Emily E. from Helena came out today to volunteer at the ranch; she worked here for all of August last summer, so she knows the ropes.  She just graduated from Boston College and is heading back East in a few weeks to start work, but in the meantime, she kindly offered to come by for…

Our equine vet, Dr. Bill Brown, came out today to look at several of our horses.  In fact, our list for Bill had 13 items on it!  Some were minor issues (health exams on recent arrivals, re-checks on earlier cases, etc.), while others were major, such as laminitis in Rosie and an eye problem with…

Losing Sammy on Friday really took the wind out of our sails, but one of the (many) benefits of running a place like this is always having an animal doing something to make us laugh.  I think there’s no better way to cope with grief than to have a happy dog around.  For instance, Kathryn…

Alayne and I wanted to say how deeply touched we were by all the heartfelt condolences and kind thoughts so many people posted about Sammy’s passing on Friday.  The comments were very moving and really struck a chord with us.  We are so grateful for all the emotional support.  It meant a lot.  Thank you.

Miss Cat, the blind girl who arrived here on Thursday, now has a new name:  Cinder!  Thanks to Ginger and Kathy, who both suggested Cinder in their blog comments.  We had a ton of great suggestions submitted via the blog and by email, and we appreciate everyone’s wonderful ideas for a new name for this…

Our little diabetic dog Sammy died suddenly today.  When I let him out of his crate this morning, I could tell he was not doing well.  But I had no idea how the day would unfold. He had left some food in his automated pet feeder overnight, which was unusual. (We set up this feeder…

The Bitterroot Humane Association in Hamilton, Montana, called us a few days ago about a blind female cat that had come into the shelter.  They found her as a stray in early June, but no one came to claim her, and no one would adopt her.  We agreed to take her, and arranged for the…

Our deaf English Pointer Tyler was always a big breakfast eater but never seemed very interested in dinner.  We would try different foods, mix it up in different ways, but usually he’d just nibble at dinner and leave most of it in his bowl.  This was always a little upsetting to us, because Tyler is…

This is little Bailey, the miniature Dachshund with a bad spine who came to us earlier this year from an animal hoarder court case.  I took this photo at breakfast, while all the other dogs were up, the house was bustling, and Bailey was — as he always is — not stirring.  No, sir.  He…

Neal Karlinsky, an ABC News correspondent based in Seattle, came out to the ranch today to do a story on the sanctuary for Good Morning America.  His crew included Jim Bolser behind the camera and Robin Briley doing the sound work.  In addition to seeing all the animals here, they got to watch our horse…