Lujan Grisham transforms governor's mansion into 'petting zoo'

By Daniel J. Chacón

The Santa Fe New Mexican

SANTA FE -- By her own admission, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has the enthusiasm of an 11-year-old boy when it comes to animals.

Lizards, bugs, beetles and nonvenomous snakes — if she can catch them, she will.

“What was the one I scared you with?” Lujan Grisham asked a member of her security detail, who sheepishly admitted the governor startled him with a garter snake.

Lujan Grisham, who grew up with an array of critters — from cats and dogs to newts and gerbils and an occasional farm animal — has taken her love for animals to another level, transforming the governor’s mansion in Santa Fe into a makeshift petting zoo.

The collection of furry, feathery, fluffy and hoofed animals include four dogs, three lionhead rabbits, two Brazilian pheasants, a pair of Nigerian miniature goats, a black cat that greets guests at the front door, 22 hens of various breeds, three roosters and a chick that hatched a few days ago.

More chicks are likely on the way — a Frizzle is laying on a clutch of about 16 eggs.

“She loves animals,” Mary Brophy, mansion director, said about Lujan Grisham, a Democrat serving her second term as governor.

“She loves critters. She loves snakes. She loves lizards. She just loves animals — period,” Brophy said.

While filming an episode last year of Breaking Bread, a series featuring interviews with governors and senators from across the nation, Lujan Grisham and the interviewer stumbled upon a horned lizard during a hike, and the governor gave chase.

After catching it, Lujan Grisham placed the lizard on her blouse.

“Isn’t he great? Oh my God,” she said with glee. “I don’t see enough of these, and as a kid, I would see a hundred.”

Animals have long been a part of Lujan Grisham’s life.

While leading a tour of the mansion grounds and showing off her assortment of pets in a pair of galoshes and blue jeans, Lujan Grisham said her late mother, Sonja Lujan, was “wacky about animals.”

“We always had dogs and cats, but my mom would bring home farm animals — we had no place to keep them,” she said. “She came home one day in the family station wagon with three geese that were babies — Huey, Dewey and Louie — and we raised them in the house.

“I don’t recommend that,” she added. “They’re messy.”

Lujan Grisham recalled her mother also bringing home a “little lamb” they raised in their garage and backyard.

“You don’t raise a sheep in the garage, but we did,” she said. “We just put hay [in] and hold your nose. My job was to muck.”

The governor said she and her husband, Manny Cordova, primarily care for and clean up after the animals.

“It keeps Manny very busy,” she said.

But the couple, who married in 2022, also get help.

“When I get behind in mucking, the 4-H clubs come and help me,” Lujan Grisham said. “I donate to their clubs.”

The couple also garden on the property.

“Manny grows cucumbers, herbs, carrots, beet, tomatoes, squash,” the governor said. “We decided to use every inch of this beautiful place.”

Lujan Grisham said having the menagerie of animals is cathartic for her.

“It’s nice to have them, and it’s comforting, and I get to hear that little rooster,” she said as one of the three roosters crowed.

“I love them,” she said about her animals, all of which have names and many of which have their pictures hanging outside their enclosures.

Lujan Grisham said her grandchildren often name the animals, many of which have traditionally female names. The pheasants, for example, a male and a female, are named Goldie and Kate, respectively, after actress Goldie Hawn and her daughter, Kate Hudson. Goldie is the more colorful of the pair and has a yellow tuft of feathers on his head.

“We try to do all girls — little girl power at the governor’s residence,” the governor said about the animals’ names.

The pheasants and rabbits are housed in cages adjacent to the mansion. The governor, her husband and a contractor friend converted horse stables a short walk from the house into chicken coops at no cost to taxpayers.

“Those chickens are older,” she said, pointing to ones she brought to the mansion in her first term as governor. “They don’t like these chickens, so we have chicken suite A and chicken suite B.”

During the tour, the member of the governor’s security detail whom she scared with a snake showed how to “hypnotize” a chicken by tucking its head under its wing and gently swinging it back and forth.

The maneuver worked, and the chicken appeared to be in a trance for a short time.

“Why can’t I learn it?” Lujan Grisham asked. “Less hips and more swinging?”

Brophy said the chickens produce up to two dozen eggs a day.

“We give them to neighbors,” she said. “We had docent tours [Wednesday]. Everyone gets an egg when they leave.”

The two miniature goats are in a pen also attached to the horse stalls, which the governor guesses were built during the administration of former Gov. Toney Anaya.

Lujan Grisham ended up with the goats, named Bert and Ernie, after other Democratic governors dared her to do goat yoga for a reception.

Wait, goat yoga?

“You lay around, and you put a bunch of feed on your back, and the goats jump on your back and poop on you,” she said.

“It’s really bizarre,” Lujan Grisham added. “I’m not interested in doing it again, but I ended up with two goats as a result.”

Lujan Grisham said the goats can balance and run on cable spools in their pen. During a reception at the mansion, the goats wandered around the guests.

“People go crazy for them,” she said.

Lujan Grisham appears particularly fond of her chickens and said Bantams are her favorite breed.

Asked why, the 4-foot-10 governor said, “Because look how cute she is and littler — I like that and relate to that.”

The most visible of the animals are three sprightly Sheepadoodles — Java, Mocha and Latte — and a Shih Tzu named Salty, which the governor carried around to protect her from coyotes.

“I’m the only one that I know of that has all these animals,” she said when asked if she knew of any other governor who had transformed their residence into a farm. “They make fun of me constantly about having a petting zoo.”