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…

This weekend we welcomed a new arrival to the ranch:  O.J. the wobbly cat.  She came to us from the Bitterroot Humane Association in Hamilton, Montana.  Diane M., who volunteers at the shelter, had contacted us about O.J. and then drove her out to the ranch. O.J. has cerebellar hypoplasia, which affects fine motor skills…

Beth was out taking photos this afternoon for our summer newsletter when she happened to take this interesting shot of old, blind Peabody and blind Luke in front of Widget’s House.  The photo reminded me of the expression, "like two ships passing each other in the night." Peabody is in the "blowing the coat out"…

Before I get into today’s topic, I just wanted to thank everyone who posted or emailed such wonderful and kind comments about Lonesome George’s death yesterday.  We were really touched by the heartfelt thoughts that were sent our — and George’s — way.  Thank you so much. Our equine vet, Dr. Bill Brown, was scheduled…

Our beloved old mule, Lonesome George, died today.  Kathryn found him dead in his corral early this afternoon.  She came to the door, in tears, to tell me.  I rushed back out to the corral with her.  There he was, laying on the ground, while his blind girls — Lena, Nikki and Destiny — milled…

I went over to Widget’s House this evening to take some photos for tonight’s blog … I didn’t have any particular story in mind, just thought I’d see what I might get with the camera.  Kathryn had just arrived inside to start getting the dogs’ dinner ready, so I stepped into the back paddock. There…

That’s wobbly Allie in the foreground, but what are those things behind her?  You’re looking at our new compost bins!  While we have always composted the horse manure and then spread it on our pastures as a soil amendment, we never thought it was ‘okay’ to compost dog poop and apply it the same way.…

Our big handsome boy blind Buddy was adopted today by Susan S. from Missoula.  Susan had come out on Monday to meet Buddy for the first time and introduce him to her other dog, a very small girl named Dalai.  Susan decided Buddy was just perfect, and Dalai seemed to think Buddy was just her…