Cereal Animal Discovery and Budgie World holds open house

By Joan Janzen
joanjanzen@yahoo.com

CEREAL, AB - What happens when someone retires but after a while finds retirement is somewhat dull? Kerry and Linda Lang from Cereal, Alberta, found themselves in this exact circumstance, but they found a solution. They started up a business venture.

Kerry and Linda have lived in Cereal for a couple of years. “I was a retired mechanic, but I got bored,” Kerry said. “And Linda grew up on the farm, so she wanted to get back into having chickens. We kind of became known as the animal shelter of the Cereal area. We took in some guinea pigs and a couple of beautiful cats. It exploded from there. I’m a mechanic by trade, and a building came up for sale, so I thought, why not start a shop?”

In June of 2019, Kerry opened his small equipment maintenance and repair shop called Kerinda Small Equipment Service & Repair. The couple has 2.5 acres of fenced property, including pasture land divided into three sections, allowing the grass to recover.

Cereal Animal Discovery and Budgie World is their secondary business. It is now home to 11 goats, guinea pigs, ducks, budgies, guppies, fish in aquariums, and many different kinds of heritage chickens and exotic ducks. Kerry likes to dabble in tropical fish and breed them. The couple also breeds and sells budgies to a pet store in Medicine Hat. The budgies are housed upstairs in the main building.

“We have way more birds than we can sell,” Kerry said. “Our flock is growing all the time.” They are currently looking for other pet stores where they could supply budgies. In addition, Linda has also become a Tower Garden distributor.

Kerry said, “In the summer, some of the neighbourhood children come by to watch the goats, and people in the campground have come to check the animals out. We’re down here every day, and anyone is welcome to come and watch the animals.”

When I phoned, Kerry and Linda were preparing for their open house, which took place on Thursday and Friday, March 11th and 12th, at their property at 510 - 1st Street in Cereal. Each day from 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., visitors were welcome to come and enjoy the many animals, birds and fish on-site and were even invited to take some of the animals home with them.

Budgies complete with cages were available for sale and complete aquarium starter kits, including filters, pump, heater, and fish. “We have everything they need to start up a hobby,” Kerry explained. Visitors could also inquire about the Tower Garden on the premises and find how to get one of their own.

As the weather warms up, Kerry and Linda are inviting people to come and visit their animals and check out their web site kerinda.ca

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