ATHABASCA — Athabascan Jim Marks learned social media can make a huge splash, even in a small pond.
Three years ago, Marks saw a Facebook post that caught his eye. A local woman and her young son were in search of a temporary caregiver for a small, seemingly malnourished duckling separated from his family.
“My daughter and I went and got it and we brought it home,” said Marks. “He was pretty tiny, a lot smaller than what he should have been according to his colour and a guess of his age.”
After a quick physical examination to rule out injury or deformity, the Marks family gave the wild duckling, now dubbed Fluffy, a balanced diet of grains, bugs, and grass. A few days later, Fluffy was well enough to be released into the backyard pond, where he was adopted by another family of ducks.
Come autumn, Fluffy and his newfound family migrated south for the approaching winter. But that wasn’t the last the Marks’ would see of their tiny rescue duckling.
“The following year he came back, and we could tell it was him because he was smaller than the other ducks,” said Marks. “He would also come up to us, we would throw him bread and he was the only one that wouldn’t fly away.
“He kept coming back, year after year,” said Marks, noting this summer was the third return visit Fluffy had made to their pond. “This year, he had a mate, and he was even smaller than the female … and this year he had his own babies.”
In full circle fashion, Marks made a mid-September Facebook post about Fluffy’s success story, and the update garnered more than 240 reactions and comments combined. He said while he hasn’t heard from the woman and son who originally found Fluffy, many — including his daughter, now at university — are invested in the tiny duckling.
“Every time I see him, she’s the first to find out,” said Marks. “She loves Fluffy.”
A new calling
Now, three years later, the Marks’s property has been transformed from 19 acres of unfenced pasture and unused outbuildings into a permanent home for an abundance of animals.
Thistle Ridge Ranch, located east of Hwy 827 down Township Road 661, is the epitome of a second chance rescue farm.
“It has been a tremendous amount of work,” said Marks. “I started two winters ago, I spent two winters north of Wandering River in the bush cutting rails so I could build fences.”
Marks was in the market for a riding horse, but in a stroke of fate he came across a social media post about what would become Thistle Ridge Ranch’s inaugural resident: a pregnant Shetland pony named Star.
“I drove down to Drayton Valley and picked her up, she was an abused mare and kind of neglected,” said Marks. “Since then, we have brought in four other ponies that needed a new home for various reasons.”
Star, Ember, Smoky, Cindy, and Autumn cohabit the Marks's farm with 9 friendly goats, a large chatty pig dubbed Roscoe, a pen full of vocal ducks and geese, a litany of multi-coloured rabbits, and Freckles, who Marks describes as “The oldest sheep on the planet.”
“We’ve gone all over to bring these animals here and give them a home when people just couldn’t take care of them anymore,” said Marks, noting the ranch does not take dogs and cats.
Though not all of Thistle Ridge’s residents experienced neglect or abuse, each of the animals has been given a new life. The same goes for the fencing material, which Mark’s harvested himself or reused from other local barns, buildings, and even outhouses.
And more than the animals and wood, Thistle Ridge represents Marks’ new life as well. Previously injured in a car accident while residing in Manitoba, the rancher travelled a hard road of rehabilitation before becoming able-bodied again, eager to return to his outdoor lifestyle.
Mark’s ultimate goal is to turn Thistle Ridge Ranch into an Old West themed petting zoo, complete with pony rides and merchandise and open to any groups or individuals to help offset the costs of caring for his animals.
A grand opening in August was Thistle Ridge’s soft launch to locals, but true to his style, Marks’ has a TikTok account for the ranch he said garners support and attention from far and wide.
Followers and viewers make cash donations for food and send gifts for their favourite animals, help which Marks said is very much welcome. He funds Thistle Ridge himself, but with the support of his social media following and potential donations from future petting zoo guests, he hopes to give new homes and new lives to as many animals as he can.
To realize his vision, Marks is fundraising for a trailer in order to transport more animals to the ranch. Thistle Ridge’s GoFundMe page can be found here, and his TikTok handle is thistleridge2023.
“Fluffy was the first. I wouldn’t want to say he was an experiment; we didn’t know it would go any further than that,” said Marks. “At that point, I wasn’t even considering having a full-blown rescue. We were just doing it because we love animals.”
Lexi Freehill, TownandCountryToday.com
