Lollypop Farm

A rainy day is perhaps not the best day to visit Lollypop Farm with a young child, since most of the animals in the petting area like to get wet about as much as people do, so they’re all under cover and off-limits.  But off we went with Charlie’s nephew Yair, his sig ot, Sheila, and their daughter, Fiona.  First up were the cages of adoptable dogs – Charlie and I spotted two we wouldn’t mind having, but our current dog Todd would. We also peeked at the bunnies (what a silly pet – the actress I roomed with in New York while I was at b-school had a pet rabbit, and not only was it totally unaffectionate, it pooped everywhere when it got loose!) and the birds.  

Many of the animals at Lollypop seem to have been abandoned by owners who could or would no longer care from them.  There was a 137-pound mastiff that overflowed his bed, and you can just imagine some family getting him as an adorable puppy and then being horrified as he grew unmanageably large and strong.  Some of the smaller dogs would definitely find new homes, but I worried for the mastiff and a few of the pit bull mixes.  Lollypop’s policy is to “euthanize as few animals as (they) can,” but they don’t advertise what percent of the 11,000 animals they take in per year are killed.  Given the sign at the desk at the beginning of November, the outlook is not so good…

Lollypop has an odd assortment of farm animals, including cows, horses, chickens, and pigs. I fell in love with the emus, but who on earth keeps an emu for a pet?  Or more precisely, who buys one as a pet and then doesn’t keep and care for it?  The goats and sheep in the petting area are probably also adoptable, but you’d have to live on a lot of land, and in a town that doesn’t prevent residents from owning farm animals.  The animals were roped off and shy, but we still managed to get a bit of petting in.

We recognized many of the names on the big board of donors, including Charlie’s Uncle Fred, who was a big supporter of Lollypop Farms when he was alive.  And our former dog-sitter (former, sadly, because Todd bit her cat Bill in the face, and although Bill is fine, Todd is now canis non grata) had sponsored a few of the dog cages.

When it’s time to get a replacement for Todd, we’ll definitely come here, although Charlie discovered that rather than owning, we can always volunteer to come here and walk their dogs. Tempting, very tempting!