September: It's Been a Hard Month

September 2026 started off with the birth of a beautiful little girl born from our Oprah. We named her Jolene Nicole. Strong, healthy, and she has her mama's big brown eyes. This happened during a HUGE rain storm while I was out of town (in Alabama) visiting our daughter and family. I watched the birth on our ZOOM camera which was really cool.

Later this same Saturday, Breeze gave birth to a lovely little girl in the huge rain storm, dropping her girl in the pasture and abandoning her and later passing her afterbirth.

Our son Kevin and his daughter came up the lane and saw mamas and babies in the pasture! They let Mike know and then called me to let me know that we had two crias (baby alpacas) born at our ranch. 

And I'm not there!

The next day, the weather was horrible and we had rain and hail coming down and there was flooding in the yard and pasture. Our Neopolitan Sundae gave birth in the middle of this to a beautiful girl and abandoned her in the pasture, left to the girl barn, and passed her afterbirth.

Friends Toni and Nicole came to the rescue, helped these three alpacas in such a way that words cannot even express. Oprah took on Dolly Kay which never happens, nursing both Jolene and Dolly.

Dolly Kay had a serious birth defect and these little ones seldom live. Dolly actually lived three and a half weeks. She passed despite so much love that was given to her. Our hearts are broken.

Tiramisu came early and passed away on her due date. She was bottle fed throughout her life, being fed throughout the night and was given so much love. Her death was a surprise to us and broke our hearts as well.

Our Jolene Nicole is obviously missing her friends and is clinging to her mama, Oprah, and will find a different joy than she would have with cria friends.

This is the first time we have experienced a loss of crias that have been born on our ranch over these past ten years.

So many of our alpaca friends have experienced this; it is so devastating. I feel so much compassion for all alpaca owners who have been through this and have moved on and continue with their breeding program.

For us, we will take a little break as we recover from our breaking hearts.