Animal Rescue

Since 2003 I have had a great deal of satisfaction in working with farm animals, mostly sheep, goats and llamas. I decided to try my luck with the farm animals brought to the local shelter as I had ample space and ability to care for them.

My first was an Emu, from the Martinez animal shelter of the Contra Costa Animal Control Department. A Neighbor of mine, Frank Nunes, and I took Frank’s horse trailer to the shelter one day after one of the shelter volunteers said they had found an Emu wondering in Alamo and the owner either didn’t claim the animal or could not be found.

We were supposed to be rescuing this poor Emu, but you could not tell it from his attitude toward us. I say "his", because I have never found an egg, otherwise, I couldn’t tell the gender. One of the animal shelter personnel and Frank went into the enclosure with the Emu and tried to gently coax it into a position where all would go well. That didn't work and the next thing I know, Frank is tackling the Emu and we ended up having to rope its feet or hog tie it, and carry in into the trailer kicking and screeching. Emus have very powerful legs. In fact they are half legs. The incident at the shelter was quite a spectacle as I look back on it.

I have learned a lot about emus since that incident at the shelter. I have three of them now. Still no eggs. In the last six years I have had two situations where Emus have gotten into the wrong pasture or out onto the street. Believe me, there is no such thing as an Emu roundup. Emus do not herd. In fact they have an anti-herding instinct. When they get loose on the road, they can run at speeds up to 30 mph.

One spring day, I had 6 ten year old girls at the ranch for a tenth birthday party. At the same time, the Emus got into the vineyard where they were pecking and also trying the new buds. I tried to get them back into their part of the ranch, with the girls help. While I and a couple other adults were having a tough time chasing them up one side of the vines through the other, the girls were having real good time. We finally chased one of them into the right place. One of the girls said to me that this was the best birthday party she had ever gone to. Wish I had more pictures, but I was distracted.

Then there are the sheep rescues. To be specific, rams. In the last three years, I have gotten calls from the Martinez Shelter on two rams. One was black bellied Barbados ram who I call Pops. He is sweet old guy who didn’t know at first whether to hang out with the goats or the sheep. He has settled in real good now and is with the sheep most of the time, but often hangs out with the llamas as well.

In late May of 2009, I received a call from the volunteers at the shelter for another ram who was wandering down the street. They could not find the owner so they called me. He is a handsome guy with horns that curl around one and one-half times. He is very friendly to people and is enjoying his new home at he the ranch. A friend of mines daughter saw his picture and said that guy looked like he should be a Manfred. So now the guy’s name is Manfred the Curl.

Over Memorial Day weekend I had all the sheep and goats sheared except the babies born this spring. Since my animals run pretty wild over about 30 acres, when they get around people, they get a little nervous. They know we are either going to shear their fur or give them shots. Neither of which they like. Not Manfred. He walked right up and watched everything that was going on with the shearing and shots. He wasn’t afraid in fact was very curious.

I have a lot of stories and photos about my rescued and retired animals that I have picked up over the last few years. They are interesting to me and the people who come by the ranch to see them from the road. We have double fencing all around the ranch, so most often the animals are close to the road and as curious as the people who watch them.

I thought about having a contest about the names of the animals. It may be a kick. By the way, I have given up trying to train farm animals. In fact, I think animals do better job at training people to do what they want people to do., i.e. feed them, give them water, talk to them etc. than people do trying to train animals.