ESTACADA, Ore — Olga Dongvillo grew up in Guatemala rescuing animals with her father since she was a little girl.
“That he found in the jungle or abandoned," Olga reminisced with a smile. "From dogs to monkeys, to you name it. Then my mom would take care of them.”
Now, Dongvillo cares for over 100 animals at Kismet Farms in Estacada, Oregon.
A sanctuary named after her horse that passed away 10 years ago
“The motto of my sanctuary is a place for second chances, because most of the animals are old or they’ve been neglected.”
Which is why she goes into overdrive during the summer months to prevent them from overheating or becoming dehydrated.
“I put a fan at the end of one end of the barn, so it blows air out," Olga explained. "The chickens have a mister which is always getting them cool."
Dongvillo pays special attention to animals like her pigs, who don’t do the best in heat.
She said it's important they {the pigs} always have access to a shaded spot and pool of water to cool off in.
"Pigs don’t like to jump up into the swimming pool, so you have to dig a little bit," Olga motioned as she showed the mudholes for the pigs. "Get it low so the pig can in there, that’s the best thing to cool a pig."
Dongvillo is a doctor in homeopathic medicine, and said when temperatures get close to 100-degrees she will simply try to keep them inside or find natural ways to boost their hydration.
“I put arnica in the water and I also put something called homeopathic aloe in the water," shared Dongvillo. "It’s just to change the molecular structure of the water a little bit.”
Her friend, Kit Collins, also runs an animal sanctuary in Estacada called, "Out to Pasture Animal Sanctuary."
Dongvillo and Collins talked to KGW regarding tips on how to care for a wide variety of animals, who all have different needs during the heat.
With Collins sharing, she started taking a more aggressive approach after one of her pigs had a heat stroke.
“We have sprinklers going on. All the chickens and the turkeys, they can go in and out of it to stay cool," said Collins. "We’ve got an air conditioner for the rabbits, we’ve got them inside a stall. An air conditioner for the goats and their stalls. We’ve got mud holes for the pigs.”
Collins said the easiest way to keep your animals cool is just by continuously spraying the ground in cold water.