All All this week, we'll be taking you to a very special place -- one where sightless horses lope across golden meadows, blind and deaf dogs chase balls with spirited abandon, and neurologically damaged cats still play mischievously, making up what they lack in coordination with perseverance.

Rolling Dog Ranch -- a sanctuary for disabled animals -- sits on 160 grassy acres in a sparsely-populated valley near the town of Ovando, Montana.

I was lucky enough to visit the ranch, about 60 miles northeast of Missoula, on a recent weekend, and all this week on the Mutts blog, you can, too.

You'll meet Cash, a Quarter Horse born blind on a farm in Alabama; Allie, a lab mix with cerebellar hypoplasia who was found weaving down a street in Ontario, Canada; and Travis, a stray picked up in Spokane, Wash., by animal control officers who noticed he could not open his mouth.

And, eventually, you'll meet the couple behind it all -- Steve Smith and Alayne Marker, who left their jobs with Boeing in Seattle to build a haven for animals that, were it not for the ranch, likely would not be around today. For many of them, the escape was narrow, Marker said. Some came to the ranch the same day their were scheduled to be euthanized.

But first you must heed the warning that the ranch's owners give all guests: Don't be sad, because the animals aren't. Despite it being a final home for about 80 disabled animals, Rolling Dog Ranch is really not a depressing place at all.

In fact, it's an inspiring one.

(Tomorrow: A blind foal named Cash was four weeks old when he arrived at the ranch from Alabama, where his owners were considering putting him down.)