“When you first contacted me to be farmer of the month, I’m like, I’m not a farmer. I am so not a farmer. I don’t think of myself in that same class,” Josie Kruzicki of Kruzicki’s Kemo Kritters LLC, – Alpacas said.
She explained that the farm began about eight and a half years ago after her husband Dennis was diagnosed with two different forms of cancer. Dennis had to go back and forth to Appleton for treatment and one day he saw some alpacas and decided to pull over. After watching them for two hours, he called Josie and brought up the idea of raising alpacas and that’s where it all started.
That’s when they slowly started to build their herd, which consisted mostly of rescued alpacas and formed Kruzicki’s Kemo Kritters. Josie explained the name, “you go through chemotherapy to treat your cancer, but what else is there in life? You need that “out.” It’s not only for the cancer patient, it’s for the caregiver,” she continued, “you can be having the crummiest day and just walk in the barn and everything could just melt away.”
Josie and her husband used the alpacas as therapy tools for multiple situations such as bringing them to a dementia group, an Alzheimer’s group, the nursing home, they’ve even had the alpacas blessed at a church.
One of the best examples she shared was when a group of three ladies and their caregivers came to the farm. As described by Josie, the women were wheelchair-bound and nonverbal. While the women were at the farm, they let some of the alpacas walk around and visit with them. One of the younger alpacas nuzzled up against one of the ladies, and she smiled. Her caretaker saw this and started crying because out of the over ten years being this woman’s caregiver, she’s never cracked a smile. “That’s why this is here,” Josie said.
Dennis unfortunately passed away in 2017, but his memory, and the land he grew up on and turned into an alpaca farm live on. “His passion for the alpacas was immense and so the farm continues, it’ll be his legacy. It’ll always be here,” Josie said.
You can hear the full interview on our podcast page. We talked about different types of alpacas, how hard they are to raise, and why they’ve made a difference not only in Josie’s life, but the lives of many others.
This weekend (May 22nd), Kruzicki’s Kemo Kritters is hosting their annual Alpaca Shearing Day! Josie wanted to do something educational where people can stop out at the farm and see where some of the prodcuts that we take for granted come from and how they’re made, such as yarn.
Kruzicki’s Kemo Kritters – Shearing starts at 10 am.
W9813 Cherry Rd Bear Creek, WI 54922
