the Way of the Turtle

A Quick Wander Around Lollipop Farm
Saturday, August 8, 2009

Lollipop Farm site

Lollipop Farm is home to the Humane Society of Greater Rochester. In addition to the usual dogs, cats, and small animals they also give homes a a variety of larger animals - horses, deer, lamas, goats, pigs, and sheep - as well as ducks, geese, and swans. Since we were right next door for our ride today, we decided to stop by and walk through the animal pens before heading home.

We saw several pens with horses - earlier in the day there were people walking and riding them. The lamas were all inside their barn, and the one standing in the doorway didn't look particularly pleased to see us. The fallow deers were pretty indifferent, as were the very large pigs and the sheep.

The biggest surprise was a pair of emus in one pen - those are funky birds, no doubt about it. The goats were probably the most fun to watch, since the males were constantly butting heads with each other - literally! It's hard to imagine how thick their skulls must be to handle those kinds of impact.

When we stopped to look at the swans, geese, and ducks we were surprised to see they had some visitors in their pen - a couple of chipmunks and a woodchuck taking advantage of the free food.

I suspect I'm glad the main building was closed; somehow I don't think I would have been too happy seeing all the cats, dogs, and smaller animals in need of a permanent home. It's really a shame we have to have places like this to ensure that animals are properly cared for... but it's also a good thing that there are people and places like this there for the animals that need them.

JMH