Welcome to Cacia Farms here in upstate New York. It all started one day when I asked my husband if I could get a pet rabbit. He said no of course, as at the time we already had 2 dogs and 3 cats.
My husband and I grew up in families that hunted for most of the meat that we ate and knowing where our meals came from was important. As a kid I was involved in 4-H. One of the projects I chose was showing rabbits. Yes that’s a real thing showing rabbits- We put on this cute little white lab coat that made us look official and everything! Well I thought to myself we eat wild rabbit, why not raise our own? So sitting at dinner one night I looked up at my husband with my cute adorable face and it all started. I convinced him that we could raise meat rabbits. Not a month later we had our first pair of Giant Chinchillas! Well you may think that after that we were rolling in rabbit meat…not so. I could write a book on “They don’t breed like rabbits”. We had our first pair (Bunny and Clyde) for a year with little meat produced. We decided to try to find new stock. After going through a couple different pairs we are finally having does that produce large healthy litters.
The next item our farm needed was a good farm dog. We had two dogs already at the time. When I was growing up I remember visiting my grandparents cattle farm where my mother grew up..
I always remember my Papa on the 4-wheeler with his trusty farm dog riding behind. His farm dogs were always ready to move some cows. Of all my Papas dogs I loved the border collies the most. They always looked so beautiful and majestic moving the herds. It was at this point I said to my husband “We should get a border collie”. Jeff, my husband, being a veterinarian and my history as a veterinary technician we both know how crazy and nuts border collies can be. My wonder husband was skeptical at first in the wisdom of having 3 indoor cats and 3 dogs in a 1100 sq ft home with a suburban back yard (and don’t forget the rabbits). Well, I prevailed in the end with my persistence. We found our little pup.
When I went to pick up our wee little border collie, I had a good strong name picked out Odin. My husband and I knew the moment we got him home that Odin was far too serious a name for our goofball. So we settled on Gus. His registered name is Aengus but is also know as Gus, Goose, Goostoff, Gustofferson and mongoose. He brings hilarity to our lives and there
is never a dull moment on our house.
We may be small, with lots of chaos and bodies crammed on our tiny plot but our little farm is filled with love. I couldn’t imagine how quiet and lonely (and terribly boring) our home would be without our furry pets.
A Little History Story
