Lyric Farm

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Hi! I'm Michelle! With the help of my reluctant honey, Chris, and my longsuffering parents, I run The Refuge at Lyric Farm, a small animal sanctuary.

Lyric Farm is the home of The Refuge at Lyric Farm, a nonprofit animal sanctuary in Massachusetts dedicated to rescuing and caring for special-needs animals, while creating meaningful, hands-on experiences for people of all ages. 💜 Lyric Farm (although it was not called that at the time) got its start in 2003, when, in addition to the six rescue cats I already had, I rescued one lamb, one goat kid, and four rabbits. (Chris was completely speechless for two whole days; my parents took it in stride.) Since that time my menagerie has grown, and as of January 2020, we *finally* have our own property! In addition to selling farm fresh eggs (which we currently do), my dream is to offer opportunities for members of the public to learn about growing their own food, cooking with vegetables, preserving their harvest, caring for the types of animals we have on the farm (before they dive into keeping any for themselves), processing wool, spinning, knitting, crocheting, soap making, and cheese making, among other fun stuff! We also dream of hosting summer day camps and field trips for school groups to come learn about growing food, animal care, and both forest and wetland ecology. We are thrilled to announce that The Refuge at Lyric Farm is now a project of Players Philanthropy Fund, Inc, a Texas nonprofit corporation recognized by the IRS as a tax-exempt public charity under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code (Federal Tax ID: 27-6601178, ppf.org/pp). Contributions to The Refuge at Lyric Farm qualify as tax-deductible to the fullest extent of the law. As always, interaction with the animals is encouraged! Feel free to contact us if you are interested in volunteering as we'd love the help! In the meantime, we are continuing to make appearances with various animals from the resident herd for birthday parties, family reunions, and at places such as churches, summer camps, Vacation Bible Schools, libraries, community functions and Live Nativity presentations. Please feel free to contact us if you'd like to have us come to YOUR event! On this page you will see pictures of the critters and updates on our status as we work toward making the dream come true! (Check back later for the link to our website, which is currently under construction.)

11/01/2026

Aaron Bunn and Yumi say “Rabbit rabbit!!” 🐇🐇

May you find something to be thankful for every day of November. 🙏🏻

Today I’m thankful for a new day, and a new month. ☀️

— Michelle 💜

10/29/2026

Today was Wooly Wednesday with Wesley. 🐏

(Say that three times fast!)

10/27/2026

Glory: Look what I can do. Can you? 😛

10/27/2026

May I be transparent for a minute? 🪟

October has been a rollercoaster 🎢, and I’m beat. 😵

We’ve had additions ➕, a subtraction 💔, and I’ve been sick for over 2 weeks. 🤧😷

There have been crises 🚨, vet visits scheduled and emergent 🩺, and lots of extra work as several of our residents each did their things in VERY RAPID SUCCESSION. 😧

I’m feeling elated 😃 and heartbroken 😢, like I might finally be returning to health, yet overwhelmed by everything I wasn’t able to keep up with for the past 3 weeks (including social media posts), which makes me feel a little like a failure.

Even still, Chris and I are taking tomorrow off (with the exception of the usual feeding of all the animals, along with continuing some intensive care 🩹 and medicating the 14 animals who need it daily 💊) to do something together in celebration of my birthday 🎂, which was last week. I’m going to try not to feel guilty.

I hope you won’t hold it against me. 🙏 I’ll get back to playing catch up on Wednesday. 💪

Please enjoy these photos of Trixie trying to help me out, then deciding that maybe moral support was more useful. 🐔💞

–Michelle 💜

10/20/2026

Mercy (Mercedes) is outside for a visit with her guinea fowl friends. She's missed her friends, so these visits are important. She's not been able to walk in about two and a half weeks, but has been steadily (if slowly) improving since we started treating her for a calcium deficiency.

Mercy's ability to stand isn't the only indication of her improvement: as she has begun to feel better by degrees, so has her spiciness increased accordingly! In my experience, guinea fowl are not typically lovey-dovey cuddlers. They'd as soon beat you to death with their wings as to submit to being caught and held!

By contrast, Mercy was not happy about me getting my hands on her when she was at her worst, but she was very subdued. As she has started feeling better, her (literal) hissy fits have returned, and she pecks at my hands now when she sees me reaching toward her. These are all good signs!

10/16/2026

It has been an eventful couple of weeks! 🤪

I have lots of developments to share, but am still processing some of them myself, so I'm asking for your patience. ❤️‍🩹

I promise to fill you all in soon.

