It was 9 p.m. tonight and Alayne and I were sitting on the front steps of the house, enjoying the cool evening air after an unusually hot spring day (in the 80s!).  We had just finished dinner, the sun had dipped below the horizon, and we were relishing a few minutes of quiet time in…

Regular readers of the blog may remember a post from several weeks ago about Sammy, a diabetic Jack Russell/Fox Terrier mix who came to us from the Humane Society of the U.S. in Billings.  This little scamp is doing just great and continues to entertain us with his antics.  He clearly has the potential to…

This was Nikki’s REALLY big day … she was ridden for the first time!  After doing some more ground work with Nikki in the round pen this evening, our trainer Nichole Zupan decided Nikki was ready for her first ride.  We put a halter on Nikki underneath the bridle so Alayne could help lead her…

Here’s blind Emmy, who just arrived last week from North Carolina, checking out the fridge in the welcome center.  She is a delightful girl, and whirls and dances when she knows breakfast or dinner is coming her way.  We concluded she really isn’t deaf … she hears all kinds of sounds (as in, "they’re fixing…

Susan S. from Missoula, who adopted blind Buddy a few weeks ago, emailed with another update on how he’s doing in his new home.  Here are some excerpts from her email: "Every day I am so happy we adopted Buddy.  He is doing great.  He acts like he’s lived here all his life — trots…

Our little blind two-year old filly, Nikki, had a big day on Friday with her wonderful trainer, Nichole Zupan.  Not only did Nichole introduce Nikki to having a bit in her mouth, but then came a saddle pad and finally, the saddle!  Through it all Nikki was calm and acted, well, almost bored.  Bear in…

I drove into Missoula late last night to pick up Emmy at the airport.  She arrived on a Northwest Airlines flight from Minneapolis, and had started her journey earlier in the day in Charlotte, North Carolina.  Emmy and I arrived back at the ranch at 1 a.m. But her trip to the sanctuary really began…

This is blind Babe, caught on camera doing exactly what we don’t know.  Beth captured this moment for us.  When I saw the photo, I thought, "Jeez, I should really blog that," but how do I describe what she’s doing? Babe, who just recently came to us from Spokane County Regional Animal Protection Service, has…

Now that it’s finally spring in the northern Rockies, the new season brings with it a lot of pasture and grounds maintenance work.  We’ve been busy scraping out the winter build-up of horse manure from the corrals and building new compost piles.  The compost will "cook" over the spring and early summer as we turn…