09/03/2026
🎉🩷 HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY BEST FRIEND, MY RIGHT HAND, MY PARTNER IN CHAOS, AND THE REASON I’LL PROBABLY BE BALD BY 40 — VICTORIA! 🩷🎉
There are some people who come into your life and simply become a part of it… and then there are people like Victoria, who somehow become woven into just about every single part of it.
You’re not only my best friend. You’re my right hand, the VP of Fortify Ranch, my voice of reason (sometimes 😅), my partner in every ridiculous idea, every rescue mission, every adventure, every “this probably isn’t a good idea, but let’s do it anyway” moment… and quite possibly the only person crazy enough to dive headfirst into this life right beside me. 😂
Where most people see an obstacle, you see an opportunity.
Where most people would say, “Ashlee, absolutely not,” you usually say, “Okay, but hear me out…” which is precisely why neither one of us should be left unsupervised.
You have stood beside me through some of the highest highs and lowest lows. You’ve celebrated the wins, cried through the heartbreaks, helped carry the weight when rescue life felt impossibly heavy, and jumped straight into the chaos whenever an animal needed us — usually without asking nearly enough questions first. 😂
You believe in Fortify Ranch and everything we are trying to build with your whole heart. You love these animals fiercely. You show up when it’s inconvenient, exhausting, messy, heartbreaking, or completely insane. And when something goes wrong, you somehow have this ability to look at it like, “Well… I guess we’re figuring this out now.”
And we do……Together.
I genuinely don’t know what I would do without you. Actually, that’s a lie. I’d probably have more hair. 🤣
But my life would be a whole lot less fun, far less adventurous, and there would be a giant Victoria-sized hole in Fortify Ranch and in my heart.
Somewhere along the way, “best friend” stopped feeling like a big enough title for you. You became family. You became the person I know I can call when everything is falling apart, when I have another crazy idea, when I need someone to laugh with until we cry, or when I simply need someone beside me who understands this life without me having to explain it.
There are very few people I would trust to walk beside me through all of this — the animals, the rescue, the dreams, the heartbreak, the chaos and whatever adventure we somehow manage to get ourselves into next.
But I would choose you every single time. 🩷
Thank you for believing in me.
Thank you for believing in this ranch.
Thank you for loving these animals like they’re your own.
Thank you for seeing possibilities where other people see problems.
Thank you for jumping headfirst into my crazy ideas instead of talking me out of them.
And thank you for being the kind of friend who doesn’t just say, “I’m here.”
You show it.
I hope you know how loved, appreciated and incredibly important you are — not just to me, but to this entire crazy little family we’ve built.
Happy Birthday, Victoria! 🥹🩷
Here’s to another year of saving animals, chasing dreams, making questionable decisions, turning obstacles into opportunities, laughing until we can’t breathe, and giving me approximately 47 new reasons to pull my hair out. 🤦🏼♀️🤣
Wouldn’t want to do this crazy life with anyone else.
Love you forever, best friend. 🩷🌻🐴
P.S. For my birthday, I would like the remaining hairs on my head to stay exactly where they are. Please act accordingly. 😂
(End of sappy post since we all know how much you just love them 🤣😂)
