GROVER - Out on the eastern Colorado plains, the summer sun beats down on a nearly treeless landscape and the unfettered winter wind can howl like a banshee.

It's that winter wind, which can bring with it frigid temperatures and six-foot-high snow drifts, that's worrying Floss Blackburn these days. Blackburn, owner and founder of Denkai Animal Sanctuary about 10 miles northwest of Grover in Weld County, wonders how she's going to feed and care for the horses, goats, sheep, pigs, llamas and other critters she's taken in from owners that have neglected or abandoned them.

She points to a small pile of hay on her 640-acre sanctuary. "This hay we have will last about another three weeks and that's it," she says wearily. "It's not just about rescuing the animals. It's feeding and maintaining them."

Blackburn recently lost the use of her tractor and now has to feed the animals and clean out their pens by hand. That's tough in the summer, but a nearly impossible task when the ground is covered with deep snow.

Blackburn, 30, runs Denkai - named after her two kids, Denali and Kaia - pretty much by herself with the help of occasional volunteers and kids from troubled youth programs. "Animals are really good for rehabilitation," she said.

In the year and a half since she purchased the former buffalo ranch, she said she's never missed a mortgage payment or taken a paycheck. But the economic downturn has resulted in a big drop in donations and she recently sent out an appeal for help to keep the sanctuary going.

"We are down to the last of our hay, grain and salt blocks," she wrote to friends, supporters and the media. "All of these are absolute necessities for the livestock and horses in our care. This is a critical time for the sanctuary."



Sweet Pea inspiration

Blackburn, a native of Utah, came to Northern Colorado to go to college and eventually started volunteering for a no-kill shelter in Windsor. That's where she met and adopted Sweet Pea, a miniature horse that still roams the sanctuary and can't run away because its owner failed to trim its hooves. The hooves turned under, eventually making it difficult and painful for her to walk.

"She's the reason I started all this," Blackburn says, stroking the little horse's mane. "She will never be normal."

Blackburn said she's hoping to get a cart that Sweet Pea can fit her front legs into and push herself with her back legs. If that doesn't work, then Sweet Pea will probably have to be euthanized, she said, explaining that "sometimes it's just in the animal's best interest to put them down."

Despite the problems facing her, Blackburn remains energetic and positive. "It's been nonstop work, but I do it because it's something I do well and I enjoy it."

She has many friends and supporters who have helped keep the sanctuary afloat over the last four years. Michael Suit, a Loveland veterinarian, has been providing low-cost services to the sanctuary. Suit said he often gets calls from people who want to help abandoned animals but don't understand the hard realities. He said Blackburn is someone who truly gets how difficult it can be.

"She's got a huge heart and is dedicated to helping those animals, but she's also very realistic in knowing that sometimes you have to euthanize them," he said. "She takes my advice and works with me and listens to me. All of these things have made me stick with her."

Suit has seen the sanctuary in its previous locations at Ault, Nunn and Carr and now, since May 2008, the sprawling place on a dead-end road about 10 miles northwest of Grover. He credits its success entirely to Blackburn: "She's got a greater vision in her head and she doesn't easily get discouraged."



Future vision

That vision is captured in Blackburn's 30-year master plan for Denkai with the help of Drawings by Vaught Frye Ripley Design in Fort Collins show a visitor center, youth housing, barn, a pond for the ducks and geese, and other amenities to attract visitors and volunteers.

Innes Henderson, project manager with Vaught Frye Ripley, said the company does pro bono work for community nonprofits and was immediately attracted to Denkai's vision and mission.

"For us, it's a very stimulating project to be involved with, especially when it's a nonprofit doing very important work," he said. "We're looking forward to helping her turn these goals into reality."

Meanwhile, there's another winter bearing down in a few months. Blackburn said hay is especially needed, even hay that got wet early this summer. "We can use that because 90 percent of it is fine and we can provide a tax write-off (for a donation)," she said.

But hay is just the beginning. A tractor is another huge need. "If we go into winter without a tractor, we're dead meat," she said.

Other needs are listed on the sanctuary's website, www.denkaisanctuary.org.

Despite her constant smile, Blackburn acknowledges things have never been so tough and the future so cloudy. "Sometimes the stress just knocks me out. It's so exhausting."

But at her core she remains optimistic that the four-year-old sanctuary - and its residents - will survive.

"Financially, it's probably our worst moment," she said. "But I think it'll come back up. It just takes time to get the word out."

For more information about Denkai Animal Sanctuary, visit the website or call 970-895-2337.