With an oink oink here...

What an awesome afternoon! Melissa took me out to SASHA Farm, where she is a new volunteer. What a cool place -- the largest farmed animal sanctuary in the Midwest. And who knew -- it's out in Manchester, and has been since the early '80s. How did I never hear of this place all this time? Mom and Larry haven't even heard about it. This seems like exactly the type of place my old boss at the Manchester Chronicle would have assigned me a story about.

The first stop was with the pot-bellied pigs. There were a few little cuties scooting around (who knew pigs eat dirt?), then out of the barn came these huge "little" pigs. So funny. Then Melissa thought I should meet the real pigs. Boy, was I in for a surprise. In this little unassuming dark and dusty barn slept a bunch of the BIGGEST pigs I've ever even seen on TV! They were the size of cars! They were all just laying happily in the dirt, snoring and snorting away. While I would be scared to death if one of those guys came charging at me, they looked so sweet and peaceful snoozing the afternoon away.

We wandered some more, saw the horses and donkeys running around in the distance, visited with Max, a sweetie pie doberman offering up kisses. Then onto the goats and sheep! So much fun. They were all out in the field, but they saw something they liked and all came charging at us. It was very Black Sheep. We made a few special goat friends who joined us for a walk through the field. Once we got back to the barn, the goats found Melissa's pants very tasty.

Next we chatted with the farm owners (one, a George Carlin twin, the other, a Buffy fan) while giving love to some more pooches (one a Katrina rescue dog). Both are very nice and friendly, so if anyone wants to take a visit to the farm, be sure to check out the website and get in touch with them. Our last stop was the cat barn, where we met this very interesting, growling cat:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJ3RuQH-a_I

While Heidi was HIGHLY suspicious of me when I came home smelling like an entire barnyard, I can't wait to go back!