ORCHID THE LLAMA

In 2012, I was all-in treating a breast cancer diagnosis, and also clearing out, packing up and selling our prior home and moving to our new one here in Sherborn, MA. I came out the other side of my healthcare journey determined to fully embrace each and every day to come, no matter how few or many I was gifted. That year we moved to Unity Lane and began the orchards, the coops and barn on the northern side of what would become the Sanctuary in 2016.

Orchid the Llama came into my pre-Sanctuary life that summer of 2012, along with Shiro and Bundle dogs, and some feathered friends and some alpaca too. (Hazel and Tofu Minipigs did not enter our lives until December of 2015!)

Orchid was always regal and quiet. She enjoyed her life with the female alpaca over the years, towering over them. For 21 years, she lived a healthy and relaxed life, but started to experience the difficulties of aging in 2025, starting with her worn molars. In the last two weeks, something different showed up: lack of appetite, intensified weight loss, lack of normal rumen and bowels. We worked on palliative and supportive care with different supplements, and an antibiotic to address an elevated white blood cell count keeping either abdominal cancer or a neurologic issue in her gut as possible diagnosis. She perked up a little, and then she had a good day outside on Wednesday. But that same night she was weak, and did not really eat again after that. Juniper Alpaca stayed by her at night in the main inner barn space where she was safe and a bit separate. 

She no longer could stand up on her own, and had the faraway look in her eyes of an elderly soul beginning to travel on a journey where we could not follow. Last night, the alpaca slept outside, but both Ellie Dog and Dakota Dog took turns sleeping near her on the ground floor even though they usually sleep up in the barn hay loft at night. We thank Dr. Savannah of Equidoc for her compassionate final gift to our llama matriarch, and today we laid Orchid to rest. All of us are truly blessed to know how lovely a life she had for 21 years. We cherish her and will always miss her elegant presence.