Tawnee and Jason, our founders and blog writers, did a favor for a friend for one of our followers a few weeks back who was moving. They were moving all the way back to North Carolina. They were really concerned about their animals arriving safely and asked Jason and Tawnee to transport their critters back to the east coast. It was a very long trip but they all arrived safely.
The animals were all amazed by how green and beautiful it was. Jason and Tawnee were glad they were able to take these precious companions to their new home.
On the way back, the large empty trailer couldn’t stay empty, so Tawnee visited an auction in Tennessee. It was heartbreaking to see so many critters with such a hopeless future. At the end of the auction 6 of the animals had a bright future and were saved!
After the auction a large number of horses were put into one pen that were bought by one man. Tawnee’s heart ached for the horses that were not saved, especially when she saw the large slaughter truck waiting to load them. If you missed the Tennessee auction rescue blog, click here.
From there they headed to our satellite Oklahoma shelter that is in the begining stages of being set up. Shari, who was our lead auction rescuer in California, has relocated to Oklahoma and is busy getting our first satellite shelter. She and her husband have personally purchased some property that the OK shelter will be on. If you are in Oklahoma and would like to help or volunteer, please contact us.
Shari attended an auction and rescued horses for the first time in Oklahoma. Shari was able to rescue 9 animals at that auction! If you missed that blog, click here.
Driving all those miles back to Ca, Tawnee worked on getting an article written about what it means to truly be an open door shelter for horses. She did most of the writing on her phone, one character at a time. To read the article, click here.
It was a lot of driving, but Jason and Tawnee finally arrived back at the shelter. The trailer was deeply bedded to make the animals travel as comfortable and possible. They were happy to get into the quarantine pen and settle in.
Now that you’re caught up on what has been happening across the United States over the last few weeks, this is what has been happening so far this week.
Sunday Roxie and Paddy came back to us. There adoptive mom is having a hard time due to personal health reasons and made the hard choice to bring them back to the shelter. They are both very adorable minis who are now looking for a new home.
Monday was busy catching up with paperwork and Tuesday Jason and Russ headed out to pick up some animals that needed to come to the shelter. The owner is being evicted from his land and didn’t have anywhere for most of his pets to go other than to us.
There were a lot of Alpaca’s being surrendered along with 4 horses. There was a group of 10 male Alpaca’s separated from the girls.
And there was another pen with the girls, some youngsters, and a llama to keep them all safe.
Alpaca’s aren’t the easiest animals to load, but they finally got in.
The horses were loaded up as well. It took both rescue rigs to haul all the horses, Alpacas and the Llama to the shelter.
It wasn’t a long trip, and soon the two rescue rigs were pulling into the shelter.
The staff that were at the shelter were clamoring to look into the trailers. They had heard there was a baby Alpaca only a few weeks old. They couldn’t believe how cute it was snuggled next to its mama.
They boys were the first to unload. Coming out of the trailer they looked so cute and inquisitive.
They all headed down the alleyway humming as they went.
Then they were herded to their waiting pen.
Once in their pen they started looking around with their big curious eyes.
We would like you to meet the boys. This is Moony.
Finley.
Newman
Thomas
Spitz
Jimmy
Sarg
Kong
Frank
Lamar
Romeo
Next on to the females and youngsters. The mama is named Lola and the baby is named Jojo.
Maria
Corina
Saffire
Addy
The horses were eager to get out of the trailer and into their pens.
We would like you to meet the horses. This is Vicaro, a very beautiful 4 year old Mustang gelding.
This is Uahi, which means lava smoke in Hawaiian we were told. She is a 2 1/2 year old Mustang mare.
Meet Cimmeron, a 4 year old Mustang gelding.
This is Charperal, she is a 5 year old Mustang mare who was green broke to ride, is friendly and likes carrots.
Once the horses were settled in the staff were back to oogling and kissing Jojo, the baby Alpaca. He is just the most adorable little guy on 4 legs.
He started getting perturbed at all the cuddling and really wanted to be back with his mom.
The 4 Alpacas at the shelter were quite amazed that so many long necked buddies showed up. They just stared and paced then stared some more.
Our farrier came and was busy working on some of the horses who needed trimming.
Kirsty finally drug herself away from Jojo and got back to work training horses. Dutch is doing very well with his training and we hope to see him on his first ride soon.
Tawnee and a volunteer headed out to pick up 5 more horses that needed to come to our shelter. Kirsty and Tawnee have both worked part time the last couple summers at a kids camp as horse counselors. Sadly the camp, which has been going since the 1930’s, lost its lease and is closing. They chose to send their horses to us to find them new homes. They all loaded up and said “Goodbye” to their ranch camp that has been their home for so long.
We would like you to meet the new horses. All these horses have been used at the camp for kids to ride and are very nicely trained to ride. Tawnee and Kirsty know them quite well as they would take them out twice a day on rides with kids while working at the camp. The horses would go out through different terrain and through a creek, and are quite used to trail riding.
King is a little bit too much of a horse for beginners, but for someone who knows how to ride he is an excellent horse. He was Tawnee’s favorite horse at the camp.
This is Madam, a sweet mare who really shouldn’t have been in a lineup of horses at the camp as she does kick other horses and has to be at the end of the line.
Ruby has some health problems earlier in the year, we are having her checked out to make sure she is doing OK. She is a horse that pretty much any kid can ride.
Manana, the running joke at the camp was that you’ll get back by tomorrow if you’re riding her. She is a very easy going horse on the trail and likes to hang out near the back and plod along.
There is one more horse who didn’t get her intake photo somehow in the busyness of the day, but she is a bay Paso Fino mare who is an absolute great riding horse. The little kids were always put on her.
Thank you all for your support!