Actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan (The Walking Dead, Grey's Anatomy) and his wife, actress Hilarie Burton, stepped up after Carolina Waterfowl Rescue in North Carolina posted on their official site and to various social media pages last month to search for a potential home for a donkey named Jack and emu named Diane who had bonded with each other.
Jack and Diane were rescued from Kershaw, South Carolina, earlier this year when they were found on a farm with several other animals, including cats, dogs and chickens, who'd been abandoned when the person who'd been renting the farm simply moved away.
Carolina Waterfowl Rescue Founder Jennifer Gordon says when they were about to be transported to the Rescue Farm and were being put on separate trailers, Jack began crying and Diane was "frantic," so they borrowed a bigger trailer to take them together. She told the Charlotte Observer: "They like to cuddle and even sleep together. We can’t separate them. Where one goes, the other follows."
Although they received over 2,000 responses from as far away as Canada, England and France, they were ideally looking for a home that was no more than a one-day trailer ride away. In fact, they had to ask people to stop responding because their phone and email systems were crashing.
Gordon explained that Morgan was the best choice because he has a farm in Hudson Valley, New York, which is 11 hours away and where they would be able to roam free in a paddock together.
Morgan, who currently plays Negan on the TV series The Walking Dead and appeared on the big screen this year alongside Dwayne Johnson in Rampage had tweeted: "Happy to take them, and keep them together at our farm. They would be a welcome addition to our menagerie of happy creatures. Xojd"
After Morgan picked them up himself yesterday (he's pictured above at the rescue center), Carolina Waterfowl Rescue posted a video on their Facebook page this afternoon, showing Jack and Diane in their new, spacious paddock, with the words: "Jack and Diane, goodbye friends. Have a nice life." ~Alexandra Heilbron
Kind of an eye opener. He drove 11 hours to go get them and then 11 hours back? I didn't know big stars did things like that, I thought they would hire a company or something.
This is wonderful--manifold thanks to JDM and HB for a kind, humane act.
Great to see them staying together. I just had John Mellencamp song come to mind.
Sweet
Favorite toy was a board game with marbles #tributeca #12daysofgiveaways 🎅🎄
Jeffrey Dean Morgan and his wife are pretty special human beings..I have always liked JD in many of his movies, as a movie star, but his actions speak volumes to the kind of person that he & his wife are. Way to go.