The story below is from our March/April 2025 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!
Photo by Anthony Giorgetti
At Our Someday Farms, rescued animals and people alike find comfort, care and a sense of belonging.
From the street, Vinton’s Our Someday Farms appears like any house — unless you catch a glimpse of the donkeys, horses, goats, pigs and more that call it home.
From the greenway it borders, a clearer picture develops of the farm and the values of the people who run it: Lisa Santacaterina and her husband, Josh Kossman.
Just over Roanoke’s longest walking trail’s fence sits a wooden sign that features many of the farm’s animals. Beside it is a set of notebooks and pens protected by plastic, where people share their experiences as part of a project called “Shedding Your Story.”
One passage reads, “I was freshly heartbroken from my first relationship thinking many suicidal thoughts…”
SYS is also responsible for the encouraging billboards surrounding Roanoke like, “I’m not done yet. Neither are you.” It helps people who feel like they’re disposable in much the same way that Our Someday Farms does the same for animals.
Santacaterina and Kossman were living in Las Vegas when they spotted the farm for sale (with animals!) on an online listing. They upended their whole lives to make their dream of helping animals with nowhere else to go come true.
One of those animals is Mama, a donkey who came with the farm. At first very skittish, Santacaterina and Kossman have helped her warm to people enough that she’ll now allow a stranger to pet her.
Mama’s son Ray has a human friend who walks the greenway every day with a carrot in hand. Ray comes running whenever he hears him.
Charlotte was dropped off when her owners realized she wasn’t a mini potbelly pig after all. She spends her days with her friend Piggy Wiggy.
Koda, a 125-pound micro-mini donkey, wasn’t fully accepted by the standard donkeys and spends his days with Casseiopiea, Star and Luna, three young goats.
All those animals (and more!) take an enormous amount of care and resources, such as food, hay and dental and medical care.
Santacaterina and Kossman get help where they can — locals drop off carrots, apples and pumpkins — a natural pig dewormer — but since OSF is not a designated nonprofit or business, it doesn’t have all the benefits of either.
Instead, it’s an expensive passion. The couple have full-time jobs as a realtor (Santacaterina) and in FAA Technical Ops (Kossman) but spend time each night forming a relationship with each and every animal.
It’s about “creating safe spaces … I come home and feel safe here, and I take great comfort in knowing that all the animals do too … every single animal here is loved,” says Santacatarina.
“We believe that Our Someday Farms is not only a safe haven for animals but a place where the human soul begins to heal.”
The story above is from our March/April 2025 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!