In the meantime, for your viewing pleasure, here are the results of my attempts to get a decent photo (from the front) of the strikingly handsome–yet extremely uncooperative–Adam Elijah the rooster, to use for his upcoming story feature. 🙄🐓

Michelle 💜

10/15/2026

UPDATE:
We have a potential solution! 🎉 Thank you all! 💜
——-

Will you help Mike & Roddy find a home??

This is Mike and Roddy, two once-beloved Nigerian Dwarf goats. Their person has had some significant health issues over the past year, and has spent months at a time in the hospital, so is no longer able to care for them. Since March, the person's landlord has been caring for them, but can no longer continue as he has been. The owner has given the landlord permission to rehome them.

The landlord has been in contact with me on-and-off since March, but although we have the physical space, we do not have room in our budget at this time. (Let me know if you'd like to help our budget increase so we can help more animals!)

Animal Control has been contacted, and they in turn contacted MSPCA Nevins Farm. Nevins Farm then contacted the landlord and said they were full and could not take them.

The landlord, who has become rather attached to the boys as he has cared for them, is concerned about their future (or lack thereof) if animal control takes them but has no place for them to be.

So, I am asking for help networking these adorable--friendly--little men. If you cannot help by giving them a home, will you please share this post to other groups and your personal page where their future forever people may be able to find them? They are well behaved and super sweet!

If you can help, please let me know! You can reply here to this post, email me at [email protected], or call/text me at 508-887-0065.

Many, many thanks for being part of our compassionate community!
Michelle 💜

10/15/2026

Cosmo was not on my BINGO card for this year!

If you saw my video updates the other day, you know Cosmo the goat was having difficulty breathing over the weekend, and has been having some asthma-like symptoms that started this summer, for which we’ve been treating him. One of our large animal veterinarians, Dr. Pat Crigler from EquidDoc Veterinary Services, LLC, along with assistant Abby, came out on Tuesday to do some additional diagnostics on him.

We did some radiographs (x-rays) to see what his lungs and the rest of his airway look like, some bloodwork to compare with the August results, and sent a manure sample out for f***l testing to check for internal parasites.

In the meantime, we’re kind of throwing everything but the kitchen sink at him to see if something helps. Unfortunately, those new meds are injectables, and that seems to stress him out a bit, which causes him to have a more difficult time breathing, at least for a period of time.

He breathes a little easier during the day, but the evening is when he gets medicated, so it’s hard to tell if he’s breathing harder just because it’s evening, or because of the stress from the injections. I’m adjusting how I give the injections to try to lessen his stress.

We have a lot of special-needs animals, and–sadly–there are often one or two we’re keeping closer eye on for health and/or age-related issues that may necessitate more aggressive treatment or humane euthanasia. We want to give each of them every chance, but we want them to have a good quality of life, too, and not suffer. The animals who have been on or added to our watch list this year are Wesley the sheep, Sally the goat, Alex the goat, and Red the LGD.

But Cosmo was not on my BINGO card for this year, and I’m a little blindsided–and a lot concerned–by how his condition has progressed.

Please say a prayer for healing of our sweet Cosmo. 🙏🏻

10/13/2026

They’ve still gotta eat!

Today was a day off of school for most students, and a day off of work for many adults, but this motley crew and the others not pictured need to be fed and watered and medicated everyday, no matter what the calendar says. 🗓️

We show up everyday, in weather pleasant or inclement, to make sure our charges have what they need—not only to survive, but to thrive. It’s our promise to them, and we’re keeping it.

If you got to have a break today, we hope you made the most of it and enjoyed it! ☀️ I’m sure you deserved it! (Because really, who doesn’t need a day off?? 🤷🏻‍♀️)

If you, like us, were doing the work that needs to be done to keep animals and people safe and well, we salute you! 🫡 Thank you for all you do! 💜

If you’d like something to do on a day off or just want to get involved in something worthwhile, consider becoming a volunteer—with us or with any other volunteer-run organization who may have staff who need a break once in a while. 😉 I promise you’ll be making a positive difference in many lives, not just one!

10/09/2026

It’s been a long day. This is a follow up to the (more optimistic) video update I posted earlier.

Say a little prayer for our sweet Red Boy and sweet Cosmo, please. 🙏🏻💜🙏🏻

Address

Uxbridge, MA

Website

http://lyricfarm.com/

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