BARKer Farm off the beaten path

Oct. 29—PEDRO, Ohio — Tony and Kate Barker have a skunk in their basement ... on purpose.

It's part of an important purpose, actually.

See, the Barkers were inspired during a family trip to Camden Park a few years ago, when a Honey Hill Farm petting zoo was set up in the old amusement complex near Huntington.

Their oldest son, Preston, loved interacting with llamas, goats, donkeys and chickens.

Soon after, Kate Barker Googled "petting zoos" and found very few results within a reasonable radius. At the time, they owned and operated The BARKer Shop — a pet groomer in Ironton — but they were ready to shift their focus.

"I felt like there was a need in the Tri-State area," she said.

Kate, Tony and Tony's dad, Terry, wanted to provide children with a fun, educational opportunity in the form of an unforgettable activity.

In 2017, the BARKer Farm began springing to life with wildlife. Today, you can walk out of their house and say, "It's a zoo in there," and mean it, quite literally.

Plenty of affable animals await visitors' arrival outside, too.

Today, the BARKer Farm in Pedro, Ohio — close to Lake Vesuvius — is home to 40-plus animals ranging in various levels of exoticness.

From the OG — as the kids call it these days (the original is a camel named Daniel) — to a fascinating sloth named Yeti, the BARKer Farm covers the spectrum. But they've only just begun, Kate said.

Aside from the unique animal types for this area, what else sets them apart?

"What I wanted to do was something that was 100% hands-on," she said. "When you go to a zoo, you typically don't get that opportunity."

If you get the privilege of a personal tour with Kate, she'll undoubtedly be accompanied by a tagalong kangaroo they call Emmitt. The hopping marsupial will be at her feet as she navigates the bottom floor of their home, pointing out a pair of snakes — a Boa and a Burmese Python — a hairy armadillo, a pudgy prairie dog and more.

"When Emmitt was little, he basically went in a pouch everywhere I went," Kate Barker said. "I took him on car rides, events, just had him in a pouch. He was living in our home. He had his big pouch on our closet door and he'd sleep at night."

Also in the house is the aforementioned skunk, which has perhaps the most uncoveted name of the bunch — Covid. It was named by one of the farm's Facebook followers — as was Simon Cow (influenced by famous talent show judge Simon Cowell).

Barker said Covid, who is brown and white, is litterbox-trained and "super cool."

Across from Covid is Sidney the Macaw. The 39-year-old bird is "probably our only non-friendly animal," Barker said, but she kind of keeps to herself and looks pretty with her blue wings, yellow belly, green head, black neck and white face.

Yeti is often guilty of stealing the show, though. After all, sloth encounters aren't everyday occurrences.

Native to rainforests, sloths require temperature-controlled, humid environments. The Barkers keep Yeti's enclosure 85 degrees, but she can come out and join the others in 75 degrees for certain stints.

"He'll come out and hang," Kate cracked. "(Sloths) always stay upside down. It's just how they're designed. The longer their claws, the more stability he has."

As Kate noted, the term "death grip" comes from sloths, who never let go even after dying.

"They have a fear of falling," she said. "In the rainforest, trees are 200 to 300 feet off the ground."

While the 4-year-old Yeti flies solo for now, Kate said they're looking into getting him a partner.

Another fellow resident is Rufus, a capuchin monkey.

Rufus rules the roost, so to speak, and he's Preston's favorite. Preston is 12. Younger brother Silas is 9 months.

Rufus even climbed into the bathtub with Preston recently.

While he lives loose in the home, he has his own personal playpen that extends through the ceiling of the basement and into the main floor.

When meeting a reporter on a Monday morning earlier this month, Rufus came down on a leash guided by Tony Barker. On his pedestal, Rufus wore a diaper and munched on peanuts. He won't shy away from displaying some of his tricks, such as scrolling through your phone.

"Monkeys have to be treated like children," Kate said. "If you established the pecking order at a young age for them to understand, they do fine. They're fully grown at 7 and can live up to 50 years.

"Rufus can get pretty rambunctious pretty fast," she added. "He's hands-off (for visitors) until he gets more mature."

Rufus vacations with the Barkers and accompanies them on camping, kayaking, biking and hiking trips.

While Rufus roams inside the house, plenty more creatures are moseying the acreage outside.

Each of the three owners has a particular set of chores. For Kate, it's everything inside. Tony and Terry handle the outdoor barns and animals. Terry handles much of the maintenance work, too.

Daniel the camel is originally from South Dakota. He'll turn 6 soon.

"He is super friendly, and he has a lot of followers; it's kinda funny," Kate Barker said. "A lot of people are like, 'oh, there's Daniel!'"

A white camel (Earl), Highland cow (Simon), cavies (Barnum and Bailey), guinea hens, Jessie the dog, alpacas, a white rabbit, goats and porcupines are on the land.

If porcupines wore pants, Barbie would wear them as opposed to Ken.

"She's the alpha; she tells him what to do," Barker said. "She is super friendly. People hand-feed her and stuff. Ken is not friendly."

Barbie is black with white quills. Ken is albino.

"These guys are defense-only," Barker said. "They won't go attack an animal in the wild. They eat a lot of vegetables and stuff."

Barker said cheetahs, leopards and other predators often can't catch porcupines because they're so speedy.

"They run backwards better than they run forward," she said.

One enthralling fact about porcupines is they are born with their eyes open and with their teeth and quills. They can also walk immediately, Barker said.

Barker said the next hopeful additions to the farm are a Eurasian owl and a possum.

They're able to have all of this excitement because they're USDA-licensed and they possess a wildlife permit.

"They'll come and do pop-up inspections," she said. "They're really big on enclosures, making sure everything is clean, water bowl enrichments for our monkey, stuff like that. ... They're really picky about tunnels. This guy (the armadillo) has to have a den, even though he always flips his house upside down. The skunk has to have a den, too."

Barker pointed out to a reporter a thick red binder full of emergency plans, veterinary care literature and more.

"Insurance is a challenge with the reputation of home zoos," she said. "We try to keep everything separate (home and business). Eventually we would like to have a separate building, but that's a lot of money and hasn't come yet."

Dr. Rhonda Masterson, of Somerset, Ohio, is the Barkers' veterinarian.

While the BARKer Farm isn't always open for business, it schedules several special events that are typically ticketed. On Saturday, Oct. 29, Corduroy Brown will perform during a Hocus Pocus-themed party.

The Barkers will bring a few animals on the road as well, such as to schools and churches. Schools go to them, too.

"When we do field trips, we do animal shows. It's a whole interactive show with the audience," Barker said.

This winter, they'll still conduct the sloth encounter, and they'll have nativity animals.

Follow The BARKer Farm on Facebook for all of the latest updates.

(606) 326-2664

asnyder@dailyindependent.com