"When they brought her in, everyone was crying." These animals were dying, but now videos of them get up to 10 million views.

In the Chernyavsky family, it's perfectly normal to travel hundreds of kilometers to buy a dying old animal , feed a newborn piglet every two hours with a pipette, help fledglings thrown out of the nest, and, above all, make people happy and healthy. To meet these amazing people and their equally incredible pets—birds and animals—we went to the village of Tividovka in the Molodechno district.
"The first one we bought was a foal that was written off for slaughter."

At the "Childhood Dream" agro-tourism estate, the first to greet us is a large, light-colored dog, wagging its tail. "

How could it be otherwise? He's the DIRECTOR ," Anastasia Chernyavskaya, the farm's owner, introduces Umka with a smile, explaining: "If he snuggles up to your feet, it means he's made friends, you're a kind person."
This happens in just a few minutes, and we conclude: we're welcome here. No aggression, just curiosity: who's visiting us today?

The Chernyavskys always have plenty of guests, especially in the warmer months. Everyone comes with their own interests: to interact with the animals, ride horses and ponies, take lots of photos with the farm's wonderful inhabitants, or give away a poor gosling, duckling, rabbit, or roe deer.

The Chernyavskys registered their farm six years ago. They planned to breed horses and provide related services: horseback riding lessons, hippotherapy, and so on. But man proposes, and life intervenes. Very soon, the estate also became a place for the rehabilitation and rescue of both domestic and wild animals.
Having her own horse was Anastasia's childhood dream. After graduating from high school, she enrolled in Borisov Pedagogical College, and as a qualified preschool teacher, she was assigned to Olekhnovichi, where she met her future husband, Yuri. With him, she was able to realize her dream and also become a mother of three daughters.

As a large family, they purchased a house in the village of Tividovka in the Molodechno district with a government loan and began furnishing it, raising animals along the way.

"We didn't have the money for a thoroughbred racehorse, so our first purchase was a foal named Laska, who we'd written off as a slaughter horse ," Anastasia recalls. "With him, we learned how to care for horses. And even then, we realized that rescued animals are grateful; he understands us better."
The Chernyavskys currently own 30 hectares of land and hope to soon receive another plot from the local authorities. A large farm requires substantial land: warm and spacious stables, paddocks for walks, and fields for growing fodder. Today, their herd includes almost 50 horses, as well as ponies, cows, camels, a llama, pigs, sheep, goats, ostriches, geese, chickens, ducks, a heron, storks... A rather large mini-menagerie, complete with domestic and wild animals and birds.

"The parents are delighted, the doctors are reporting positive progress."

All the horses at the Chernyavsky farm are ordinary, of unknown breed, a sort of "mixed-breed noblemen," but they are reliable workers.

"Hippotherapy is best with them," Anastasia emphasizes. "For this treatment, you need small animals with a strong psyche, who are not afraid of anything."
Five children, most of whom have been diagnosed with cerebral palsy, are being treated here through rides in the saddle and interaction with the horses. A hippotherapy specialist, who comes to the village from MINSK, works with them.

"The children have been training for a year and a half. The parents are delighted, the doctors are reporting positive progress, and they recommend it to others, but we can't take more at the moment," Anastasia laments, adding: "The children come to us with pleasure. They are even willing to endure painful procedures at the clinic for this. But when they mount a horse, they forget all the bad things, hug them, and rejoice."

Once a week, up to 50 residents of the Molodechno Social Services Center visit the farm.

"We give them combs and brushes, and they groom our horses. Then we go for a ride in a carriage or on horseback, and have a picnic. Everyone leaves us happy. They're such warm-hearted people. They give us emotions, and we give them emotions, and we recharge from each other," Anastasia smiles.

The Chernyavskys also have a good partnership with the Vileyka Boarding School and the Red Cross Society.

"We never turn anyone away," the owner of the estate emphasizes. "We organize charity events together.

That's why we have a lot of volunteers helping out in this good cause. They're even willing to take time off work when a whole busload of special children is waiting at the farm."
Anastasia shared her plans to build an indoor arena. Then other opportunities will open up.

"Right now, we're dependent on the weather." If there's rain, strong wind, or snow, excursions are cancelled. With the arena, we'll be provided with work year-round.

There aren't any funds for this yet. The family's main expense is already the animals.

"We attend births and provide emergency first aid."

Looking at the clean, energetic animals and birds, you imagine that a large team of workers cares for them. In fact, the Chernyavskys handle everything themselves: Anastasia, her husband Yuri, their three daughters—Polina, Maria, and Yulia—and their son-in-law, Alexander.

"We have a close-knit family," the owner of the estate says proudly. "The responsibilities are divided like this. The girls..."Caring for small rodents and birds: rabbits, chickens... The parents look after larger animals: cows, pigs, horses...
The adults rise every day at six in the morning. Besides feeding, watering, and cleaning up after themselves, every living creature also needs affection: a scratch behind the ear or a pat on the face. Even the Chernyavskys' geese love to cuddle.

During foaling, lambing, calving, and hatching seasons, Anastasia and her husband can go days without sleep.

"It's important to put in the effort to keep the offspring healthy. We attend births, provide first aid, administer injections and IVs. Then we rest until we make hay," the owner explains, understanding that this is a relative break, as farmers don't have weekends, vacations, or sick leave.

