As an Emmy-award-winning Hollywood casting director for over 30 years, Nikki Valko Patterson was responsible for shows like Two and a Half Men, Big Bang Theory, and Ally McBeal.
Until 2020, when she and her husband, John Patterson, took a pivot.
"It was the pivot of all time!" Nikki told KCLU.
"Huge pivot considering what we were doing at the time," said John. "I worked for the UN, and Nikki worked in the entertainment industry, and we came here with no knowledge but a lot of interest and passion."
Now, they have a cast of hundreds of rescue farm animals at their ranch in the Santa Ynez Valley.
"If you think it's hard to re-home a cat or a dog, try re-homing a goat or a cow. We provide a forever home here for abandoned, neglected, and re-homed farm animals," said Nikki.
Farm animals like Scout—a Jersey cow they rescued and bottle-fed, or Harvey, a donkey who was named after the hurricane he survived, before ending up in a kill shelter and then being rescued to the Santa Ynez Valley.
They admitted that going from high-pressure careers to running a non-profit animal rescue has been a learning curve.
"I had no experience with farm animals at all except seeing them from the freeway, that's about it," said John.
"It gave us the opportunity with this pivot to learn a whole other skill set. You know, the world of non-profit, how that works, the world of animals, and learning how to care for them, what it takes. And so it was a great opportunity to be able to start a whole new venture at this point," said Nikki.
"I had to do a goat enema, so that was a first for me, to tell you the truth," admits John.
You’d imagine that big personalities are the domain of Hollywood stars. Still, here at Martha’s Farm Animal Sanctuary—named after Nikki’s mother—she says the animals have big and unique personalities.
"Much like people, every animal, even every farm animal, has a unique personality. And that was really a revelation. But they have wonderful personalities, and they're all different. And they have a lot of intelligence," said Nikki. "We want to foster the human-animal connection for wellness purposes, because being around animals will bring down your blood pressure. It helps with stress. That is the plan. That is vision. That is the mission. Helping animals AND people, and there's a connection there," she told KCLU.
"My previous job was all about building relationships and trust with people. In this situation, it's the same thing, except it's a whole different other cast of characters," she said.
And they may have swapped the red carpets for a much dustier path, but Nikki’s got some star names to put up auction items for their current fundraiser which they hope will continue to support their mission.
