& their Adorable Friends

I count Thanksgiving as the official kick-off to "The Holidays" and this year's start has been the best ever!  We spent Thanksgiving WITH the Turkeys and all their sweet, adorable friends below.  And, I also made a fully vegan celebration which I'm hoping to prepare again at Christmas to share with you all.  So, I can attest that it is indeed possible to give thanks without having an animal on the table at dinner.  In fact it was an absolutely fantastic celebration filled with love, gratitude, laughter and delicious food.

Here are a few snaps from our visit to Poplar Spring Animal Sanctuary, an amazing rescue organization committed to ensuring all the animals who come to them will be safe, loved and protected for the rest of their lives.  

This is Victor, a stunningly beautiful, happy fellow whose favorite girlfriend turkeys are Tilly and Cosette.  He's always walking around with his feathers up, twirling around, and trying to impress them.  Victor, and his girlfriends too, are exceptionally sociable, loving to be stroked and talked to just like any domestic dog or cat.

I had to tear myself away from Andy here, a tiny lamb rescued in November, who contracted serious joint infections shortly after birth that went untreated. His owners, who were planning to eat him at a barbecue, basically left him to die in a cardboard box when he became too weak to stand.  He was taken home by a caring neighbor and brought to Poplar Springs Sanctuary with very swollen, stiff joints.  Although xrays revealed that his joints have fused & he'll never be able to walk perfectly, they are working with their veterinarians to make him as comfortable as possible.  He has been adopted by their blind sheep, Josie (below) whom he adoringly follows around the yard like a puppy.

Josie the blind sheep is best friends with Andy the tiny lamb above.

Cows are the sweetest animals too!  My gorgeous friend here particularly loves having his head stroked, especially around his beautiful horns.   Looking into those beautiful eyes is pure love.

Birds too, are very loving, snuggly little creatures.  These sweet little chickens love being held and actually purred in our arms and made sweet conversational sounds as we talked to them, similar to a cat's conversational meows.  Of course, each animal, like humans, has its own individual personality so some are more extroverted than others.

Honestly, I just wanted to put both my arms around this magestic creature and give him the hugest hug.  It makes my heart so happy to connect with our fellow beings in this way… to know that this sweetheart is loved, gets to see the sun, feel the earth and breath fresh air.  No living being,  human or animal should ever go through this life tortured or unloved.

Last but not least of the more than 200 animals on the 400 acre farm, meet Edward the Peacock.  Much like Victor the turkey, Edward is quite fond of showing off his beautiful tail feathers as Paul captured him doing above!  (Big thanks to Paul for all your great cell phone snaps!)  Edward can fly very well and he roams around the entire farm every day, but he always come into the barn at night, where it is safe.  

We had so much fun with all the animals, including others such as pigs, piglets and horses too.  At the end of our visit, we piled into our truck overlooking one of the pastures, turned on the heat (beacuase Brrrr, it was a cold day!) and ate vegan apple pie along with hot cider from a huge thermous we'd made for the windy, November day.  As we sat enjoying our pie and hot cider, 25 or 30 sheep, lambs and goats were released from a barn right in front of us and we got to watch them, young and old, galloping with glee, single file into the pasture, all so carefree and full of happy innocence.  

A perfect finale 🙂

How was your Thanksgiving?

Have you ever been to an animal sanctuary like Poplar Spring?

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