Good Neighbor Podcast: Fort Collins
Bringing together local businesses and neighbors of Fort Collins. Good Neighbor Podcast hosted by Nick George helps residents discover and connect with your local business owners in and around Fort Collins, Colorado.
Is your business serving the residents of Fort Collins? Then, we need to talk! Visit gnpFortCollins.com to schedule your free interview.
Good Neighbor Podcast: Fort Collins
Rescuing Souls: Goats and Healing
Ever wondered what 250 goats in tutus could do for your mental health? In this heartwarming episode, we sit down with Jennifer Clark, founder of J&J Second Chance Small Holdings—one of only nine specialized goat rescues in the United States.
Jennifer's journey from military veteran to animal rescuer reveals how the creatures that saved her life are now helping others heal. After sustaining injuries during her service and witnessing how animals helped both her autistic daughter learn to read and her father with Alzheimer's connect to cherished memories, Jennifer created a sanctuary where both animals and humans get their second chance.
The work at J&J goes far beyond typical animal rescue. Their therapy goats—often dressed in tutus, diapers, and bows—visit hospitals to cheer sick children, help students practice reading without judgment, and provide mental health support to veterans and seniors. As Jennifer puts it, they're "stopping suicide one fluffy at a time." She also dispels common misconceptions about goats, explaining their rapid reproduction rates and dietary needs, while highlighting their natural talent for fire prevention by consuming dried brush.
Running a nonprofit sanctuary for nearly 300 animals comes with significant challenges. From the 200 round hay bales and eight tons of grain needed annually to unexpected veterinary bills reaching thousands of dollars, the financial demands are substantial. Yet Jennifer maintains an unwavering positive outlook, refusing to post anything sad on social media and welcoming visitors seeking a moment of joy. Whether you're looking for animal therapy, considering adoption, or simply need a dose of happiness, J&J Second Chance Small Holdings offers a powerful reminder that everyone—human and animal alike—deserves another chance.
Ready to experience some goat therapy for yourself? Visit jnjsecondchancesmallholdings.com or text 307-772-1220 for a dose of instant happiness from a goat being goofy.
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Nick George.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. Are you in need of a unique animal rescue and sanctuary that also dabbles in therapy? Well, one such institution might be closer than you think or practice. Today I have the great pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, jennifer Clark, with J&J Second Chance Small Holding.
Speaker 3:Jennifer, how's it going? Hi, hey, it's going really well.
Speaker 2:Good, tell us all about your very, very unique company.
Speaker 3:Well, we're kind of a unique concept, very unique company. Well, we're kind of a unique concept One. We're only one of nine goat rescues in the United States that specializes in goats. We do miniature farm animals at our rescue, so miniature cows, miniature horses, miniature donkeys and, of course, about 250 goats about 250 goats. We rescue and offer sanctuary to animals in need. But we also take animals into the community where we do a lot of community outreach, from going into hospitals and visiting sick kids.
Speaker 3:The goats wear clothes, diapers, ribbons and bows and they go run around in tutus and visit all the patients. We also go to schools and teach kids to read. The goats don't care how they read or if they read the right words or the wrong words, they just want the attention of the kids, and every once in a while we'll slip in a flavored book, so the goats eat the books for the kids. We go to senior centers and veteran centers and do cognitive therapy and mental health. We go into high schools and middle schools and do mental health there, also because we stop suicide. One fluffy at a time, so one baby goat at a time. There's a lot.
Speaker 3:How did you get into this business? Well, I'm a veteran who did a couple tours and got pretty injured, and animals saved my life. So now I'm saving theirs and giving them a second chance and having others get help from that. My daughter is high functioning autistic and I taught her to read using animals. My father had Alzheimer's and dementia and yet he could still tell me about the goats he had when he was a kid. And so I do all of these and I continue these, because everybody deserves a second chance.
Speaker 2:Wow, what are some myths or misconceptions in your line of work?
Speaker 3:There's so many. The big one is I get is do goats really need rescuing? And yes, they do. Unfortunately, you can go from three goats to 20 goats in two years. Goats can have up to eight babies at a time and they can breed every six months and you know we can end up with a lot of goats very, very, very quickly. Wow. And the other is that they can eat anything they can't. They actually can get what's called metal stomach, where you actually have to go in with magnets and remove parts of metal and things like that. Now they can eat things that will kill your cows and your horses which is why they are amazing at weed management and they can go in and do fire prevention by eating dried leaves sticks. They eat all of that and it causes fire not to have a place to burn.
Speaker 2:Right Gets rid of the fuel exposure.
Speaker 3:Yes, sometimes all you got to do is get rid of the dead branches, and goats think dried leaves are potato chips.
Speaker 2:That's funny. So marketing is the heart of every business. Who is your target client?
Speaker 3:All of them, I mean, are we?
Speaker 2:targeting people that want therapy, or are we targeting people that want to rescue animals?
