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FERNDALE- The business of owning horses is tough at best in this economy and for one Ferndale woman a series of misfortunes has made it impossible. Reporter Dax VanFossen sat down with Virginia Carter, who needs to find homes for her horses, after her husband died of cancer.

Tom and Virginia Carter were living their dream of raising horses on a ranch in Montana. They built their ranch up from the ground up, and despite economic troubles so many are seeing, they were making it. But Tom was diagnosed with brain cancer in December and despite treatment, he passed away on February 3rd. So now Virginia is going it alone.

"We raised these horses, most of them were our babies, and it's just impossibly hard, on top of losing Tom. He was a wonderful man, he was always happy. [He] Enjoyed his life, loved his animals, loved his family," Virginia said.

She's making tough decisions now and is giving away her horses, practically for free, to anyone who offers a good home.

"[I'm] getting rid of all of the horses, just asking for a donation, if anyone can afford it. But just the fact that they're adopting them and spending their money and their time on them, is a donation in and of itself," Virginia observed.

She'd doing what she can to save her and her husband's ranch, but most important to her, is finding their animals good homes.

"[This is] pretty bad stuff, but I gotta keep going, because I still have some animals left, the cats. I know the horses are way over the top for me to take care of. I've been doing it for a couple of months now."

One animal, Virginia is planning to keep, is Tom's dog Lady, who still looks for him. "She runs around and looks for him, anytime anyone comes on the property, she's looking to see if that's him. That's why I wanted him to come home, for his last days. But he just wasn't strong enough, [I wanted him home] so he could have his animals around," Virginia recalled.

Click here if you can take home one of Virginia Carter's horses, dogs or other livestock, or if you simply want to help the family in another way.