Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Our Llamas

We have two beautiful llamas - Gumby and Thunder.  They are majestic looking with sweet temperaments. We bought these two boys as guards for our alpacas because our farm borders the forest on two sides.  They are there to scare away the coyotes, wild dogs, and anything else that might be lurking around. Gumby is on the "boys" side, while Thunder is with the girls.  I call Thunder "Mama Thunder" because he is always so protective of the mother alpacas and their crias. Whenever anyone goes down to the barn, Thunder is the first one out, checking on who it is.  If we are doing shots or cutting nails, he is always looking over our shoulders, making sure we are not hurting his "babies".  Some days you can find him cushed in the field surrounded by the cria who are about six weeks old, named Chrissy, Luna, Chocolat, and Midnight Star. In July, before these cria were born, it was time to wean the boys born last year. They were a year old and needed to leave their moms who were about to give birth.  When we put the yearling boys over on the boy's side of the barn, Thunder paced back and forth along the fence line.  Gumby was nearby and it appeared that Thunder was giving him strict orders to take good care of "his" boys. Well, Gumby took his strict orders about his new charges very seriously.  Every time the two yearlings wanted to go outside and play in the field, Gumby would run after them and herd them right back into the barn! This went on for over a week.

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