Our Story

It all started with a donkey we named Grumpy. Grumpy used to live on large plot of land that was usually rented out to farmers to keep their cattle.  Grumpy belonged to a nice lady, who was the owner of the farm but lived far away, and so it was agreed that the farmers looked after him along with their cattle when renting the farm. She called him Newt because our daughter Natalie (who was 3 at the time, would often sneak him Fig Newtons-his favorite treat!) From afar, he reminded us of Eeyore from Winnie The Pooh. When it rained, young hearted Natalie often imagined what he would talk like if he could speak- in her best grumpy Eeyore voice she would say, "Another rainy day..." which is why the name stuck with her-Grumpy. We used to visit him as often as life would allow and give him treats, love on him and brush him, as Natalie asked often to go see him. He was our first dealing with a donkey and was quite shy, but over the years we learned to earn his trust and fell in love with his gentle ways and his sweet nature that over time stole our hearts. 

We moved a couple of times until we eventually settled into our forever home. We were so close to Grumpy now and since Natalie had visited him throughout the years, she often wondered how old he really was. We reached out to the woman who owned the farm who guessed he was in his 20's and said that since she knew how much we loved him, she wanted us to have him! Natalie, now 15, was so ecstatic that she would begin to count down the days until a fence was built at her house and she could finally bring Grumpy home. 

We started our farm on April 6th, 2021. We knew donkeys couldn't be alone, so we reached out to a local rescue to find him a friend. Soon Ollie and Jackaroo would also be joining our family! We soon found it very hard to say no to these loving animals and giving them a forever home when we had the space. They made our hearts so full of love and our need to rescue more animals just grew! Now we are a sanctuary home to all animals in need (mostly specializing in larger barnyard animals). It has been such a rewarding process along the way. Our dream would be to provide a forever home for as many mistreated animals as we can, which is very much what these beautiful equines deserve, never asking for anything in return but love. It all started with a dream, a little girl and the love for her donkey! 

EXCITING UPDATE: We were recently covered on NBC29 news! To watch this story, Click here!

To learn more about our animals and their stories, Click Here!