BALTIMORE — Meet the girls…
Fancy, Winnie, Sunshine, Tiny, Voodoo, Ruby, and my new best friend, Dahlia.
And their dads, Maurice Lease and Christopher King.
They all live here, at The Goat House Farm, tucked away in the northeast corner of the city.
“It's a community gathering space, and that's what we've always wanted it to be,” says Lease, co-owner of the farm. “A place where people can come and escape and get in touch with nature. And goats are not something that people in the city are often able to see.”
Maurice and Christopher moved to the farm in 2021. They got it with a friend, Dennis Krugman, who was like a father to them.
“He was going to be able to spend his last few years here,” Lease says. “Um, excuse me.”
When Dennis was diagnosed with dementia, he moved in.
“He was so proud to look out the windows and see kids playing with the goats and running up to the fence and feeding them peanuts,” Lease says. “And it made him so happy.”
On February 6, Dennis died.
“He was the backbone to The Goat House Farm, and without him, we don't know what's going to happen, 'cause it was his legacy,” Lease says.
Now they're in jeopardy of losing the house, since Dennis held the mortgage. And if that wasn't bad enough, there's more… their house is sinking.
Northeast Baltimore Goat House Farm could be in danger
“When you take a step back and you look and you see that none of your doorways are straight,” King says. “All of your moldings around all of your doorways are crooked, and you feel like a crooked man in a crooked house.”
It will cost about $150,000 to repair the foundation and all of the damages. They've got about two months to get the house fixed and get a new mortgage.
“Now, without Dennis' support, we could lose everything that we've put into the house,” Lease says. “And the community will lose the goats.”
They're selling off some of the antiques in their home. Even held a bake sale with Dennis' favorite, chocolate chip cookies with M&Ms.
“It's like, how do you pick up the pieces and move on?” King asks. “It's like we lost our dad, even though he wasn't our biological father, and our best friend.”
If they lose the farm, the girls will go to a goat sanctuary. They're hoping, though, that somehow, they'll all get rescued.
If you'd like to help, they've started a GoFundMe.
