The Animal Lover

After coming home early from my girls weekend getaway, Michael was terribly ill, Isabelle and I had to make our own plans for Labor Day weekend avoiding the "house of plague" at all costs.

Izzy watching "Prince Charming" eat
Caryn, Amy and I chatted the night before and after going back and forth about all of SCV's kid friendly places like bounce houses, the library and even the mall's play yard, Caryn came up with The Gentle Barn.

Izzy and Mia buying carrots to feed the animals
The Gentle Barn is a rescue ranch where horses, cows, goats, pigs...you get my point, were on the verge of death, rescued and nursed back to health (http://www.gentlebarn.org/). They are an awesome group of people and volunteers who rely on funding and donations to keep the gates open. We arrived about 30 minutes after they opened, paid our $5 each donation and were asked by one of the volunteers if we wanted to see the cows? And with a "yes" from all 4 of us, off to the cow stall we went...literally! We walked right into the cow stall where 5 cows were herded together eating breakfast and as they were doing that, Mia and Izzy had a chance to pet them.

Izzy feeding a horse for the first time!
While waiting for Mackie and Amy, we bought a bag of carrots to feed the animals with. We were told that a few of the horses were being boarded at the barn due to the "Station Fire". Those horses were pointed out to us so we would be sure not to feed them since they didn't know how the horses would react.

Mackie and Izzy-BFF's!
The morning was spent going from pen to pen, petting and feeding the animals. Amy and Caryn's welcome was by a horse sneezing on them both! It was hilarious! Isabelle and Mackie were all about wanting to "meet" each animal but Mia was a little more hesitant. Luckily Mommy Caryn wasn't and fed and pet them while Mia was in her arms. We had to be careful of the girls and their excitement screams or crying screams because we found out (Mia did the hard way) that the animals will flock to that person crying or screaming to see what is wrong and next thing you know, you are face to face with a goat and a sheep!

The largest pig we have ever seen!
The Three Amigas! The girls were taught how to feed the animals the carrots; open their hand up flat, palm up, put the carrot in the middle of their palm then the animal would take it from them. Izzy would giggle her tush off when they would nibble it out of her hand and then race over to me for another one so she could do it again. She fed the horses, goats, sheep and tried to feed one of the pigs who was walking around but wanted nothing to do with it. She even went over to the carrot that he dropped, picked it up and shoved it back into his face...he just walked away. She probably would have started stalking him if I didn't have her come see the peacock with me. Even more so with her feeding them, all I thought of was her sticking her thumb in her mouth afterwards...YUCK! All of us Moms were quick to pull out the disinfectant wipes when going to the next set of stalls.

Izzy and Caryn/Mia feeding the sheep.
The ranch is very clean and well organized and we couldn't believe how many volunteers they had, both young and old. The volunteers must have gotten a script before starting because they knew all of the animals names, how they got there, how long they have been there and were able to give us back stories on almost every single one of them, like the one of "Surprise" in the picture below. Surprise was literally a surprise, none of them knew the mommy cow was pregnant when they rescued her. It was really great 1 1/2 hours and I know this is something I am going to look forward to Isabelle volunteering for...what a great time!

Izzy brushing "Surprise" the newest edition to the Gentle Barn family.