by Tao Oliveto, Carrboro, NC

Got ivy, honeysuckle, poisen ivy, kudzu or other invasives taking over your yard? Call Goat Patrol - the fastest, most efficient and most sustainable landscaping team available. This discovery has made me smile all day - sustainable landscaping at it’s best! What I’ve learned so far from The Goat Patrol:

Nature’s landscape architects, goats can clear invasive growth from any area in record time and with skillfull precision. Born to munch, goats graze up to 8 - 12 hours per day, quietly moving around an area to find their favorite edibles. Goats are also non-toxic and won’t threaten the water supply.

Business school graduate, entrepreneur, land and animal lover, Alix Bowman, owns and operates Goat Patrol in NC, which includes a hungry team of superhero ruminants. Alix and her team get the job done without gasoline emissions, noise pollution from machinery or weedwackers, herbicides - or coffee breaks!

Alix and her team have an affordable and enjoyable working system which begins with a free estimate of your landscaping needs. Appropriate for large or small areas, the costs cover 3 simple steps - installation of portable fencing, grazing time and transportation of the herd. Fencing is set up to specification, the goats and supervising goatherd arrive the next day. The herd heads home each night, returning until the job is done.

I’m looking foward to bringing the Goat Patrol to our co-housing community to clean things up soon. Visit GoatPatrol.com to meet the team - a herd of munchers with personality and charm!

by Tao Oliveto, Carrboro, NC

Tao, the young deer, died yesterday, in the loving care of her rescuers and  other fawns at the sanctuary. I am wistfully sad and believe more than ever that her name was not any kind of “tribute” to me for finding her, but a reminder that this is “The Way”. Thank you all for sharing the experience with me and sending love.

Kindra, Director at NC-Claws, sent these consoling and wise words:

“One thing I always have to tell people is that my job as a rehabber is to help animals along to the next phase of their life. The hardest part of this job is that sometimes that next phase is not life as we know it. Thankfully, I do not believe that animals have the fear of death - or even feel that it is not just an extension of life - as humans do. To them, it is just another way of being.”

This excerpt from Animal Medicine Cards by David Carson  -

“Deer teaches us to use the power of gentleness to touch the hearts and minds of wounded beings… Like the dappling of the Fawn’s coat, both the light and the dark may be loved to create gentleness and safety for those who are seeking peace.”

This morning, I received this update from the rescue:

Hi Tracey,
I wanted to give you a real quick update on how the fawn is doing.  We kept her with us until this evening.  She’s really too big to be inside and really didn’t care for being inside, but we felt that her condition warranted watching.  Given the head trauma, she was “nodding off” often and that worried me.
Today she began staying awake more and more, so we decided the best thing for her was to be with her own kind and breathing fresh air.  So we took her to the pen with the other babies.  She is by far the largest we have!  It took her a while, but after several long drinks and a big rub down by me, and then a total deer bath from her new friends, she was doing well.  She is up and around.  Not fast, mind you, I’m sure she’s achy from the car accident, but up and around none the less.
For her age, she is very trusting of us, which, for now, is a good thing.  We are still treating her eyes and several other wounds, and it sure helps to have her put her head in my lap to do this!
So, for now, her prognosis is good.
Thank you so much for taking time out of your life to help this beautiful girl!  She deserves every chance she can get to live wild and free!!!

Thank you,
Kindra D. Mammone
Executive Director, CLAWS, Inc.
Donations needed.  We are a non profit organization funded solely by donations.  Please help.  All funds go directly to the animals.
www.nc-claws.org