Posted by roo on April 7th, 2010 — Posted in Unreal, Arabella, Serious, Julia, Demi, Penelope
Unreal and the two young males that Pam brought back from the AlpacaRosa have been quarantined in a pen in the barn since their return, to ensure that nobody was introducing unwanted parasites to the rest of the herd. Their fecals revealed nothing of interest, so they were released from the pen to join the other juveniles. What a joy it was to watch them run and pronk with excitement, happy to feel the grass under their feet and the wind in their ‘hair’.
When Serious was in ICU at the vet recently, and we had to reintroduce him to his mother Mazara who I brought as his companion, I was struck with how highly emotional alpacas truly are. He was so relieved, so surprised, so comforted, when I led her into the stable where he was cushed, depressed, in a corner. They hadn’t seen each other in months, and yet they immediately resumed their roles as mother and child.
The way in which Unreal and his new friends behaved when released from the pen was also a display of emotion, one of pure happiness and excitement. When observed closely, and in many different situations, it becomes very clear that alpacas are delicately balanced creatures, who absolutely thrive only when herd relationships are maintained.
In another pasture, 4 of my girls were grazing together. My intention was to get some ‘belly’ photos of Penelope, but I got sidetracked because I wanted to take in the peace of of their private little herd, and because I can’t help but be impressed by the amount of fiber that Arabella is carrying around. After they posed for some pictures, they dismissed my presence as thought I wasn’t even there. Just the way it should be.
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Posted by roo on April 4th, 2010 — Posted in Penelope
Do you see that belly? Seriously, how much bigger can that GET? Every time I see Penelope it amazes me that it got bigger still than the last time! Her cria was due just over 2 weeks ago, surely it’s any time now…
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Posted by roo on April 2nd, 2010 — Posted in Serious
With all the heartache over the summer and fall, and the few days of ‘hanging in the balance’ recently, today is a pretty big milestone for this guy. It’s his first birthday!
He was a strapping young cria, the prince of his pasture, perfectly straight conformation wise, displayed the most amazing wedge shaped head… and was horribly wild. So wild in fact, that Rachel (MaRachel’s Alpacas of Ohio) was concerned about me putting him in the van when I came to collect him and his mother Mazara. She thought he would go ballistic, perhaps even break through the glass or at least come flying over back seats and wreak havoc like a trapped deer.
How far he has come. He’s now one of my most laid back animals. He watches silently and quietly, quite the forlorn young boy, and does not complain when he’s handled. His first shearing revealed a lovely bay black glossy coat, but his second shearing recently revealed him to be dark brown. He’s metamorphasised both physically and temperament wise, emerging as a beautiful, calm young man.
He’s got some catching up to do - his body has still not recouperated from the lack of nutrition since the summer. But to be able to celebrate his first birthday is something special!
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Posted by roo on April 1st, 2010 — Posted in Loretta, Judy
The drive to Fairhope, AL, was waaay longer than we anticipated. ‘Are you sure it’s only 4 hours?’ I asked Pam as I set the GPS and it flashed almost 5 1/2 hours at me. ‘It’s not much longer than that’, she responded, frowning at the screen, and we assumed that perhaps it was calculating the speed limits wrong… but no, it did in fact take almost that to drive down there.
I thought I was well prepared. Katy’s fiber goodies, Pam’s angelina she needed for her phatfiber samples, camera, still sleeping child… I loaded everything into the van and set off. On the way there I stopped to collect Serious and Mazara from the vet, Serious was ready to come home. And then it occurred to me that I’d forgotten Jesse’s shoes… and a change of clothes for him… *sigh*
The drive seemed to take forever, as it always does when you’re still exhausted from a recent trip, but we made it down there well before dinner, and while the kids romped around the gardens, playhouse and swing set, Pam introduced me to my twitter acquaintance Katy Spears, known as @alpacafarmgirl. She’s fresh, energetic and comfortable amongst her own animals, it struck me how she blossomed while standing in her barn while talking about the people she’s fond of in her own alpaca circle. And it also struck me how much at times it was as if I was looking at myself, her reactions, her mannerisms, her way of talking.
And she presented me with two alpacas, Loretta and Judy, which completely floored me, and sure they have their issues and are meant as fiber animals only, but I was so very touched that she had thought of me while trying to decide where they should go. What amazed me even more is that their lineage is the same as Billie’s , the girls are out of PHAR Centaur, whereas Billie is from PHAR Online, both sires being That’s The Nuts sons.
Loretta is VERY tall, a large girl with a somewhat shy and nervous personality, Judy is very petite (like Dee was) with an amazingly soft, crimpy 18 micron fiber… impressive for a 5 year old girl that’s incubated three babies in her lifetime.
After a tour of the farm, a visit to the herdsires and the shoving of fiber into Katy’s hands, we took some pictures of us together, loaded the alpaca girls into the back of the van, rounded up our two human boys, and once again we were on the road.
Loretta had led us to believe she was a bit feisty, but to our disbelief she hung her head over the back of the seat to be close to the boys, and without even putting as much as one ear back, she tolerated their cuddles, ear pulling, cheek stroking and occassional elbow in the face. When they both fell asleep she lay her head on Jesse’s pillow and closed her own eyes… what a sweet alpaca!
We rolled in around 1am, got the girls into their quarantine pen, and as I drove off to head to Huntsville, Pam told me one of my headlights was out. A very nice police officer also felt the need to tell me same thing and pulled me over at around 2am, less than 5 minutes from home. Ah, what’s a road trip without a bit of adventure?
Photos of young Judy & Loretta (c) 2007 Piney Hills Alpaca Ranch
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