Day 22:
When we have one parent night out over the weekend, I like to balance that with some special family time. This past weekend we also visited a non-profit rescue ranch. This place not only rescues abandoned and neglected animals, they rehabilitate them to be special needs pets. In a mutually beneficial relationship, these rescued animals love on humans with special needs and vice versa. What started as just a family outing turned into some major life lessons on kindness, inclusion, and even death.
We got to visit with bunnies, turkeys, pigs, cats, kittens, dogs, ponies, and one sick calf. Each animal has a story to tell and the rescue encourages you to get to know the animals and their stories. I was admittedly a little nervous when the girls wanted to get into the cages with pitbulls, but they were really the sweetest dogs ever- perhaps a reminder that kindness matters . #2 always talks about becoming a vet one day, so this was also a neat outing to talk about caring for all animals. The next day, we learned that the sick calf didn’t make it through the night which made the girls really sad, and reflective on the fragility of life. I learned some things about dairy farmers- I didn’t know, apparently some dairy farms breed cows to increase milk production of their stock and then abandon the calves. For local friends, I recommend a visit to Safe In Austin.
Positive Thought of the Day: Encouraged that there are kind people in the world, and that they open their homes to show the world their kindness.