About Us

Katherine Palau is a Bay Area educator with over 25 years experience teaching and writing curriculum for different age groups. She always wanted donkeys and a place for children (and adults) to come and explore in a non-traditional educational setting. Doodleton Ranch fit the bill on both accounts. When Katherine is not working on the ranch, she volunteers at Native Bird Connections, and fosters and releases baby red tail hawks through the Lindsay Wildlife Hospital.

How Doodleton Ranch Got Its Name

There once was a rescue mule named Rusty, better known as Ruster Doodle. He was gentle, patient with children and other animals and loved to play even though he had serious physical limitations because of a prior back injury. It was a joy to watch him shake his head from side to side and trot off down the hill with the other animals; it didn't matter that he moved a little lopsided, or a little slower than the others- he just enjoyed the freedom of being a mule frolicking in the pasture. While Rusty has since passed on, his legacy is in his name: besides the word being used to describe a scribble, "to doodle" means to play or improvise idly. Out here at Doodleton we believe in the importance of idle play for everyone; the ranch is an open playground, full of possibilities.