SEQUIM — Graham is a duck with a bad foot, but good taste in music: He fancies high-class French tunes.
Willy “Bo-Bo” is also physically challenged, but the 9-year-old goat, born with a form of muscular dystrophy, lives a pretty cushy life along with Graham on eight peaceful acres south of Sequim.
Graham and Willy are in good company, representing two of about 150 creatures rescued from around the state by guardian angels Sue Stahlin and Bob Bashaw and offered a home at their peaceful ranchette called Critterhaven.
“Graham got pretty bad this last winter, and he spent most of it in our bathtub,” Stahlin said.
“Now he can live outside and be a duck. For awhile there, he thought he was a cat.”
Stahlin has anecdotes about all her critters, each of which has a name. She knows their histories, their habits, their quirky tastes.
She also has a visible moment of angst as she confronts the potential of losing the animal sanctuary she and Bashaw, her husband, have created.
Bashaw shares the pain.
“In a nutshell, this is our last plea for help,” he says, grimacing. “I just don’t know how much longer we can keep going.”
Launched in 1997
The couple has been active in animal rescues for some time, but officially launched Critterhaven in 1997.
They moved five years ago to a larger piece of land off Silberhorn Road when it became clear the need for sheltering abused, neglected and orphaned animals was immense.
But the costs of maintaining a plethora of donkeys, goats, pigs, ducks and other animals are becoming insurmountable — expenses reach between $2,000 and $2,500 each month for merely feeding and maintaining the menagerie.
That doesn’t include emergency veterinary care or the $800 yearly fee they pay to pasture eight Jersey cows in the Jamestown area.
Bashaw, a former firefighter in Pierce County, receives Social Security insurance payments and a disability stipend.
Stahlin works part-time as a registered nurse for a Port Angeles obstetrician.
That’s the extent of the couple’s income.
Adoption out difficult
While the goal for many of their animals is adoption out to suitable homes, that’s easier said than done, according to Stahlin.
“This is so different than dog and cat rescues,” she said.
“We get a lot of disapproving remarks — ‘Why don’t you adopt out more?’
“But it’s just not that simple. Most of these animals have special needs, and if you don’t know how to care for a farm animal, we’re not going to let ours go.”
Both Stahlin and Bashaw maintain a parental, almost possessive, bond with the animals they’ve nurtured back to health.
There’s a reason for that. Most of the animals have been abused or neglected to some degree.
Iris, one of 41 goats that call Critterhaven home, earned her name after suffering an eye injury, coupled with a bladder that ruptured shortly after birth.
“We were running out of names,” Stahlin said.
“Her eye was protruding so bad, so that one stuck.”
An Appaloosa mare named Sweet Pea was “obviously beaten about the head,” Stahlin said, as it took the horse an agonizingly long time to develop trust.
Another horse, more than 30 years old, was rescued in an emaciated condition.
“He was left to starve,” Bashaw said. “He had to be 600 to 700 pounds underweight.”
Stahlin and Bashaw realize a large part of their problem lies in a culture that stresses the plight of neglected dogs and cats, leaving the public largely unaware that farm animals are also targets of mistreatment.
“I know some say, ‘Oh, it’s just a goat.’ Or, ‘It’s just a chicken, anyway,”‘ Stahlin said.
“We happen to be a couple of crazy people who think chickens and goats deserve a good life, too.”
To sponsor or adopt a Critterhaven animal, or to find out how to contribute to the rescue organization in other ways, call Susan Stahlin or Bob Bashaw at 360-683-4681.