Sunday, January 30, 2011

Roseanne, the Fox

Today I am going to start telling you about our animals.  Today I want to talk about Roseanne.  She is a beautiful young female fox.  We got her when she was only a few months old.  She was just starting to eat solid food.  She lived with us in the house until her outside digs were ready.  Here she is in those digs.


Not shown in this photo is her house.  She has a small den-like room inside her cage to shelter her from the weather.  She doesn't need much protection from the weather though, since she is native to Ohio and used to the cold winters, and other weather.  She is very active all year long and loves to jump & run and climb in her cage.  Unlike dogs, she is very good and climbing and has retractable claws, like a cat.  Roseanne makes a variety of noises.  Some are like a cat, others like a bird.  She can also bark like a small dog.

But these are all common to all foxes.  What makes Roseanne unique is her personality.  She was bred in captivity, and comes from a long line of captive foxes.  This has made her tame.  Make no mistake, she is still a wild animal and cause a great deal of harm with her claws and teeth.  In fact when she was injured a few months ago all of us suffered with scratches and bites.

But she is tame and can be held.  She enjoys the company of her people and will take food right from your hand.  She is also very playful, like a puppy.  You can see in the background some play ropes and chew toys that she enjoys.



She eats a diet very similar to dogs or cats.  In fact she often eats dog or cat food.  But is supplemented with a variety of meats to make it more interesting.  Left over chicken, pork and steak are favorites. She also will get an egg from our chickens, or a rat.  Today she decided to take food into her own hands and caught a bird that flew into her cage.

Her cage has to have a bottom, because she is a digger.  She buries her fresh food to save for later.  She likes to hide her food and eat it when no one is watching.  If she were allowed, she would dig a den underground, but we are not currently equipped to allow that.  We would like to provide her with that opportunity in our bigger space.

Saturday, January 29, 2011

501(c)3

*sigh*

Ok so there are so many more interesting things to write about. I want to talk all about our current animals, our plans for a new larger place, the animals that are coming this spring, the animals we want to get later on. And I tell you all about all of those.

But for now I just need to discuss where we are today. We are applying to the state of Ohio for education permits to own the various animals we have and are acquiring. We are working on applying for 501(c)3 status with the IRS. We are looking into grants to help fund the purchase of land and animals and materials needed for cages and shelters.

Ok, discuss may not be the right word. More like vent. There is a lot paperwork needed to run an animal sanctuary. And the forms are not always easy. The 501(c)3 application alone is over 30 pages long. And it requires supplemental materials, like budgets, and articles of incorporation, and by-laws, and statements about the board of directors.

We also have to apply for education permits for each of the animals. And we have to renew the permits every 3 years. Then there is the insurance and don't get me started on grant applications.

Don't get me wrong, i actually love the behind the scenes stuff. Before starting this venture, i sat on the board of directors of the columbus gay men's chorus. But i just needed to express all the work that you don't usually see. Thanks for letting me share.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Background

So if you've been reading previous posts, you've noticed that I've made some changes to the layout and background.  The background photo is a picture of our fox, Roseanne.  She was supposed to be a red fox, but appears to be a mix between a silver fox and a red fox.  We are getting a real red fox this spring, a male.

But the background I was referring to was ours.  The founders of Noah's Arc Sanctuary are myself, Stephen, and my partner, Donny.  Donny has his own blog here.  We are a gay couple, and have adopted 4 children: Eddie, 16; Esequiel, 14; Marcus, 5; and Juan, 4.  You can read much more about our life and our family on Donny's blog.  We have also been recently blessed by the gift a wonderful heterosexual couple that is offering to carry a baby for us.  Rhea is the woman and has her own blog here.  William, her boyfriend, is an old high friend of mine and has a blog here.  Links to all three blogs will always be posted to the right of this page.  But I'll give you a little background about us now.

Donny is 42 years old and currently works as a substitute teacher while completing his master's degree in Social Work from the University of Cincinnati.  He has always had an affinity for exotic pets, and has previously owned a fox, turtles and snakes.  He worked for a while as a manager of a pet store, where he could care for lots of animals.  Donny loves animals and brought into our relationship 2 Welsh corgis and 2 ducks.  This was just the beginning, as we have quickly added many more animals to our family.

My name is Stephen and I am 33 years old.  I am also completing a masters degree in applied economics from Wright State University. Most of the time, I work for a financial services company in Columbus, OH. When I met Donny, I only had one cocker spaniel, Bella.  Having just one pet was strange for me, since I grew up on a farm with horses, cattle, barn cats, hunting dogs, and a goat (briefly).  I lived for many years in apartments, where I could only have cats, fish, and ferrets.

Our two oldest sons lived for many years in foster care, on a farm.  So they too were accustomed to having animals around and immediately gravitated to the idea of getting animals.  It was our younger children who gave us the idea of sharing our love of animals with others.  We saw how the two toddlers attached to the animals and opened up because of the relationships with animals.  This informal animal therapy for the boys, Donny's training in therapy, and our desire to share our love of animals led us to the idea of an educational sanctuary.

That was the first step.  Since then we have had to focus on the less enjoyable side of building our sanctuary.  There are permits to file, and budgets to create (and stick to), and other less interesting administrative details to stick to.  Besides the animals themselves, this blog is the most exciting part of our venture.

Monday, January 24, 2011

"My life is a zoo"

As I start this blog, I was going to spend some time talking about who we are and why we decided to start this animal sanctuary. However we watched a new show on tv tonight. The show was called "My life is a zoo" and it is all about a couple in northern Michigan who started a zoo and now have over 400 animals.

We are a long way from that, and I'm not sure we even want to get to that point.  Unless someone out there wants to donate a huge sum of cash, we plan to start small and build slowly.

But watching the show gives us hope.  They showed us that it is possible to do it.  And it doesn't have to look like the San Diego zoo.  You can do it on your own property and you can do it yourself.  They build their own cages, and do all the arrangements to get animals themselves.

In an interesting twist, they also rescue local wildlife and domestic animals that are abandon or abused.

We have considered rescuing orphaned or injured wildlife, but never considered rescuing domestic animals too.  We decided to focus on purchasing healthy tame animals so that we can take them to local schools and educate children about local wildlife and the importance of protecting the environment.  We feel that educating children is a great way to protect the natural world for future generations.

Although unscripted, I have to believe that the producers encourage the couple to stage exaggerated arguments or dangerous situations to boost ratings.  Despite this, I see a lot of similarities to the TV couple and us.  I'll talk more about us later, but for now, I see one person who is the pure animal lover.  He knows a lot about how to care for the animals.  The other partner has a business sense.  She still loves the animals and cares for them, but is also running the back office.  We balance each other out in much the same way.

In later posts I will talk more about who we are, where we come from, why we are doing this, as well as updates on what is going on with the Sanctuary.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Introductions

Welcome to Noah's Arc Sanctuary's blog. We are dedicated to the preservation of Ohio wildlife through education. We are just getting started in this area although we've owned all kinds of animals for years. Currently we have a red fox, a raccoon, and ducks. We also have several domestic animals including dogs, chickens and a ferret. Our most exotic animal is not an Ohio native, but a beautiful addition to our aviary. We have a 9 month old male peacock.

We are acquiring another fox, raccoon and a skunk this spring. Our future plans include breeding pairs of animals and more space to create natural environments for our animals to thrive in. We are getting the permits in place to take our animals on show to some local schools. We are also working on getting funding in place to purchase the larger space needed.

Check back often for updates on when the new babies are arriving, when we will be visiting schools, and how we are coming in getting the new land.