On our little farm, Iron Wings Ranch, pretty much all animals of all makes and models are welcome. In the beginning, we started with just horses. My goal was to take horses out of bad situations and provide them with care and love until I could find a family they fit into that would become their forever home. The horses were not alone for long though! Before I knew it, people were bringing me animals from all over that they could no longer take care of. Within a year, my son TJ and I had horses, sheep, goats, chickens, ducks and rabbits.

Each of our animals has a unique story that brought them to us and sweet Nina is no different. I received a call from an individual who had just started to raise sheep at their homestead. Over the night, one of his ewes unexpectedly gave birth to triplets and passed away along with one of the babies. Being new to these animals, the farmer contacted me to see if I could take on the two remaining babies and I was happy to do so. Unfortunately, Nina’s bigger sister did not make it past her first week either. That left us with sweet little Nina.

From the first day we spent with Nina, we knew she would always be special. She follows us all over the farm in the summer and enjoys running and playing with the goats. Nina recently had two baby sheep of her own and has become a fantastic mom to them and I will be so grateful to watch these two little babies grow up happy just as their mom did. Although we do place animals in other homes, Nina is one of those animals that has become so special to us that we could never imagine placing her anywhere else. She and her two babies will be with us always. Animals have the purest of hearts and, I believe, it is up to us to protect them. The great Gandhi once said, “The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated”. I’d like to think our little farm would make him proud.