KRATZERVILLE — Omar the llama, derided at the Middleburg auction, went on to become the star of a nativity show last Christmas.

He’s a gentle, chocolate brown camelid with an irresistible topper of thick wool.

His life is the ultimate comeback metaphor. He lives, not only with affection, but, some would say, purpose.

Omar occupies a comfortable paddock with two other llamas on the 55-acre farm shared by all of (no one’s counting) Ashburn’s Animals-on-a-Mission, Janel Ashburn and her husband, Doyle, and their young boys, Jett, 4, and Caleb, 3.

Janel Ashburn runs the farm with the help of a half-dozen or so volunteer caretakers.

Since last fall, the farm has hosted children, the disabled, and the elderly on a regular basis. Ashburn and her volunteers have also kept up a busy schedule taking a rotating troupe of animals to visit schools, group homes and civic events.



A live connection

Wherever it takes place, the animals give humans a connection with other living beings. A mounting body of research is showing that human beings need to be attached to the living world to achieve their optimum level of health. That’s Ashburn’s animals’ mission and Omar’s purpose.

 Ashburn bought Omar on the spur of the moment when his plight tore at her heart.

“No one wanted to buy him when he came out,” she said. “They started chanting, ’Dog food! Dog food!’”‰“

That was shortly after Ashburn, 32, decided to give up critical care nursing and nurture a few therapy animals.

After 10 years, nursing was beginning to get her down, she said.

She found it was difficult to be upbeat for her youngsters when she came home after a long day tending to the severely wounded or ill.

Taking the boys out to visit with the few animals they already had — one horse and a few goats and chickens — seemed to help everyone’s mood, she said. That was how she got the idea of the “mission.”

It makes perfect sense, said Philip Tedeschi, clinical director of the Institute for Human-Animal Connection at the University of Denver.< /p>

A professor of social work, Tedeschi saw firsthand how animals like dogs and horses can be sources of comfort and aid to people suffering from stress, depression, anxiety, trauma and other life issues. He is also creating therapeutic farms to serve youths and provide opportunities for social work students to learn to use animal-assisted therapy approaches.

In an interview from Denver, Tedeschi said “biophilia,” an interest and affection for other living things, is innate in humankind.

Coupled with their unconditional acceptance — your dog doesn’t care if you’re having a bad-hair day and the pony doesn’t care if the child rider was lifted out of a wheelchair — animals offer reliable and simple relationships that can lead to exceptional therapeutic outcomes, he said.

Ashburn and her volunteers see it often.

A girl with Downs Syndrome wanted to get on a horse, but was nervous, recalls Colton Moyer, 19, who’s a regular helper at the farm. She got on and conquered her fear. Then she had a sense of pride.

“She said, ’I did it!’ after we helped her down,” Moyer said.

At SUNCOM Industries in Northumberland, there was a man in his 40s who was introverted, Ashburn said. In fact, he had never interacted with an animal. “At the end of one visit day,” she said, “he was holding on to Twix the pony by the lead rope saying ’I love you Twix’ and he didn’t want to let go.”

It was a moment she likes to recall, especially when weighted by bills for animal feed and veterinarian visits. (Ashburn’s Animals on a Mission never charges a fee.)

“We all have defining moments like that,” said Moyer, a junior at Susquehanna University. “It’s what we’re all about — when we help a kid with a disability or challenge. The smiles they get just from interacting with those animals. It puts everything into perspective as to why we put in all the hours.”



’The right thing’

There are challenges, Ashburn said, but when we see people really love our animals, we think “Yes, we are doing the right thing.”

Volunteer Dustin Koons, 21, a senior at Susquehanna, said he works at a landscaping company to pay the bills.

“When I volunteer here I get paid in a different way,” he said. “Smiles per hour.”

The Ashburn farm is tucked away off Scrubby Hill Road, which intersects Route 204.

“It’s only seven minutes to the mall,” Ashburn says, “but you’d think you were way out in the country. Drive up and dogs and geese and chickens will greet you. And look out for George the tortoise, who keeps a low profile, but an impressive list of fans.”

Omar, who is now type-cast for the Christkindl Market’s nativity scene in Mifflinburg, shares his paddock with female llamas Aunt Shelia, and little Cecilia, born Christmas Day. The paddock is off to the right, where one will also find some of the myotonic (fainting) goats. Behind the farmhouse is a majestic weeping willow tree, a playhouse for the boys, and a pond. Then there’s the horse barn — 10 and counting. When Ashburn leads Spotless, the painted pony without spots, from the enclosure, his head is much higher than her 5-foot-2.



Bunny village

 Beside the barn, a little village of cages announces itself as “Hareisburg.” The bunnies are on a population upswing, as well.

Down into a valley, there are donkeys and pigs and peacocks, roosters, chickens and ducks, subject to additions at any moment.

Sometimes Doyle Ashburn, Janel’s physician husband, doesn’t know exactly what he might come home to.

All the animals have names, too ““ like Sebastopol and Choo Choo, Leo and Frank, Lucy, Puddin, Oscar, Timmy and Tommy, Dottie and Sadie, Ruby and Scarlett.

Snowflake, of course, is the white pony.

“All the little girls want to ride the white pony,” Moyer said.

Some of the animals are part of the traveling petting zoo.

They were on the road all summer, visiting the Lewisburg Arts Festival, Sunbury River Festival and similar events, various schools and group homes.

Ashburn’s Animals will come to you or, you can come to them. SUNCOM hosts and visits regularly.



Rewarding work

In her last days as an ICU nurse, Ashburn took care of a 19-year-old whose life she helped save. Those types of things are dramatic and soul satisfying, she said, but working with kids and animals is tremendously rewarding as well.

Caring for people is the commonality, Tedeschi said. “We’re beginning to pair dogs with returning war vets and special needs kids who don’t fit in. One medic from Iraq has a psychological service cat.”

We are losing lonely elderly one per hour to suicide, he said.

“The process of being visited by an animal changes the dynamic of loneliness, ends the idea that life has nothing interesting to offer.”

Children do better with animals in so many settings, he said, the potential risks are even being weighed for using them in pediatric burn centers.

The value of human-animal interaction has been known a long time. Florence Nightingale wrote about the therapeutic value of pets in her famous Notes on Nursing in 1860.

Now we are discovering the scientific basis, Tedeschi said. “It’s a very legitimate professional choice.”

It’s OK with Choo Choo, too. The diminutive pony would gives rides all day if they’d let him, said volunteer James Sanders, 21.