A recent Washington Post article about Farm Sanctuary, the nation's largest farm animal rescue operation, gently reminded me of a persistent dream: Second Chance Ranch - where one-eyed goats, three-legged sheep and blind horses freely soak up love. My dream includes foster kids (that I would hope to adopt) who would gleefully help me run the place. Crazy, huh?

Mind you, I haven't the faintest idea where a single girl in a rented apartment starts in on that but I've got plenty of worthy role models. Y'see, I love all animals - both fuzzy and non - and every soul deserves a second chance. This personal philosophy stems directly from my highly fortunate adoption as a 10-day-old infant. I have researched enough into my biological family to know that if I'd been kept, I would have become a repressed, guilt-ridden girl named Virginia.

Blech.

Instead, I was scooped up by two incredibly nice people who kindly renamed me 'Heather' and took me camping. When various medical quandaries arose around my baby-self, they handled it all with endless love and humor. So, when I picture the first few weeks of my life, I'm figuratively in full-speed freefall until the big, cushy Hand of Fate (or whatever you might call it) swooped down and caught me just ten feet before a disastrous impact. Hence, my entire life has been one loooooong second chance. The idea permeates every aspect of my existence and disallows me from drug addiction and excessive whining ...with the exceptions of blog posts. Heh.

Before I started reading Steve Smith's and and Alayne Marker's blog at Rolling Dog Ranch Animal Sanctuary ("A special place where disabled animals enjoy life on a Montana Ranch"), I did not realize there were so many ways for an animal to go blind.

Their residents include blind dogs, deaf dogs, blind horses, blind cats, and animals with medical conditions like muscular dystrophy. They've even got a dog, Travis, who cannot open his mouth. He's afflicted with a rare disease called masticatory myositis and has to be fed through a stomach tube. Basically, these people are hard-working saints.

A recent excerpt:

"Alayne took this photo of me removing the sutures from Carmel's eyes this morning. Carmel had gone blind from a corneal dystrophy that destroyed the corneas in both eyes. The condition was extremely painful. After consulting with a number of veterinary ophthalmologists, our vet Dr. Brenda Culver learned there was nothing we could do to eliminate the pain but remove her eyes. The operation was a couple of weeks ago.

After coming home from the hospital, she's become a different dog. She is playful, carefree, and clearly enjoying being pain-free for the first time in a long time. Before, she would walk around the house, blinking and cringing because she was afraid she was going to bump into something with her throbbing eyes. Now she bounces up and down and twirls, and she doesn't worry about it any longer!"

--Steve Smith

Also, check out their other sanctuary site devoted to blind horses.

Midwest Flood Pig Rescue:

Of course, beyond the medical challenges, critters gets swept up in natural disasters too. The humans over at Farm Sanctuary have a blog that chronicles pig rescues going on amidst the recent Midwest floods. An excerpt:

"A second even larger trailer leading the way to Watkins Glen held nearly everyone else, and the unloading of it upon arrival at the sanctuary resulted in a stunning parade of 40 plus beautiful pigs who filed off the truck in an orderly fashion, two-by-two and three-by-three, as soon as the doors swung open. Greeted immediately by new Farm Sanctuary friends and caregivers as they entered our Emergency Rescue & Rehabilitation Center, the pigs wasted no time exploring and diving into generous offerings of fresh herbs, carrots and watermelon before piling up together and settling into mounds of straw for sleep."

Then there's the wonderfully bull-headed humans over at the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW). I love that the IFAW fully rejects "the notion that the interests of humans and animals (are) separate." What began as a group of enraged individuals 30+ years ago (over the harp seal hunts in Canada) has grown into an organization that includes over 200 experienced campaigners, legal and political experts, and internationally acclaimed scientists working from offices in 15 countries around the world. Thanks to about two million squishy saps like me, they get lots of donations but the work never stops.

Jennifer Miller, the IFAW's Emergency Relief Responder for Animals in Crisis and Distress (AICD), pens their animal rescue blog. She works closely with emergency relief teams that rescue pets and animals worldwide and I gotta tell you, it's both sad and uplifting - kind like 'Animal Cops.'

While Miller serves as the main editor, many of the posts are penned by partner organizations that provide updates on various animal individuals and rescue efforts.

An excerpt:

"In June 2007 the NLWS received their first bear cub, affectionately named Suzy. Suzy was initially seen in the wild with her mother and sibling by a local conservationist and photographer. However, the cubs were seen later without their mother – which is unusual for grizzly bears, who normally spend two and half years with their mothers (black bears leave their mothers at one and a half years of age). We suspect that Suzy’s mother was poached. To ensure that Suzy would survive she was captured and taken to NLWS to be cared for. Unfortunately her sibling was not found by rescuers."

--IFAW's Kim Elmslie in Northern Canada

Though I have yet to rearrange my life into daily animal work (beyond feeding my cat), I like to think that my great stroke of luck might someday be passed on to several other imperfect beings - cute and otherwise. I'll keep ya'll (blog) posted.