Our story starts, as all good adventures do, with a chance encounter…

It was the spring of 2010, when founder, Kurt Andernach was at his local coffee shop waiting patiently for the double Espresso to slowly drip into a tiny cup, when he casually mentioned that he’d been dreaming for years of waking up to the sound of a crowing rooster. Suddenly, a big smile broke out on the owner’s face. “You can have free Espressos for the rest of your life,” he proclaimed, on one condition. “You need to give a home to a beloved rooster, I know. He is in danger of being killed by angry neighbors who want his crows silenced forever.”

Three days later, Henry and his lovebird Henrietta were nestling safe and sound in the little coop Kurt had quickly built for them inside his woodshed. Not long after Henry and Henrietta had arrived, the same coffee shop barista asked Kurt jokingly if he was ready to rescue 3 Goat kids. “They are easier to keep than Dogs…”, were the words that changed Fleck, Liesel and Moritz’ destiny from the butcher’s knife to a life of exploring the cliffs and ravines in the woods.

Within no time, Kurt was approached by community members with heartbreaking animal stories. There were Gertrude and Gottlieb, once the family’s cute little gooselings, now more synonymous with attack Dogs. Chasing everything and everybody, attempting to enter the yard. Sylvia, Snickers and Sophia, 3 Ducks that were left to their own devices after the owners just moved way. In the Fall of 2013, Kurt learned about the culling of the wild hybrid Turkeys on Staten Island. After endless talks with the Department of Environmental Conservation and only because of the incredible negotiation skills of the Director of the NYS Chapter of the Humane Society of America, was Kurt able to convince the authorities to pursue a humane solution to the Turkey problem on Staten Island and release the Birds into his care.

These are a few of the countless stories of how animals have found their way to And-Hof.