We sat down with one of our partners, Amanda Grace Wagner, to learn about her animal sanctuary, Ark of Grace, and her experiences as a pet parent. Whether it’s playing with her pup and baby lamb, Moses, or spending time with their African Gray Parrot, she’s a very busy pet parent!
Could you tell us a bit about yourself and your journey to starting your sanctuary?
I’ve been in animal rescue for a long time. I had been very sick for a while, I was even paralyzed in a wheelchair for a period, and my miraculous recovery segued into what is now this animal sanctuary. It actually started with a duck who showed up on our property: we took him in and my husband built him a pen so it’s pretty amazing that we now have over 35 animals at the sanctuary.
Can you tell us a bit more about your pups and sanctuary animals?
They all have their own personalities and stories. Many of them come to us from not great means. I got a call that three miniature horses (Gideon, Snow, and Blossom) were going to go to breeders so I picked them up. We have Charlotte, a Shetland pony: she was going to go to a kill pen when I got a frantic call and we had her come to the sanctuary. We got one of our pigs, Noble, when he was 2 months old and orphaned. There are backstories for each of the different animals we have today. We have our two dogs – Missy and Toby – who we picked up from people who couldn’t take care of them. Toby was actually paralyzed in his back two legs and he’s miraculously running around our backyard these days. We see these incredible things happen with all of our animals. A lot of these animals’ stories didn’t start off so well, but they are now part of our family and thriving.
How do you find out about these cases?
We receive many emails and phone calls which is usually how we hear about the animals we rescue. We then see if we can make room which involves a lot of logistics to figure out. At the moment, we’re actually building another barn to be able to fit more animals on our property.
What would you say is the most rewarding part of pet parenthood and running an animal sanctuary?
We run a ministry too, so I will say the Lord has taught me a lot about these animals. It is a very rewarding experience to do something for an animal or someone even if they cannot do the equivalent for you out of love and compassion: it means that you’re not in it for you, but because it’s the right thing to do. These animals have been incredibly healing for both me and for my husband who was dealing with a traumatic brain injury; they’re especially healing and therapeutic for him. He loves taking the dogs on walks, he runs around with the baby lamb, and just watching them be a key part of his healing process is incredibly rewarding and humbling.
You mentioned your husband loves taking the dogs on walks, what is your favorite activity to do with your animals?
I love to interact with the birds because they are so intelligent (and funny: the birds love to dance!) The animals also love interacting together which is so wonderful to see. Often at night after a long day, all the animals will gravitate into the TV room and I can just love and cuddle them. Another fun thing is bottle feeding Moses, our lamb. Running around with Moses and Missy, our black lab/golden mix, is a wonderful way to decompress, particularly because they have such a close bond. That’s something really great to watch actually, when you put them in the right environment under the right nurturing, all these different animal species can get along.
What is your go-to pet parenting tip?
You have to be consistent with your animals–they need love and they need boundaries. They’re really smart and they know when you’re not being consistent. Being consistent with your love and boundaries transforms them. Our sanctuary animals are often not coming from good circumstances, so we need to do a lot of training and we are able to truly transform them.
That’s very true– we always talk to our partner trainers about how important positive reinforcement and proper training is to set your pup up for success! Thank you for taking time out of your busy day to speak with us!
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