy some days, and I’ve been struggling with health issues for awhile. So it’s all about finding a balance we can work with. We feel like we’re close to a pretty good number now, so we’ll hold off on intakes for awhile again after April. We have quite the menagerie here and love them all to pieces! That’s all for now. Have a great week, and here’s a little camelid humor to close things out... What did the alpaca see when she looked in the mirror? Her spitting image.
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AuthorFour Roots Ranch & Animal Sanctuary |