How It Began - Nov, 2006

Abigail.

We picked Abigail up on a cold, rainy Sunday, Nov., ’06—a victim of neglect and starvation. She was soaking wet and hypothermic. It took hours to get her core body temperature up. She was so thin, if I rubbed my hands on both sides of her neck at the same time, I could feel the opposite fingers/knuckles thru her neck!!

Abigail had severely overgrown hooves with rotated coffin bones from re-occuring bouts of laminitis, She initially was very weak, couldn’t stand for long periods, but she was always very chipper and had a strong will. She slowly gained weight. Always gentle and affectionate, she basked in everyone’s attention and affection. Abigail proved to have almost no teeth, and it was estimated that she was between 30-40 yrs.

My goal was to have this girl again enjoy the warm, sunny days of Spring. She continued to recover. Spring began to arrive and she did enjoy the warmth and sunshine. However, the end of March of ’07, she began to again lose weight and energy. We nursed her thru it, but when she began to show signs of distress which were diagnosed as congestive heart failure, we made the decision to let her pass peacefully.

Abigail was the little lady that put the idea of running a small rescue in my head . . .

Then, 2007 - Oliver

Oliver lived in a backyard for 5 years. 5. Like this.

One person, the right person, a friend, finally saw him and told me. We worked on it for a few weeks, but we finally got him to my farm. Oliver put weight on, and he had 9 months being loved, spoiled and cherished before we lost him to the ravages of his extended starvation.

I'm sure plenty of people saw him and just looked the other way. It's easier to make excuses; accept excuses; look the other way than to actually DO something.

Oliver was the motivator that made me sit down and start filling out the paperwork.

We were officially incorporated as a N.J. Domestic Nonprofit Corporation on January 10, 2008 and received our Federal IRS 501(c)3 status on Jan 31, 2009.