Tamara Taylor and Ravenwood Ranch

Update Thursday Dec 14th:

Ravenwood Cookie (April 25, 2018 - December 14, 2023)

Today was a super hard loss. We lost Will's doe Cookie this afternoon as a result of complications from our barn fire on December 10. This one really hits hard as William purchased her mother, Bellatrix, as a weanling from Chris Grab of Country Magic Nigerians when he was a little kid. He used his own money he earned from his 4H calf and was really excited. When Bella kidded Will assisted her himself. He was so proud of the twins "Cookie" and "Cream". Cookie provided endless entertainment through the years. She raised her own super sassy babies, bossed around the Nubians and enjoyed scratching the top of her very hard head on any unsuspecting person's kneecap. She was as wide as she was tall and would strut around with that "Let me speak to the manager" energy. She loved babies and would feed everyone's alongside her own. To know her was to love her. She leaves a very bossy, sweet and rotund void in our herd.

We thought we were through the worst of the losses from the fire but it seems the secondary infections are kicking in and the surviving girls are struggling more in the past few days. We are so grateful for the amazing support and guidance we've received from our vet @kristinetitford as we navigate this complex situation. Burns are hard. Smoke inhalation is hard. Stress is hard. And then the infection risk compounds everything.

I apologize for the lack of updates. We are all exhausted physically, mentally and emotionally. I am so grateful to all of you out there for holding us in your hearts as we keep unravelling one more shitty layer of this shit onion at a time. I cannot thank you all enough for checking in on us, sending donations, baking for us, offering supportive treatment ideas and covertly contributing to our vet bill at the clinic. Each day I get gut punched by some other curveball, but each day I am also lifted up with love punch acts of kindness. Huge thank you to each and every one of you. I couldn't do life without you.

Good news update:

This little fighter started to drink from a bottle today ❤️ Despite having burns to her tongue and mouth she is determined to keep fighting. Her success is due to the diligence of our vet Kristine keeping her going with IV and tube feeds until she was strong enough to take a bottle.

As of today we have:

3 goats still fighting at the vet clinic

6 does and 1 kid getting treatment at home (pain control, systemic antibiotics, topical wound care and supportive therapy)

10 lost due to fire (8 lost in the fire + 2 afterwards)

2 miracle babies born since the fire.

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Hey Everyone,

I’m Jordan, a friend of Tamara’s. As I’m sure you all know by now, Ravenwood had a tragic, freak accident happen yesterday. I’ll copy and paste Tamara’s post below so everyone can stay up to date on what’s going on. If you’re friends with Tamara or have been in the purebred goat world, or equine world for any amount of time, you know just how incredible she is. Tamara would bend over backwards to help anyone or any animal without hesitation, no questions asked. I know she’s mentored me and helped me more times than I can even count and I wouldn’t be where I am today without her. I know many of you would say the same. Now she needs our help, even though I know she’d never ask for it. I can only imagine the cost of the vet bills and everything else that’s piling on, so anything you can spare would be greatly appreciated. Thank you all so much for your love, support and prayers!

Tamara’s Post:

“A devastating day at Ravenwood. Our goat barn burned to the ground today very quickly. We lost 8 dear girls in the fire, including our herd queen, Meeps. The surviving girls are in various degrees of burned and not all out of the woods yet.

Hugest hugs to my incredibly kind and gentle son Will who was the first one on the scene. Nobody should have to ever see your beloved pals you've grown up with looking like that. He is absolutely devastated and yet he is still fighting for the survivor's lives by helping at the vet. Love looks like pouring your heart into nurturing tender lives.

Thank you to my solid rocks: Mark and my Dad. They dealt with putting the remaining smouldering mess out and scraping up the carnage. Love looks like showing up when the very worst things happen to spare other's from suffering.

Thank you to my Mom for hugging us all and calling the vet as soon as possible. After the does were assessed and put on the trailer for the vet clinic she sent me to bed, then travelled with the herd to the clinic and is sending live play by play updates and pictures. Love looks like filling in so I can rest.

Thank you to our incredible vet Kristine Titford and her team. She came out, assessed the situation and helped us load the gals for the journey to her clinic. She opened the back of her clinic to house the survivors of the herd and called in a squad of helpers to get IVs started. Kristine is my goat guardian angel and I am so thankful for her willingness to help. Love looks like throwing your back into troubleshooting a massive tragedy to save as many lives as you can. It is a huge undertaking to have so many animals in such bad shape all at once. I am grateful for her willingness to take that on.

18 years worth of breeding purebred goats and this is a huge tragedy to my little goat family and the genetics I've been working hard on. I am so, so sorry to my girls. The surviving 10 does have very swollen faces to the point that their eyes are swollen shut. When I saw them I burst into tears but they recognized my voice and came to me. My heart aches so bad. It may be hard for some to understand but when you plan and hope and bring them into this world into your lap, towel them off, watch them grow you have such a close bond with them. I feel closer to them than some dogs. It is unfathomable to me to have lost so many and that the remaining gals are suffering so much. Please send prayers, good vibes and magic healing dust to my girls who are hanging in there. And to the girls that passed...I am so, so sorry. Godspeed, my sweet friends.”