Rescues
I have gotten the privelege to be able to rescue many animals since starting the farm a decade ago and I thought it would be nice to highlight them here and share their stories. Thank you all so much for investing in the lives of these wonderful animals. I am able to continue to rescue because of your generous contributions!
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Meet Ferguson! This sweet boy came to me about 4 years ago. He was rescued by a couple wonderful ladies that used to drive past him on their way to work at a theraputic horseback riding program. They noticed how depressed he looked sitting in a pen the size of a coat closet, so they decided to stop one day and ask the owner if they could buy him. The owner happily gave him up without payment and they brought him to the horse barn and put him in a stall. They fell in love with him, but unfortunately, the horses were terrified, so a mutual friend asked if I could take him and of course I said yes! He arrived the next day and has been here ever since. He was very overweight upon his arrival, so I put him on a diet to help him acheive a healthy weight and he's been great ever since! We just celebrated his 8th birthday on October 6th!
This is my sibling pair, Wilbur and Charlotte. They came from a rescued pregnant potbelly and they're the only pigs I've gotten to own since they were 8 weeks old. They are just over a year old now and growing like weeds! Wilbur is about 90 pounds at this point and Charlotte is close behind at about 75 pounds. I was told they wouldn't get bigger than 60 pounds, but I knew that is never the case with Mini pigs. They grow until they're 5 years old, so I expect this pair to reach 150 pounds each. They have become great advocates for the breed for this very reason.
Meet Bubba! He has quite a story! I was contacted by an instagram follower and was told there was this big black pig roaming the busy streets of Mableton, GA for a few months and many concerned neighbors feared he would be hit by a car. He was owned, but his owner didn't really want him and wasn't at all worried about this guy's fate. After getting a written owner surrender, I drove out to where he was recently spotted and began searching. I was joined by the people who originally contacted me and we searched for 3 hours with no luck. We decided to go home and return if there was another sighting, but a few minutes after leaving, I was told he had been caught by neigbors and was in their backyard. I turned around and we loaded him up and brought him home. A couple days into being here, he lashed out in fear and put a hole in my leg that required stitches. After that, I decided it would be best to neuter him and have his tusks ground down. He is finally settling in and has become the sweetest boy! He's my biggest pig, weighing around 180 pounds and we believe he's only 2 years old. We still have a lot of work to do with him, but his progress has been fantastic!
This is Tucker! He was rescued from a kill lot in Texas by a donkey rescue in Florida. From there, his first real home transported him up here to Georgia in the spring of 2020. They got him to be a friend for my other donkey, Tilly, but they decided to rehome the pair after realizing they didn't give the donkeys the time and attention they thought they deserved, so that's when I ended up bringing them home. Tucker had only been off of a kill lot for a few months, so he still had a lot of weight to put on and his hooves had never been done. Since being here, he's gained tons of weight, his coat is beautiful and shiny and he's had 2 farrier visits so far. He has thrush, so we're working to resolve that, but he's quite healthy otherwise! I'm working on training him so that vet and farrier visits are as smooth as possible and it's going quite well. He is very food motivated and loves his treats!
Meet Tilly! She was rescued from a kill lot almost 2 years ago and was brought to Georgia by her first adopters. She came to me with Tucker. She clearly has some serious emotional scars as she has been very scared of humans since being rescued. She also had terrible hooves upon arrival, so I knew I needed to find a good vet and farrier to help make her as comfortable as possible and give her the best quality of life. Our farrier was able to take so much overgrowth off his first visit and it was such an incredible transformation! She has a very crooked hoof that had been growing sideways and curling for years and my vet has determined that she was stepped on at some point and it broke that joint and severely damaged it. My vet and farrier have been able to slightly correct the angle of the hoof and they may eventually try to put a shoe on it to fully correct it, but for now, she's walking comfortably and doesn't seem to be in pain, so we are waiting to see how it improves on its own with regular hoof trims. She also has terrible white line disease, so we are having to treat that as well. I'm thankful to be able to provide her with all of the necessary medical attention she needs and to be someone she is starting to trust!
Past Rescues
Cash was a preemie brought to me after his mom had been attacked by dogs and gave birth right before passing away from her injuries. He required intensive care and bottles every 3 hours for the first couple week of life. As he grew, he became the biggest trouble maker and was such a character! He loved to make people laugh! He lived in the house for the first few months and then moved outside with the rest of the herd. He was doing great until one day, out of nowhere, developed silent pneumonia and passed away. We all miss his quirky personality and will remember him forever.
Piper was found starving and wandering around someone's front yard crying for a couple days. Knowing I had an endless supply of goat milk, I was called and asked if I could take care of her until finding a permanent(and legal) placement. I took her in and began raising her like I would any orphaned goat. She came just a couple weeks after I got Cash, so they lived in the house together and became best friends! A few days into having her, a game warden stopped by and said he would try and help me find a rehabber who could take her since I was having no luck. He couldn't find anyone either, so I ended up keeping her. She and Cash were moved outside together eventually and she absolutely loved the pasture! She did zoomies every single morning and was always super excited to see me! I had become her mom and it was such a great honor. Unfortunately, she passed away suddenly and unexpectedly one day in the summer. We have since determined she reached through the fence and ate deadly horse nettle on the other side.
Penelope was my very first rescue! I had no idea I was rescuing a pig until we went to pick her up though. We thought we were just getting a pet, but when we arrived, it was clear that the previous owners were animal hoarders. They showed us where the pigs were and there were around 30 in a small pen together. Both males and females were in the same pen and almost all of the females were pregnant and all of the pigs were way overweight. It was an eye opening visit and we were thankful to get one of the pigs out of there that day. Thankfully, she was one who wasn't pregnant as she was still very young. She lived with us for several years, but grew increasingly destructive as she got older. We ended up having to rehome her due to how destructive she was and she's much better off now.
This was my first rescued donkey, Dudley. He was another case where we thought we were just buying a pet and ended up rescuing. We were lied to about everything from the get go with him and when he finally arrived, the guy basically dropped him off and got out of here as fast as possible. I am positive the guy that brought him was his owner/abuser, but of course he claimed to not be. We were told he weighed about 300 pounds and was only 3 years old. We were also told he was healthy. As we inspected him, we learned he was severely underweight, had rain rot, was more like 20 years old, had hoof abscesses, had a very poor coat due to malnourishment and worst of all, was covered in whip marks, open wounds and scars. He had been severely abused and neglected. He lashed out at any human as a result and bit and kicked me many, many times. I poured so much into him over 3 years and completely rehabilitated him to the point where he loved people and you would never know how he started out. Because of the malnourishment, he had destroyed the pasture, so I had to make the hard decision to rehome him in order to get the pasture back to a usable space for the other animals. He went to a wonderful friend just down the road and he couldn't be happier! He has two horse friends and a mini donkey friend named Batman. My friend often sends me videos of him playing and running and it makes me cry knowing how he started and seeing how happy he is now and will be for the rest of his life!