My Adopted Family

These are my adopted/sponsored animals.  They are an amazing influence on me and by spending time with them and learning more about them, I am also learning a lot about myself.  I would strongly encourage that you consider adopting a special friend of your own.

Coco is the gentle soul who first made me fall in love with Farm Sanctuary.  I met her on my way back from a trip to Oregon and my life has never been the same.  I have "loved" animals all of my life, but I had never had a connection like that with an animal other than my dog.  She had been through so much in her life and as I stood in her enclosure, witnessing her starved, sick body, I knew that I could no longer tell myself that I was a good person if I looked away.  All she ever wanted was a little dignity and some care.

I have been able to watch Coco come back from the brink (You can see how bad she was when she arrived in my blog) and she is truly my inspiration.  As my Farm family has grown, it has become more difficult to spend quality time with all of them on every volunteer visit, but I never miss my quality time with my girl Coco.

People who know me, I mean really know me, know to ask me how Coco was on my last visit.  If you don't know Coco, you don't know me.

Every family needs its mischievous rebel, and Whitaker has that covered for my Farm family.  I met him on my second visit to the Farm and he made quite an impression.  When I first met him, he was still a youngster, prone to chasing and headbutting.  He would never deliberately harm anyone, but he didn't realize how big he was.  The farm Sanctuary staff has been his family since he arrived as a baby and he has always identified more with the people herd. 

Recently, he has found a friend in Edwin and it was great to see them palling around together and to see the lick marks on each of their flanks that signified their friendship.  Now that they are back with the main herd, it is great to see Whitaker taking his place with the other cows and to know that he still remembers his old friend.

Isabelle will always be my angel.  I met her during my first visit as well.  When I first saw her on that hot summer day, she was at the edge of the duck pond and my first thought was that she was the prettiest goose I have ever seen.  Later I would learn that she was blind and that she was up at the hospital hutch for special care. 

She was indomitable, though, and could do everything that any other goose could do.  I still remember the first time I saw here in the pond and I was afraid that she had fallen in and couldn't get back out.  I was wrong then and that was the last time that I doubted her.

When she passed away last year, I finally had the chance to hold her in my arms and tell her how much she meant to me.  I will never forget how beautiful she was in body and spirit.

Penny is a Muscovy duck and she was one of the members of my Farm family that I didn't get a chance to meet before adopting her.  She was always a little shy, but she seemed to love to hear her name.  Whenever I would see her, I would call, "Penny", and watch her wiggle her tail feathers and chatter with her beak. 

She was a special little lady.  She allowed me to pet her one time on my last visit before she suddenly passed away.  While I would have loved to do so again, I treasure it as a gift from a truly special duck.  I still have a hard time walking past the Duck and Goose hutches without calling out to her.  At least I know that, if I do forget and call her name she is out there somewhere wagging her tail feathers.

It didn't take long for Ady to teach me a lesson about sheep.  When I first met him, I foolishly thought there was something wrong with him.  He had a long bushy tail!  I had never seen a sheep with a tail like that before and thought it was a deformity of some kind.  Now I know that he is absolutely perfect and that sheep are supposed to have long bushy tails.  Both he and his brother Colvin have theirs as a testament to the fact that they will never be subjected to the cruel conditions where man would take something that is not his to remove. 

Ady is still a little shy most times when I visit, but that just makes those rare occasions where he puts his head on my shoulder all the more memorable and special.  Though he has grown up a lot, he will always be little Ady.

Sadly, I never had the chance to meet Vivien before she crossed the Rainbow Bridge.  While that fact makes me sad, I know that she died in the closest place to Chicken Heaven that you could find on Earth, in the company of her chicken family. 

She is a beautiful bird and if I know anything about Chicken Heaven, I am sure that it comes with hourly straw changes and that she is probably either scratching and pecking away or dust bathing in the clouds.

I never had the chance to make Seymore's acquaintance formally, although I am pretty sure that I remember him from my adoption visit.  A face like that is pretty hard to forget. 

My regret at not having met him or Vivien was a powerful catalyst when it came to making more frequent visits to the Farm.  In his passing, Seymore has has a profound effect on my life and I owe him one.  If I get to visit Rabbit Heaven, the first carrot's on me.

Amelinda was my first introduction to the amazing world of turkeys.  I have to admit that I had never really given turkeys a second thought until I actually met one. 

This picture doesn't do Amelinda justice because it fails to capture her majestic wings and her beautiful plumage.  It does showcase her eys though, and if you have never looked into the eyes of a turkey, you are in for a surprise.  There is a lot more going on behind those eyes than I would have ever imagined.  There is a curiousity that borders on child-like and a sense of understanding that they are never given credit for.

You're a good girl Amelinda!

Ramona is a real character.  To say that she likes food would be the understatement of the century.  She is a sweet girls and she wants me to point out that she has lost a lot of weight since this picture was taken.  She is a svelte porcine beauty and loves meeting new people.

She is also an escape artist, so if you do visit her, you better check twice that all of the gates are locked because I can guarantee that she will.  It's not that she wants to leave her wonderful home, but I think she enjoys the thrill of the chase.

