The Power of Togetherness

On a farm with this many animals, transitions are just part of life. It never gets easier, but we learn to truly appreciate loving, living, and caring for each and every one of our beloved animals every day as we never know what may unfold next.

This was unfortunately the case for my beautiful alpaca, Star. She was always one of my favorites- she had a gorgeous striking pattern and the most beautiful sweet face which matched her personality. 

She had given birth to a healthy active baby, Milano, and all seemed quite blissful. With a new baby on the farm, we check on everyone more frequently- and after the first day, I started to notice Star wasn’t quite herself. I couldn’t quite figure out what it was. She went downhill so fast and transitioned in the wee hours of the night leaving a newborn baby in our care.

Needless to say, we were distraught after losing Star...but had to take action immediately to keep her baby alive. Male alpaca babies are very difficult to raise properly and little Milano was so confused.

This was our first orphan in our 12 years of alpaca farm life. I called up an amazing friend who I knew would guide me well on the day to day care. She was incredibly encouraging and gave us hope that we might be able to do this successfully- keep him alive and behaving like a proper alpaca.

I also contacted my animal communication teacher as I was in too much shock to figure things out clearly. We addressed the grief we all felt as well as decided how we were going to proceed raising Milano. I definitely needed the herd members’ help to do this well.

We asked for one of our girls to be his adult guardian. Unfortunately, we did not have any lactating females who were available for this job. Dezi volunteered and agreed to this role- and to my happy surprise, she really did follow through and take very good care of Milano. We, the humans, were in charge of feeding him milk around the clock in the barn. 

We also asked the herd to make sure he understood he was an alpaca and teach him proper manners. When alpaca babies get too attached to their humans, they can have behavioral problems at maturity.

We felt asking for the herd’s help through animal communication truly made things possible and quite smooth overall. 

I am still processing this whole experience as it was quite intense in so many aspects. From many of my readings and experiences, I have come to accept that animals choose how and when they will transition. Not that this makes it any easier, but this has helped me from going into the guilt, self-blame, and doubt cycle of “Did I miss something? Could I have done things differently? What did I do wrong???????”

The animals don’t want us to go through this- they are unconditionally loving beings who are here to help us evolve and become better versions of ourselves...or so it always feels to me!

I did question for some time why this had all happened the way it did. She was absolutely healthy showing no signs- gave birth to a gorgeous healthy baby smoothly. Her colostrum was in and she looked so proud and happy with Milano. Then it all shifted so quickly and she was gone just like that.

I still don’t know why Star transitioned as she did...but we learned so much from this experience- raising an alpaca bottle baby is one of the ultimate challenges as a shepherdess. It tests and tries us physically, mentally and emotionally. I am grateful she gave him colostrum before she left as this factor alone gave Milano an incredibly high chance of surviving. The herd was incredible in supporting Milano while they all mourned the loss of their herdmate, Star. My human family supported me, too. This experience brought all of us- the herd and the human family so much closer together as we committed to help baby Milano thrive. He celebrated his first birthday and has been a very happy healthy boy.

Milano's video below :)