Timmy Memorial

This has been a difficult week here at the farm. We lost two of our beloved farm animals, our goat Timmy and our sheep Daisy.  We share these memorials with you to honor them and to thank them for all they gave to all of us. They will forever be a part of this farm and we miss them.

Timmy was still a very young goat at only 3 years old. But the fact that Timmy made it to be 3 years old is nothing shy of a miracle and a lot of dedicated work and love from our amazing animal caretaking team. Timmy came to us at just a couple of months old. He was born one of twins but his mother rejected him and he was being bottle fed. As it turned out, Timmy was born with a serious brain abnormality. This was obvious due to behavior that was not neurologically normal. However, it became even more obvious as he grew older. Timmy lacked a reflex to eat on his own. He would drink a bottle normally. But he could not figure out how to graze on grass or eat hay. We took him to specialists but there was nothing that could be done to correct what was then determined to be a birth defect. No one expected him to live to even be 6 months old. But Timmy had other plans.

When we realized that there was no way Timmy could go in with our other goats, we did not want him to be by himself, so we requested that Timmy’s twin brother would come to be with him. We named him Tommy. The two of them are like night and day but Tommy deeply cared about his brother and didn’t always understand why he acted the way he did.

We all understood from early on that time with Timmy would be limited. But no one could have dreamed we would have just shy of 3 years with him. Our promise to Timmy has always been that when things became too difficult for him that we would help him to move on and we kept that promise. In a 48 hour time frame, something dramatic happened in Timmy’s brain and although he was on seizure medication that kept him doing ok, suddenly that medication couldn’t help him anymore. We knew it was time to say our good-bye’s and let Timmy go.

Timmy was loved enormously by the team of caretakers who loved him, and adapted to his ever changing needs and desires. Hours of patiently feeding him and doing all of the caretaking chores required to meet his special needs were given to him whenever needed. If it meant staying late for a shift because they had to take more time with him, they did that. Timmy’s life wasn’t easy, but he was happy living and being loved and he let us know that every day. Today, our attention turns to Tommy who is very sad to have lost his brother. Tommy is a sweet and kind soul who took a lot of care looking out for him.

Daisy Memorial

Daisy came to the farm in 2016 after a farmer found her in his field with his cows. He had no sheep and when he went out to check on his cows and found a sheep magically appear in his pasture, he was as baffled as the cows. The bigger problem was that Daisy would not allow him anywhere near her and she was full of porcupine quills all over her head and face and in her mouth. We agreed to take her in and the farmer managed to catch her and bring her to us. It took quite a lot of work by our veterinarian to get those quills out. Daisy lived here on the farm for the last 9 years and had the greatest life with her other sheep friends. Daisy died of old age. Her body had become more and more frail and weak from age and arthritis and we were so happy she made it through the winter and got to enjoy some spring grass and sunshine. But as things got too uncomfortable and we could no longer ease her pain with medications, it was clear that it was time to let her go. Daisy leaves behind her sheep friend Mary who misses her. It is never easy to say good-bye. But Daisy had a great life here with us and loved all the attention and treats that she received – most especially peppermints and Fig Newtons. She will be missed by us all.