Indigo is not only a handsome rooster with his salt and pepper feathers; he is also a noble leader and protector for his harem of hens.  I had never really experienced chickens before my time at the Farm, and I have found them to be a sense of wonder. 

If you spend any time at all with chickens, you can't help but get some perspective on how marvelous the simple things in life are.  anyone who thinks that animals cannot experience pleasure has never seen a group of chickens scratching around in their barn after fresh straw has been laid down.  Anyone who thinks that animals live in the moment and cannot anticipate what is to come, have obviously never watched said chickens as they eagerly await the chance to play in said straw.  They are truly amazing creatures.

What can you say about Boe other than she is a real sweetheart.  She came into my life when Seymore passed away and she has been an excellent source of bunny love.  She lives with her friends Millie and Macbeth, but she is always excited to have a visit from her human friends as well.  While she sometimes likes to dig and see how deep the fence-line goes around their enclosure, she knows that it would be foolish to leave her friends and that she has life pretty good where she is.

She may be small, but she has a lot of heart and a lot more to teach me about the joys of being a bunny.

Oh Melvin, with your goofy grin and your long flowing hair, it was truly love at first sight.  Melvin is an older gentleman goat and he also has a very special place in my heart.  He and Coco are best friends which makes him all the more dear to me. 

No visit to the Farm is complete without a nuzzle from Melvin and my heart takes great pleasure from having him come to me from across the pasture so that we can share some time together.  Whereas Coco can sometimes be a little coy, there is never any of that with Melvin.  He is such a sweet guy and I am glad to see that he is becoming more assertive with the other goats and finding his place in the community.  I just adore this little guy.

Now here's a real bona fide "awesome Blossom".  I first met Blossom when she was just a little baby piglet.  One of my fondest Farm memories is from that first visit when she rolled into my lap for a belly rub and proceeded to fall asleep.  Now that she has grown so much, we will probably never have that chance again, but it was a wonderful moment that we will always have. 

Watching her grow up has been a lot of fun   Other than a dislike for sunscreen, she has a zeal for almost everything in her world and still seems to be adjusting to life with the other pigs.  While she has grown a lot, she is still small by comparison and the Pig Barn is not as close to the refrigerator and its constant supply of treats as she would like.

Miss Piggy has nothing on Blossom when it comes to pig diva behavior!

Daisy's life started at rough and she and her fellow duckling friends were very lucky to be rescued and brought to Farm Sanctuary.  They will never have to be afraid in their new world and they are surrounded by other happy ducks who have helped them to understand that there is a whole other side to life than that which they were born into.

Daisy is easily recognizable by her unique beak.  I am not sure why it is bent upwards and to the side, but it is and it only serves to make her more special.  Like my previously adopted duck Penny, she seems to like to hear her name and will wag her tail feathers enthusiastically.  She is not a big fan of being petted, at least not yet, but she is a lot of fun to watch and is a reminder that despite the handicaps that our bodies may present us with, life continues to will to live.

Since being rescued, Sweetpea has had a pretty good life at Farm Sanctuary where she spends her day in the company of a gaggle of other geese.  I love to watch them marching about between the Duck and Goose hutches and the Pig Barn.

Watching the geese stroll through the Pig Barn when the pigs are all napping from their lunch is a really cool sight to see.  Every time I see it, I always feel like I am witnessing an impromptu parade.

Edwin's arrival at the Farm was a real blessing; for me, but more importantly for Whitaker.  Edwin started his time at the Farm with Whitaker and they immediately became best friends.  Whitaker had never known a cow his own age and Edwin helped him to get more used to other cows and this prepared them both for an introduction to the main herd.

While all of the cows are amazing, Edwin has the most expressive face that I have seen out of all of them.  Every picture I take of him seems to reveal a slightly different mood from that saintly to the "What do you mean you forgot to bring me a treat?"

He is a good boy, and like all boys, he is growing up so fast.

I had the privilege of meeting Elliot the morning after he arrived at the Farm.  He was so young that he still had remnants of his umbilical cord.  One of my fondest memories will always be having the chance to bottle feed him that day and several thereafter.

Like all of my Farm friends, watching him grow up has been a real joy and I love that he still sucks on my fingers when I visit, just like he did when he was a baby.  To me, Elliot represents everything that is wrong with animal agriculture today.  I just cannot believe how anyone could be so callous and cruel to a life so innocent and pure.  To think of the fate of most of his cow brothers born into the dairy industry breaks my heart and leaves me with one of the most helpless feelings I have ever had in my life.

As you can see from my videos, he is a very playful boy with a lust for life.  Elliot is an amazing little dude and he will always be a baby to me even though he is already a lot bigger than I am.

Grace is such a beautiful duck with her pure white feathers and her red mask.  She is a Muscovy duck and illustrates the diversity of their species.  Unlike many of the ducks, including my beloved Penny, she doesn't seem to mind being petted...too much.  She has a curious streak and tends to be one of the first to check out the hutch after it has been cleaned.

She has amazing eyes and you can't look into them without the keen realization that there is a lot going on behind those eyes.

This page was last updated: May 7, 2012