The Misfits are excited for the season of festivities. We are also grateful for the kindness of so many people who help Apifera and our mission. We have so many plans and dreams this coming year! 

There are many new Misfits to tell you about! We took in an elder mini horse, although Paco likes to call her 'his pony'. She is...well, obese but we will help her with that and we are working on teaching her to possibly pull a wagon. We also took on three drake ducks and a beautiful white Sebastopol goose. In the feline world, we took on two very old elders-a 20 year old cat and her 15 year old son. And we added the most wonderful, large, smooshy face cat who we have named Mr. Moseley and he lives with Omar and Oscar in the house. All are from the shelter. There will be many stories about all these characters!

On a very scary note, our Love Llama, aka Birdie, contacted the dreaded Meningeal Worm which is rampant in Maine, and comes from the White Tail Deer but then snails carry it-so wet areas make it a challenge. Fortunately I am with the animals so much, that I noticed Birdie stumble in a very strange way while getting up, and I feared the worst and called the vet. I immediately started her on a very aggressive treatment via the vet's instructions of daily shots and dewormer. The worm first enters the brain, but travels to the spinal cord. Her hind end was weakened by this and we will not know how much recovery there will be. She still walks and does all the things she used too, but she is prone to falling if she is spooked or trips, due to the weakened hind end. I am hopeful that we saw the worst and she will be healing a little bit each week. She is still doing therapy visits and is still the same loving llama as ever. It was incredibly upsetting for us, and she now gets a monthly shot to hopefully prevent the worm from getting started again in her brain. Birdie was such a star at our first open event Misfit Love Day. I got her a crown for fun, and she sat amongst visitors and held court, it was so funny. She is truly a favorite of many, and many helped with donations to offset the vet and medicines. Thank you.

Our first open event/fundraiser in October was a big success. We think we had around 300 people and were so happy to meet so many people that have been reading about our mission here, it was so rewarding. We had all ages, including a wonderful 101 year old man that loved every animal. Ollie was a hit too and he and Opie will be doing a lot of traveling therapy visits this winter.

As always the land and animals inspire my work. Now that winter is approaching I plan to have lots of creative time and here are some new pieces. Contact me if you are interested or visit the shop. There are new prints and art cards too. Sundance also has new larger pieces.