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.