But looking at the smiling, beautiful woman, a mother of three and already a grandmother, you understand: Anastasia may get tired physically, but never mentally.
“I’m from the countryside. My mother had a rather large farm. Of course, I imagined what it would be like to care for a large number of animals. But if you’d told me I’d have so many, I wouldn’t have believed it. Sometimes you can barely drag yourself home in the evening. And in the morning you read an ad that they’re selling a goat for MEAT, and you think: who would eat such a beauty? And you go buy it,” the owner admits.

“I’m showing everything as it is, I’m not making anything up.”

Many residents of Belarus and other countries know about the estate “Childhood Dream” from near Molodechno.Anastasia's TIKTOK and Instagram accounts.

"I fed the animals and filmed them eating. I talked about their habits and characteristics. I got a new pet and posted a video about it," the blogger and farmer shares her secret to creating content, noting that she shows everything as it is, without making anything up.

Anastasia's sketches about the everyday life of the estate and its inhabitants are heartfelt and cheerful. People remember the animals' names and stories, and become more interested in them. And then they come to the farm: "We're following you."
Videos featuring stories about abandoned animals who have suffered at the hands of cruel people attract up to 10 million views.

Katya the horse is a legend. She died in January, having lived with the Chernyavskys for two years, although veterinarians predicted she would only live two days.

"An ordinary village horse, she served people all her life, plowing the land. When she got old, her owners no longer needed her." Kind people bought her from them and brought her to us,” Anastasia briefly recounts the life story of the four-legged worker. “Katya’s condition was depressing: a shell had formed from the manure on her fur,Her hooves were too big, so she could barely walk. She also had back and joint problems—a sick 30-year-old woman. She came to us with tears in her eyes, probably thinking they would do something bad to her. She didn't drink or eat. I sat in her stall all night, calming her down. I showed her on social media how we washed her, cleaned her, how her heart thawed. When she started walking with the herd, she made a friend, a horse named Marusya. Katya was special—golden, with curly hair and big eyes. She left in love and without hatred for people—that's the most important thing. Katya the horse served as hope for everyone: there is good in this world, and it comes back like a boomerang.

Another story with a happy ending about a 30-year-old donkey, Mira. She served in the Pskov Circus, then, due to hoof inflammation, was sold to donkey breeders, where she produced offspring until she became a bedridden invalid.

"We saw an ad for a donkey for slaughter. My husband went and bought her. Honestly, when they brought her, we all cried," Anastasia recalls that moment of meeting. "Half of her side was simply rotted away from bedsores, the skin eaten away by lice and ringworm. We cared for her, treated her, taught her to walk again. Now she's a respected retired old lady. And now she has a new friend – the mare Marusya. She couldn't find a place for herself for three days after Katya's death, until she saw Mira and became her guardian angel.
The TikTok star and the foundling Umka. In the freezing January frost, Anastasia found him, almost frozen, near her home. Now this dog is the main helper on the farm. When his owner carries hay, he pulls a bale alongside. He'll spot Anastasia with a bucket of water in her hands and grab her by the handle, ready to carry it himself. He's also an excellent shepherd. Try running around 30 hectares of land after a herd, but Umka handles it with ease. And no one taught him this.

You can understand those subscribers who can't tear themselves away from their screens whenever a new story appears about one of the abandoned or foundlings on the Chernyavsky farm. For example, about Cleopatra the pig. It was hilarious to see her racing towards us, grunting and barking, racing the dogs. Anastasia suspects that Klepa, as she's affectionately called, considers herself a dog, since she was given to a Gomel kennel as food when she was almost a newborn. She lived there for a week before being brought to Tividovka. It was there that Umka took charge of her training.

Wild animals began arriving at the "Childhood Dream" farm just like domestic ones. A roe deer was the first. She was hit by a tractor while mowing grass on the collective farm, and the Chernyavskys brought her with the words, "Take her, or we'll just leave you in a box and drive away." Of course, they took the frightened animal and took her to a veterinary clinic, where they put her in a cast. She'll lame for life, of course, but that's not a big deal. The main thing is, she didn't die. While the roe deer was recovering, she lived indoors and was fed MILK from a teat every two hours. That's how she became tame, following people around.

"Being disabled, she's no longer able to take care of herself in the wild," Anastasia notes regretfully. "If wild animals are healthy and can live in the wild, we release them. But they, like birds, often return to us on their own. Storks live with us regularly, sometimes up to 20 of them." We treat the wounded and raise babies abandoned in their nests. Come during the season; you'll spot many tame storks near the house. You can feed them. Remember: these birds eat meat and fish. Don't offer them bread, the animal rights activist teaches.

"Animals can also suffer, love, and miss."

"Would you like to take them in?" These are often the first words offered to take in a venerable goose, which can't be eaten because it's too affectionate. Or decorative rabbits and pigs, which parents gave to their children as living gifts, but the children quickly got tired of playing with them or developed an allergy to their fur.
Talking about the feathered, tailed, and ungulate animals that have found their paradise on earth with the Chernyavsky family, you catch yourself thinking that Anastasia seems to understand their language. She certainly captures their emotions and pain , having lived through so many tragic lives.

"Animals can also suffer, love, worry, and miss each other. But many people don't notice this," the farm owner says bitterly, emphasizing: "I'm very glad that Belarus has passed the 'Responsible Treatment of Animals' law , which I hope will make people think twice. Unfortunately, some Belarusians aren't afraid to treat animals irresponsibly and cruelly. They play with them enough, throw them away, or maim them. Children mock them, and their parents don't even react, don't even explain that it's wrong to do that, that it's also very painful for the animals. It's important to remember: we are responsible for those we've tamed. "

Svetlana KIRSANOVA,
photo by Nadezhda KOSTETSKAYA, 7 Dney newspaper.