Speaker 3:Kind of a both. We go and do events and I've had psychological counselors come up to me and go what is this goat therapy crap? And I look at them and I'm like, well, did you smile when you saw the goats? And they go well, yeah, then you got goat therapy honey, and it's as simple as seeing an animal be goofy or being able to pet an animal. You know it's an endorphin rush to watch these animals play and have a great time. But we also want to try to find some of them homes. We do. We had over 30 adoptions last year. It's a few, but we're very picky. We don't want to re-rescue, so you're going to go through a process in order to adopt. But we also teach classes on how to maintain your goats properly, called Goat 101, where you come for our class.
Speaker 2:How do you market yourself right now, because it's such a unique thing?
Speaker 3:We don't. To be honest, we're really busy. This next month alone, I have 14 events going on, at least in the next 30 to 40 days.
Speaker 2:Have you ever thought about podcasting?
Speaker 3:I have, but I kind of need somebody who's a little more technical savvy than I am. Unfortunately, I grew up in a time pre-computer and then I was military and computers were kind of thought of evil Because you didn't want your information to get found out on them. You know and I was, was medical, so we were very careful about what we posted or wrote. So I'm still a little that hesitant self, so I'm looking for interns right now understood.
Speaker 2:What do you do for fun outside of not dealing with technology?
Speaker 3:um, actually you'd be shocked. I sit and I play with the goats, and when you have baby goats running around, you don't really have a bad day I'll bet I used to have ferrets.
Speaker 2:That's a world that most people don't understand, and it's fun I have a chinchilla.
Speaker 3:That's awesome, I thought about that.
Speaker 2:that was on the table when I was thinking about ferrets. Jennifer, what's one takeaway that people should take away from our interaction today, this podcast? What do you want people to remember about J&J? Second Chance small holdings?
Speaker 3:That you know there is a second chance out there for everybody. Just because you can't find one at this exact moment, you know there is another one out there. And if all else fails, come watch our silly videos we post on TikTok. We don't post anything sad, unhappy on any social media. It's always positivity. And if you really need help, come on out and visit us. You know we have goat visits where you can come out and sit with the baby goats and feed them. We can come feed the Highland cows. You can come feed the miniature horses. You know, if you need a little happy, we'll share ours with you.
Speaker 2:That's beautiful. Well, jennifer, we really appreciate you being on the show and we wish you and J&J Second Chance Small Holdings the very best moving forward. Oh, one more thing Please tell our listeners all of the addresses where they can find out more about J&J Second Chance Small Holdings on social media website and then the old-fashioned way by phone website and then the old fashioned way by phone, no problem.
Speaker 3:So we have a big website called jnjsecondchancesmallholdingscom. Or, if you really want to go simple, go to thegoatladiescom. That's our secondary website, where you can then find us on our primary website. We are on TikTok, instagram, facebook as JNJ Second Chance Small Holdings, which you can all get off our website. We are on TikTok, instagram, facebook as J&J Second Chance Small Holdings, which you can all get off our website. We're also on YouTube under Wyoming Small Holdings, and then we are in Rock River, wyoming. We are only by appointment because we are very busy and we are always out there taking care of almost 300 animals, and so we want your experience to be just for you, and so that's part of the reason why we asked you to make an appointment. You can email us at thegoatladies L-A-D-I-E-S 307 at gmailcom, and if all else fails and you just want some happy photos, you can always text us at 307-772-1220.
Speaker 2:And you know, just send me a text, I'll send you a silly photo of a goat being goofy, like sticking their face out and going ah Well, Jennifer, we really appreciate you being on the show and we definitely do wish you and J&J Second Chance Small Holdings the very best moving forward.
Speaker 3:And you know that we are a nonprofit, federally recognized.
Speaker 2:I didn't know that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you can actually help support the animals through our website. There's a Zephy account. It charges us zero. We lose no income through them. So if you donate a hundred dollars, a hundred dollars goes straight to the animals, and right now we're raising funds to get hay. Unfortunately, we go through about 200 round bales a year and about eight ton of grain.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's not just for horses, apparently ton of grain.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's not just for horses, apparently no. And we get in a lot of senior animals because people move or retire or pass away and so we end up with a lot of those animals. They're not meant to be neglected, they're just things happen in people's lives and we're the ones who try to pick up the slack. But my last vet bill was forty nine hundred dollars. It hurt.
Speaker 2:No, I thought you need the funds right.
Speaker 3:Always, and you can donate directly to our vet or whomever if you'd rather, instead of donating through us. But we are a tax write off for those that are looking for that. You know we're happy to send you videos and pictures and we always send a thank you for supporting us letter where you get a goofy the goat of the month picture and we actually have a couple of goats with followings that people only donate to that specific goat and, yes, you can pick your goat. You can even name a goat after yourself or someone you love. We always have goats that need names because they come into us without names and we like to give everybody a name. Heck, even our turkeys have names. We have.
Speaker 3:Jeffries and Girly Girl yes, very creative. I have goats named Pickles, Whirlpool, like the washing machine, not the water. Yeah, we have some very interesting names, but we love it and we try to remember them all.
Speaker 2:Well, that's beautiful. Jennifer, we really appreciate you being on the show and, like I said, we wish you guys the best moving forward.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much, and you too Thank you for allowing us to come on and kind of talk about ourselves a little bit.
Speaker 2:No problem, thank you.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to GNPfortCollinscom. That's GNPfortCollinscom, or call 970-438-0880.