The name started as a joke. A coworker looked at the rotating cast of gray-muzzled dogs shuffling through Heather Broad’s house and said, “You might as well call it Farewell Farm. Everything you take in is going to die there.”

Six months later, they were all still alive. The name stuck anyway, but with a twist. FareWell Farms, because even if these animals were in their twilight years, they could still fare well with Heather.

Heather has worked in veterinary medicine long enough to know which animals fall through the cracks. It’s usually the old ones. A grandparent passes, the family can’t take the dog, and a 15-year-old Chihuahua with bad legs and a heart murmur is more than they can manage. That’s when Heather steps in.

She and her partner Jesse White run a 20-acre farm along the Comite River. Current residents: 15 dogs, nine cats, roughly 50 chickens, 35 pigs, seven Nubian milking goats, two livestock guardian dogs, and various reptiles and fish. Most of the dogs are geriatric. Several are in hospice. One is 19 years old in human years, so roughly 133 in dog years. One arrived scheduled for euthanasia and left with a heartworm treatment plan and a spot in the bed rotation.

“As long as they’re happy and healthy,” Heather says, “we’re going to do everything we can for them.”

The logistics are what you’d expect. A whiteboard tracks every medication for every animal. A shoe rack holds individual weekly pill organizers, each labeled with a name. The kitchen table hasn’t been used for eating in a while. It’s a feeding station now, with marked spots so nobody gets the wrong bowl. Morning meds and meals run 30-45 minutes. Jesse handles most of it.

Jesse came to this life through Heather, though he didn’t need much convincing. He spent years in Colorado running a nonprofit that used farm experience to teach food-desert students how to grow their own food. He knows what animals do for people. He’s currently in conversation with local psychiatrists and healthcare providers about opening the farm for low-cost therapeutic visits, caregivers and providers coming out to spend time with the animals, decompress, and remember what it feels like to hold something small and alive that isn’t suffering.

“You can’t be mad when you’re cuddling a baby pig,” he says. “That generalizes.”

If you have a senior pet, Heather has one thing to tell you: get them seen before something goes wrong, and keep them on heartworm prevention until the end.

“We see people come in all the time who figured their dog was too old to need it,” she says. “You don’t want heartworms on top of heart failure.”

FareWell Farm is on Facebook. Supplies can be dropped at the clinic. They go through eight flats of canned food and four or five 40-pound bags of dry food a month, so they’re always in need of something. A 501(c)(3) for the geriatric animal program is in the works.

The old ones, it turns out, have plenty of living left to do

Heather & Jesse’s Picks for Senior Pet Owners

When you’re managing meds and messes for fifteen geriatric dogs, you learn fast what actually works.

COCO YO Charcoal Puppy Pads (Amazon)

Their top recommendation, no contest. The activated charcoal construction means real absorption with no bunching, no leaking through, no wasted money. “Far and away superior,” Heather says. “We’ve tried so many brands.” At fifteen dogs, several of them incontinent, she has done the research so you don’t have to.

Waterproof-Cover Dog Beds (Amazon)

No specific brand required, but the waterproof cover is non-negotiable. It’s the only thing standing between a senior dog’s accidents and a ruined bed. Look for one that zips off easily for washing. Heather goes through them constantly and says it has saved her more times than she can count.

O-Cedar EasyWring Spin Mop

“The OCedar mop is my best friend.” Pair it with Cat Attack, a concentrated urine and odor eliminator, for accidents that make it past the puppy pads. Cat Attack is sold in concentrate so it goes a long way, which matters when you’re mopping daily.

Advantage Multi (prescription, ask your vet)

Moxidectin-based heartworm prevention is more forgiving than ivermectin if you run a few days late on a dose. “I want something I can feel confident about even if I don’t catch it right on time,” Heather says. For households with multiple pets or unpredictable schedules, worth asking your vet about.

ProHeart 12 (prescription, ask your vet)

One injection, once a year, done. For eligible pets, this eliminates the monthly reminder entirely. When you have fifteen dogs, Heather says, one less thing is everything.

Purina & Hill’s Senior Formulas

Tried, trusted, and vet-recommended. “Our seniors who we expected not to live very long are still thriving on them.” Sometimes the classics are classics for a reason.