Haven Offered To The Unloved Couple’s Rustic Acres Becoming Home For Unwanted Farm Animals

One of Gary Thoemke’s earliest childhood memories is of his family’s pet raccoon.

It is a grim memory.

Thoemke was 4 years old when he watched the small animal take an innocent nip at his abusive, alcoholic father. In a rage, his father grabbed his pliers and ripped the teeth out of the small animal one by one.

“I could hear that animal screaming,” Thoemke says with a grimace 40 years later. “Because of that incident I’ve always wanted to protect animals. I can’t stand to see an animal suffer.”

Thoemke and his wife, Rosemary, don’t have much. What they do have, however, is a deep love for animals.

It is the inspiration behind their campaign to take in unwanted farm animals - the small variety.

“We provide a good home for any unwanted livestock: chickens; ducks; geese; goats; sheep; rabbits, etc.,” reads their advertisement in the Nickel’s Worth. “We are not some large non-profit organization - just someone trying to make a difference.”

Thoemke got the idea while reading the newspaper classifieds. There, in small black letters, were more than half a dozen people trying to find homes for their farm animals.

“There’s so many animals that people don’t want,” Thoemke says. “And when people don’t want things they don’t take care of them.”

Unwanted dogs and cats can be taken to the Humane Society, and exotic animals sometimes go to zoos. But there was nothing for unwanted farm animals, Rosemary says.

The two say they moved to Athol “to get back to the basics.” They envision building a small ranch and turning it into a haven for animals.

With four chickens, a goat, a cat and a dog, they have only just begun.

“Rustic Acres,” as Gary and Rosemary call their home, is a five-acre parcel of land cleared out of the dense Douglas firs and lodgepole pines northeast of Athol. The Thoemkes bought the land in October and now live there in an 18-foot trailer powered by propane and a generator.

They have learned to use things no one else wants. With nothing but a bow saw, they have carved the fallen trees on their land into fence posts. Five-gallon buckets gleaned from the side of the road are used as food bowls for the animals.

The chicken coop is made out of lumber another man intended to throw away. Unwanted wood pallets have been turned into gates.

The work has been hard. Gary broke his neck about a year ago and has limited mobility in his arms. He must rest every two hours. Rosemary dug most of the fence post holes because of his disability. When she’s not helping at their home, she works as a seamstress in Post Falls.

The farm is a work in progress. And now it needs animals.

The couple already has bought a pregnant pygmy goat named Number One. She bleats at Gary as he squats in a coop among four chickens.

The rooster’s eye is milky white with blindness. “Nobody wanted him so I bought him and called him One-eyed Red,” Gary says as the chickens squabble over a worm he fed them.

His favorite chicken, Harriet, is a shiny black thing that stalks up to him without fear.

“Animals, they don’t look at your exterior, they look straight into your heart,” he says, as Harriet eyes his hand for another worm. “They know who they can trust.

Ouch, that was my finger.”

Rosemary’s memories of growing up on a farm are more pleasant than her husband’s. She recalls feeding chocolate bars to Queenie the cow in hopes of getting chocolate milk - as her mother had promised.

Gary Thoemke is no animal rights activist. But he does have a code of ethics about animals.

“If someone buys 20 cows and they raise them for butcher, that’s fine,” he says, as Number One winds her leash around a fence post. “But if a person buys one calf and makes them a pet, they just can’t go back to being livestock. Once you make a pet out of an animal, you change that animal for life.”

Gary says he never will make food out of someone’s pet.

Anyone with unwanted farm animals can call (208) 683-2110.

The Thoemkes are not accepting dogs and cats. They are accepting donations of feed, hay, lumber and fencing materials and welcome visitors, although the farm is not a business.

Kootenai County Sheriff’s officials said the couple doesn’t need any permits to adopt animals on their own land.

“I just like animals,” Gary says.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo