The Critters of Lyon Ranch

Once an animal comes to live with us they are considered a permanent resident/family member and will never be rehomed.

Do you want to meet the Lyon Ranch animals in person? Contact us today or explore our animal services in depth, now offered through The Animal People!

Lyon Ranch was recently approved for several new species permits- including ferrets! We now have two ambassador rescue ferrets that are so much fun. Ferrets sleep approximately 20 hours a day but they make those 4 hours count with tons of trouble.

A ferret sleeping on a dark fabric surface.

Winnie the Pooh

Zuri is a serval kitten, one of the newest members of the Lyon Ranch family, and still has a lot of growing left to do. The name Zuri means "beautiful" in Swahili, while in Hebrew, it's a variant meaning "my rock" or "my strength".

We should have named him Trouble.

A serval cat lying on a colorful tropical-patterned blanket on a carpeted floor, looking at the camera.

Zuri

Patches is the sweetest rescue hedgehog who just wants to hang out and eat mealworms. Despite being relatively pokey, Patches does enjoy the occasional cuddles with his caregivers.

Close-up of a hedgehog resting, showing its face and spines.

Patches

Freddy the camel is one of the only non-rescue animals at Lyon Ranch and was actually a generous gift to our therapy program from Freddy Feldmesser- a friend of Lyon Ranch. Freddy Feldmesser appreciated the charity work Lyon Ranch was doing by bringing camels and other unique animals into pediatric hospice care and senior care homes and chose to gift us another ambassador camel. Freddy the camel is sweet as can be and loves playing with his best friend ZZ the zebra donkey.

Gabriel is an umbrella cockatoo who was born July 5, 1991. This means that Gabriel is over 30 years old! Umbrella cockatoos are known to live as long as 80 years in captivity and we hope that Gabriel will too. Gabriel loves to laugh, imitate the barking of small dogs, and can say a number of phrases.

Close-up of a white macaw with black eyes and a hooked beak, sitting indoors on a green surface.

Gabriel

Dude is a frilled-neck lizard, a species native to northern Australia and southern New Guinea, and known for the frills normally folded at the lizard’s neck. During social encounters this animal will erect its frills into an impressive display to communicate a number of behaviors.

Close-up of a brown and gray lizard on a wooden surface.

Dude

Freddy

Close-up of a small, furry animal, possibly a ferret or a young mammal, resting on a person's arm.

Dr. Nicholas Geist

Meet Dr. Nicholas Geist Ph.D., but you can call him “Nick” or “Dr. G.". Nick is named after a brilliant Sonoma State University professor of Paleobiology and functional morphology of vertebrates, evolution of reproductive behavior in reptiles, evolutionary biology of archosaurs, western pond turtle (WPT) biology/conservation, and freshwater ecology/restoration. This amazing creature is called a bush baby and is a small primate from Africa. Fun fact: Bush babies are more closely related to modern lemurs than other types of primates such as chimpanzees or gorillas!

Meet Flopsy the rescue rabbit! Flopsy was confiscated from an abusive home situation and came to Lyon Ranch through our friends at Oakland Animal Services. Despite the neglect he suffered, Flopsy is one of the sweetest and most outgoing rabbits you’ll ever meet.

A white and tan rabbit with one ear up and one ear down sitting on a wooden table. It is about to eat a peeled banana being held by a hand. In the background, there is a gray couch and a fish tank.

Flopsy

Rescued from the pet trade, Critter has been a wonderful addition to the rescue. This round little skunk loves to play with his best friend Dubie, a rescued creek kitten who couldn’t be happier to welcome Critter into his home. These best friends for life are usually either playing or sleeping together. Critter is one of our many ambassador animals and helps us to educate people about the benefits of having skunks in your backyard. Love to garden? Skunks will eat snails, slugs, and other critters that are considered garden pests.

A small ferret with light brown and white fur sniffing purple flowers among green leaves.

Critter

Dotty is a saanen goat who came to Lyon Ranch due to a number of health concerns. Now that Dotty has recovered she is the leader of our rescue/dairy goat herd. The milking goats at the ranch are used to raise orphaned or sick animals such as other goat breeds, cows, sheep, and even fennec foxes.

Close-up of a white goat's face with light brown eyes, large ears, and small horns, standing on a ground covered with wood chips or bark.

Dotty

In east African folklore, the Nandi bear is a creature said to live in East Africa. It takes its name from the Nandi people who live in western Kenya, in the area the Nandi Bear is reported from. Our Nandi bear comes from Northern California but he acts much more like your common house cat. We like to say that Nandi is the best and worst serval you will ever meet because of his unique desire to show humans affection- a trait that no other serval in the wild or captivity has been known for. While this makes Nandi the “least serval-like” cat you could meet this also means that he is one of our star ambassador animals. Nandi has even made television appearances on Conan and Creature Feature!

A serval cat wearing a red harness, sitting indoors with a blurred background.

Nandi

Lyon Ranch is home to over 30 pigeons, all of which were rescued by our friends over at Oakland Animal Services. People often don’t realize that domestic pigeons are unable to fend for themselves in the natural world, and it can be difficult to tell whether a pigeon is “tame” or “wild”. Many of our birds were found in a public park!

A puffin bird with black and white feathers, a colorful beak, sitting on a nest made of straw inside a wooden nesting box.

Pigeons

Meet Mimzy the Scottish Highland mini cow! Scottish highland cattle are known to be sweet and affectionate animals and are most commonly kept as pets rather than meat cows. Mimzy lives at Lyon Ranch with his friend Clover in a pasture right up front to let our cows greet people and interact with us throughout the day.

Close-up of a light-colored baby cow standing on dry ground outdoors.

Mimzy

Meet Brock! Brock is one of the many rescue birds living at Lyon Ranch and is one of our star Ambassador Animals due to his love of humans and desire to show off. Cockatiels are amazing little parrots that are capable of learning to mimic human speech and can even whistle songs.

A cockatiel perched on a person's finger inside a house.

Brock

Daisy is the sweetest little lamb you’ll ever meet and one of the newest residents at Lyon Ranch. After being rejected by her mom, Daisy came to live at our rescue, and is now being bottle fed along with her best friend Flower the angus cow. Flower and Daisy share a barn stall and sleep snuggled together every night.

A small baby goat with a white face and ears is being held in a person's arms inside a vehicle, with the vehicle's interior visible in the background.

Daisy

Flower is one of our newest rescues and came to us only hours after being born and rejected by her mother. Lyon Ranch has a herd of milking goats and Flower has been getting 3 bottles of fresh goat milk every day. Flower’s best friend is another new arrival, Daisy the lamb, and the two spend almost every minute of the day cuddled up together. Flower is an angus cow, commonly bred for meat, but this cow will never be on the menu as she is now a forever family member at Lyon Ranch Rescue and Therapy Animals.

A black calf wearing a blue plaid blanket walking on dirt ground with rocks and straw.

Flower

Lyon Ranch adopted three peachicks in the summer of 2024 and they’re growing up so fast! It takes around 2 years for a peacock to fully mature and we’re lucky to have these birds at a young enough age to hand tame them. Our peacocks will fly on to your hand! We’ve named our peacocks after Daenerys’ dragons in Game of Thrones- Drogon, Rhaegal, and Viserion. The peachick featured here is Viserion while he enjoys a peacock’s favorite method of grooming; a dust bath!

A dead bird, possibly a peacock or similar exotic bird, lying on the ground amidst dirt and small rocks.

Peacocks!

Brutus is a black and white Argentinian tegu and is about 4.5 feet long from snout to tail. Don’t be fooled by his size, Brutus is a sweet lizard who loves being snuggled.

A wild black and white patterned lizard with a colorful harness and leash, lying on a paved surface.

Brutus

Bert (bearded dragon) was kept by two people who loved him and decided to surrender Bert when they became unable to provide him the care they felt he deserved. Lenore (iguana, aka Star) was rescued from an abusive situation by a woman who then provided her excellent quality of life and even slept in bed with her rescuer every night. Lenore was surrendered by her rescuer when she became unable to continue caring for her. Bert and Lenore fell in love with each other and can be found cuddling almost 24/7 in the kitchen window sill.

Two large lizards, possibly iguanas, resting next to each other on a green cloth surface.

Bert & Lenore

Fennec foxes are a favorite at Lyon Ranch! Fin is the sixth fennec to arrive at our facility after being rescued from the pet trade. Fennecs are highly social animals and Fin’s best friend is a 15 year old fennec named Kiwi. In the wild fennecs typically live ~5 years and captive fennecs have been known to live ~9 years.. this means that our Kiwi girl is a rather distinguished old girl! Fin is one of our main ambassador animals and does a great job of representing fennecs! Did you know that “fennec” actually means fox?

A light-colored puppy with large ears, lying on a green fabric chair, looking up with its paws together.

Fin

Our somewhat spicy but oddly charming Ze-donk, came to Lyon Ranch in 2003. His unplanned conception at the ranch where he was born was the result of a one-night stand between a donkey and a zebra. He was given to Lyon Ranch because at the time he was deemed 'valueless,' though a few years later hybrids like the ze-donk became overnight sensations. Donkeys are affectionate animals, and so is ZZ, but sometimes he remembers that he’s half zebra and that makes ZZ an excellent companion animal to our camel, Freddy.

ZZ Top

Our emu is named Doris, which suits his fabulous personality to a T! Doris was found racing around a golf course in a panic after being hit by a car. Once a group of volunteers managed to corral him, Doris was checked by a vet and brought to Lyon Ranch. Despite his rough start Doris has proven to be very affectionate and curious.

Doris

As a kitten, Dubie was spotted on top of a fence post by Kellen, and Kellen actually managed to catch Dubie by hand. We brought Dubie back to Lyon Ranch, gave him a bath, and he immediately started purring when Lynette was drying him off. It was love at first sight for Lynette and Dubie. Benny (Dubie’s brother) was caught a few days later by the Lyon Ranch team and Benny now lives at the rescue as well. Dubie’s best friend is our skunk named Critter and you can usually find the two of them playing or cuddled up together.

A gray tabby cat lying on a beige carpet, looking at the camera with wide eyes.

Dubie

All animals are welcome at Lyon Ranch and that includes guinea pigs. Hubert, Hank, and Mr. Pickles are our three resident guinea pigs who were all rescued from poor housing situations with health conditions. All three guinea pigs are now thriving together and get fresh garden produce every day.

Close-up of a tricolor guinea pig with black, white, and orange fur, resting on a soft, brown blanket.

Hubert

Wally is a “free” craigslist cat. At the age of 5, Wally was abandoned at a home that then listed him on craigslist for free with no questions asked about the quality of life he would receive. After Rebecca and Kellen brought Wally home they quickly learned that Wally was sick with a viral infection, had tapeworms, needed dental care, and was not neutered. Several vet visits later, Wally is healthy and now spends his days in the main ranch house with his forever family of humans and cats.

A tabby cat with a collar that has a name tag reading "Wallace." The cat is lying on a dark fabric surface in a room with wooden furniture in the background.

Wallace (aka Wally)

After being abandoned outside of a shelter Stanley spent several months convincing the shelter staff that he was not a feral cat. Stanley is shy at first, but once he warms up to you, he’s the most loving and affectionate cat. Stanley’s best friend is a younger cat named Benny who was rescued from a creek by our team and also lives at Lyon Ranch with his brother Dubie.

An orange tabby cat lying on a patterned bed, looking directly at the camera.

Stanley

All proper ranches have a horse, of course, and at Lyon Ranch we have quite a few! Our small equine herd consists of a standard horse (an off the track rescue), two mini donkeys and four mini horses that have come from a variety of backgrounds where they all needed loving homes. Many of our hooved friends are now in their senior years and delighted to live out their retirement in the grassy four-acre pasture. Our mini horse named “Muppet” is in his 40’s!

Two horses standing on a grassy field under a large leafy tree.

Horses galore!

Close-up of two donkeys at a farm, one with its nose pressed against the camera lens, and a horse in the background on the left, with trees and a fence on a sunny day.

Bevy and Emmy

Benny is named after “Benthic macroinvertebrates” - these are the tiny creatures that lack a spine and live in creek habitats. Benny was found in an overgrown creek with his brother Dubie- both of which were extremely ill and malnourished. Lyon Ranch adopted these creek twins and both are thriving at the rescue. Benny’s best friend is another rescue cat named Stanley while Dubie’s best friend is our skunk named Critter!

Close-up of a tabby cat lying on a couch with green eyes looking at the camera, resting its head and paws on the edge of the sofa.

Benny

Crusader went through five homes before he was a year old with the excuse that he was always getting too big. Well a big dog certainly fits in perfectly at the Lyon Ranch since we have four of them. Sometimes it feels like we're bursting at the seams with our pack of pups, but they do help us out by patrolling the property and being wonderfully sweet.

Crusader

Beverly (or Bevy) and Emmy are our two rescue mini donkeys. Many people don’t know just how sweet donkeys can be and these two are perfect examples. Any time we are out near the horse/donkey pasture we can expect to see the faces of these two at our gate waiting to say hello.

Doodle was born in a shelter before being adopted out to a home for two years. Eventually Doodle was returned to the shelter due to her health issues. Doodle had all of her teeth pulled (except her top and bottom canines) and spent 9 months at the shelter waiting for a new home. Lyon Ranch’s employees Rebecca and Kellen brought Doodle home and now this silly polydactyl (five and a half-toed) cat has found her forever family. While she can be very affectionate, Doodle is described as being a spicy kitty, and is easily the “most dangerous” animal we work with weighing in at only 6 pounds.