Shandi, Luke, and other farm updates.

So much has happened since our last post!

First and most importantly, Shandi has been adopted! She went to an amazing home, where there is already another small dog named Rocky. We spent almost two hours during their home visit, getting to know her new family and making sure that it was a good fit. She is very happy, and has become the queen of the couch. We will post pictures of her once we get them from her new dad.

Shandi and Pepper at our adoption event last weekend.

After much deliberation and discussion by the Board, we have decided that Pepper will become our newest canine resident here at Lemondrop. We spoke with our supporter who had rescued her, after spending the last month with her. She is an amazingly sweet dog, but skittish and she shies away or nips occasionally when you go to touch her. It turns out that previous to our supporter rescuing her, she had been badly abused, thrown across the room, kicked and/or struck. Which is what we had suspected. In our experience, dogs only show these tendencies after physical abuse. Because of this, and the fact that she has bonded with one of our volunteer staff, we feel that this would be the best stable place for her to be. So we welcome Pepper as our newest resident.

We haven't posted for the last couple weeks because we have been dealing with a mini-crisis at the Sanctuary. Two weeks ago, our main mode of transportation - a cargo van which we use to pick up all our animal food plus donations and food for our community outreach - went completely dead. Fortunately we had a small truck that we use for emergencies. Smart planning right? Well, it would have been. The second day that the truck was being used, as we tried to figure out what to do about the van, it began to make a thunking noise. Our volunteer stopped by our mechanic to see if they could just give us a diagnosis. It wasn't the best news ever. Our mechanic said that it was the engine knocking, he suggested not using it anymore - said it may last longer but to be safe and not get stranded retiring it was best. Reluctantly we did so. Which put us in a bind without a vehicle at all to pick up our donations and animal food. Thank God for our volunteer who loaned us his small van for the last couple weeks.

Finally, we have located a small box truck , which was our goal to upgrade to soon anyway as our van was no longer large enough to hold all the donations. He is willing to do a partial trade for our van, plus a little cash. It is an amazing offer, and we are so grateful. Unfortunately we have not fully recovered from the cash deficit from Hannah's surgery late last year, which makes it - even though attainable - just out of our reach. The price of the box truck purchase (after trading the van) and tune up that it will need is $1,800. If you would like to help us attain the box truck, please consider donating towards what we need through PayPal, or contact us directly if you have more questions.

Luke is doing fantastic! He is close to 100lbs now, and still thinks he is a dog. Although he is fully eating grass, he is slowly weaning off his bottle, he still comes crying to us when its mealtime. We got his first halter for him the other day, it is still a little bit big, but he will grow into it!

Dinner is the favorite time of day here at the farm. Whenever the birds hear us bring out the feeding tubs, they all begin to squawk and crow, reminding us that they haven't been fed yet! Our birds (as well as the other animals) eat a 80% fresh diet. We get donated food from local businesses through our waste diversion program (we divert approximately 50 tons a year from the landfill), we sort it, and feed it to each appropriate animal group. The picture below is a typical meal for our feathered residents.