...know what Acorn, our pig, weighed. She was a smaller type, but weighed a ton anyway. She was very dense!

Lol! You sound like us. Before we had our actual goat herd, with buck, we took our 1st goat - an American Alpine named Flame - to be bred. We drove her in our Volvo! :-)

Geez, you really do sound like us, reading your list! What we didn't have from there was a Caymen, a monkey, a cow or horse of our own, or a woodchuck.

We did rescue work with dogs, reptiles - mainly turtles and tortoises, and birds, so had quite a few of all. Some as permanent pets, some in various stages of rehabilitation. We adopted out many, but ended up with many, too. It's not as easy as it sounds to find homes for certain types of birds, good homes for turtles - we won't even discuss snapping turtles, or staffs. Having worked with the police's anti-fighting task force with the pounds, we had a responsibility to find only safe homes for them, and, oddly, most turned out to be police in Simi Valley.

Before adopting them out, we got them in tip-top health, and put them through intensive training so that they would walk like a dream, even around other barking dogs, would stop at streets without going across unless told to, wouldn't rush out gates, wouldn't eat found meat, etc. It was one of the important factors of them getting adopted into really good homes.

With turtles, I worked with an expert in N.Y...I didn't go there, to learn the best care for all situations. These were things that you couldn't find in books, and a lot of vets did not know.

He's the one that helped me get through a box turtle problem when the turtle would not fully come out of hibernation no matter what we tried. He had us put a low-sided container in the sink, fill it with V-8, then set the turtle right in it. He drank, which they will do, but because it was vegetable juice with certain nutrients in it, he was actually eating without knowing it. It was a little messy, but he came out of hibernation fine after that. He also gave us invaluable tips of medications and their uses, etc.

As for the birds, like the dogs, we did know quite a bit about their needs and care, more than many, so we felt that we needed to help the ones that needed it. The exception were the lori's. They don't always do well in captivity because people don't really understand their protein, salt, and other needs, thinking that fruit and nectar is all that they require. So, I called on an old friend at the zoo that I'd worked at, and got his input. It was really good, and our lories were doing well in no time. I knew that they needed more than fruit, and the guy gave us some great ideas!

It was a lot, though. Once we couldn't continue with the staff work here, and couldn't bring the reptiles here, or most of the birds, we changed direction completely, adopting dogs, taking in cats in need, and farm critters that needed a place. Oh yes, and the rabbits that we'd brought along.

I do miss it, but don't think that we could keep up anymore without some help, which we don't have. I am assuming that you feel similarly.