Smith: Farmer Vic’s vanishing farm a cautionary tale

If you’ve traveled lately on Shiloh Road, between the county airport and Windsor, you’ve seen that the hooved and feathered family of the late Vic Pozzi is vanishing.

The Brahman cattle that were the biggest stars of Farmer Vic’s mellow mini-zoo have moved to Mark West Springs Road. “They get to stay together as the family they were,” said Vic’s son-like friend, Dean Crothers.

Vic’s sheep were picked up by a rancher who keeps flocks near the Sonoma Raceway and in Oregon and Colorado. Crothers, a captain with the Windsor fire company that Vic co-founded, said the emus have been parceled out to new homes and so have most of the domestic geese.

“I’m down to about 17 of them, which is big,” he said. “There was a whole gaggle of them.”

Crothers is as sad as anyone to see the departure of the animals long beloved by Vic and legions of visitors and passers-by. The ranch “was such an icon of Windsor,” he said.

But his friend, who was 83 when he died Oct. 4 from complications of a stroke, left behind no instructions on what should happen with his animals or the land. Crothers said he tried to persuade Vic, a lifelong bachelor, to write down his preferences, but he wouldn’t do it.

So the animals must be farmed out to the last one and Vic’s kin have no guidelines from him as they decide what to do with the land. Crothers sees a lesson here for everyone with assets and no chance of living forever: “If nothing else, make your wishes known.”

A NEW HEART is a necessity for 5-year-old Aiden Hansen, an adorable Santa Rosa kid who’s waiting for his name to move up a transplant list.

The surgery will be hugely expensive and a special show for children - “Celebrate a Joyful Heart,” Nov. 8 at Sonoma Country Day School - will help raise some money. Tickets are at brownpapertickets.com and at the door.

Magic, music, circus acts, Scottish dancing, storytelling - it will do little ones’ hearts good.

Chris Smith is at 707-521-5211 and chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com.