Friends for life: Turtle and Meadow’s story

Our Centres are full of incredible stories. Every day, our teams care for animals that have been through immense challenges, helping them get back on their feet – or paws – or hooves!

Turtle and Meadow are just two of these animals, who found themselves in the care of our Māngere Centre in Auckland. As they began their individual healing journeys, fate stepped in to create a beautiful friendship. The rest is history!

Read on to meet these two best friends, and discover how they found one another through the magic of foster care!

Turtle came to our Māngere Centre in May 2023. Only a couple of days old, and weighing only 1.5kg, she was the size of a kitten!One of our Farm Attendants, Zoe, stepped in to foster her immediately, taking her home to bottle feed her and help her start to gain weight.

As Zoe puts it, “She became a part of the family very quickly. She came to work with me in the mornings, had lunch with the staff around the Centre, and went home with me at night for the first two weeks of her life. She was the best. At the Centre, she followed us everywhere, only ever straying a metre or two away at all times. Everyone knew and loved her.”

Once she was big enough, Turtle was housed at our Māngere Centre full-time.

While Turtle was working hard to grow into a strong, healthy goat, a small lamb was born via c-section at our Māngere Centre. Named Meadow, she experienced medical difficulties after birth, and needed to be bottle-fed as she was too weak to feed from her mum. Just like with Turtle, Zoe fostered her until she could put on enough weight to thrive.

Because of her bottle feeding and time away, Meadow wasn’t accepted back into the herd.The Centre team, alongside foster mum Zoe, continued to provide her with all the care she needed. When she was strong enough, Meadow moved to Māngere Centre too.

They say “when you know, you know,” and that was certainly the case for Turtle and Meadow! This unlikely pair clicked with each other straight away, and they were soon housed together at the Centre. They took to each other very quickly – Meadow taught Turtle how to be a real ruminant and graze in the paddocks, while Turtle taught Meadow how to play (albeit like a goat)! They were inseparable, and made an adorable pair.

Even when Meadow began to outpace Turtle’s growth, their friendship wasn’t impacted. They enjoyed each other’s company too much to let anything come between them!

As Turtle and Meadow spent their days in our Centre’s paddocks, their soon-to-be owner received an interesting message.

“We were sent an SPCA animal listing by a friend, and just couldn't pass up the duo and their cute photos,” new mum Sam tells us. “We already had some uncooperative sheep at home, and we hoped Turtle and Meadow could help socialise them. They ended up fitting in perfectly!”

Settling into their new Auckland home, Turtle and Meadow have both continued to find their own individual personalities, likes, and dislikes. “Turtle is happiest hanging out with the humans and our puppy,” Sam says, “while Meadow is almost ready to admit she’s a sheep and not a goat, spending more time with our other sheep.”

Though this last point has been a process – Meadow still sometimes thinks she’s a goat, and gets very confused when Turtle can jump over or squeeze through spaces she can’t!

Even with more space to explore and friends to be made, Turtle and Meadow haven’t let anything get in the way of their friendship. “We often take them both on walks through the farm with our puppy. They’re both so friendly, and love attention – they’ll let us know when they’re feeling left out,” Sam tells us.

Though a somewhat unorthodox pair, Turtle and Meadow are a testament to the beauty of friendship, and the strength it can offer animals on their healing journeys. Their story is also a great reminder of how important foster parents are for our animals. Turtle and Meadow are just two of so, so many animals that come to SPCA needing a soft place to land, and our foster parents are crucial in providing homes for them to recover and grow.

If you think you could offer a temporary home to one of our many animals in need, read more about fostering here – there could be a beautiful story waiting for you to complete it.