Tuesday, October 27, 2009

High Voltage Ranch: Ursula and Francine




Ostensibly this blog is about flowers and design, but I'm also very interested in creative inspiration and where / how people find it.

Forgive me for pointing out what is probably obvious to regular readers, but I find inspiration in nature and especially in animals. And especially rescue animals who've managed to come through rough circumstances and remain gentle and sweet. Two such animals who live at High Voltage Ranch are Ursula, a German Shepherd, and Francine the pig.

Ursula was saved from a puppy mill and has truly prospered on the ranch. She is a loving, gentle dog, and her favorite activity by a long shot is herding the farm animals, which drives them nuts! But you can't change nature, folks, she's a sheep herder through and through. The picture below where all the goats are clustered together - that's because Ursula herded them into a corner. She also herded cows, chickens and us people throughout the day. I am glad she has such a happy and entertaining home now!

Francine, who is a little bit hard to see in her picture, was saved from a voodoo practitioner who planned to sacrifice her. She is blind, but happy, lazy and well-fed. She shares her area with a peacock and is next to many, many hens. When we arrived at the ranch, she even wandered by to say hello, before Ursula herded her back into cozy pen.

I am so glad people like Oscar and Jim, who own the ranch, provide refuge to animals who need it!

P.S.animal stories and pictures of putting the goats and cows out to pasture tomorrow.

2 comments:

  1. lovely and inspiring stories.it seems that the ranch owners choose the animals meticulously .they have big heart and you have a big heart too by exposing us to the high voltage stories, i can wait until tomorrow to read the rest of the high voltage ranch stories.see you tomorrow

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  2. What a neat refuge. Thanks for posting it.

    Having been raised by a German Shepherd named "Fang", I sympathize with those goats. He even herded toddlers at my birthday parties. We did't need a fence in the yard. Instincts are amazing things.

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