Stubborn with an attitude

Marrisa is a girl out of the foundation herd.  She is one of the original girls here on the farm and is in no uncertain terms the leader of the herd.  She recently returned from being bred at Avalon Alpaca Farm who co-owns her.  In their herd of 80 or so I don””t think she makes the impression she does here on a small farm.  Here her attitude and stubborn determination makes her the leader of the herd.  I love this girl.  If you watch her she knows just what she wants and goes about getting it without the rest of the herd ever questioning a  thing.  If she thinks it is time to go to the pasture she takes off and not one of the other girls questions it, they all follow her lead.  (Even her daughter Mikayla who is a want to be leader.)  When Marrisa feels it is time to go in, in comes the herd.  When I halter Marrisa up she acts as if I tried to overthrow the government.  Once the halter is on however her facade starts to fall and I put my arm around her neck.  I laugh and tell her the she doesn””t fool me, I know she loves me and that she is nothing more then a big softy.  She looks at me knowing the gig is up, at least with me.  I laugh at her and sent her on her way.  She has so much to do to keep this herd in line.  It pays to be stubborn with an attitude, at least in her world as Queen of the Herd.

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I am my Brothers Keeper

Shooter is a young male alpaca who was born last summer on the farm.  From the very beginning he was the kind of independent cria that would drive a mom crazy.  No matter how much humming or clicking Lilly would do Shooter had his own thoughts about how his life should be spent.  Most days you would see him wander away from mom to explore the world on his own.  That plan continued for Shooter until fall came around and a little cria named Brighton was born.  Brighton has lived his life with caution.  He spent the first weeks glued to his mother with little thought of what might be beyond the grass around his feet.  He was happy to be a momma’s boy..  That was until Shooter decided they should be friends.  From the moment Shooter decided Brighton was going to be his friend he took his responsibilities with the ut  most seriousness.  Shooter would pull Brighton away from his mother going sometime to the extreme of running at him at full speed and knocking him over until Brighton would have to chase him.  When Brighton realized his running took him away from mom he would swing around to run back only to have Shooter cut him off and knock him down again as if to say, “You don’t need her, now stand up and let’s explore.”  This went on for some time but eventually Shooter began to win the battle.  Brighton was now following Shooter around instead of his mother.

Now, we find ourselves a year later and the boys have long been separated from their mothers.  But their friendship has stayed.  Shooter  has become Brighton’s protector.  Brighton doesn’t really need a protector but the relationship seems to work for the two of them.  They are inseparable.  . Shooter will not let any one else in the herd do anything to Brighton that he feels is unfair.  Mess with Brighton and you have Shooter to deal with.  The Lone Ranger and Tonto had nothing on these two  Yes, Shooter is truly Brighton’s keeper and that is a good thing.

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Almost Winter

It is almost winter here at Encore and we have begun to prepare for the cold winter winds.  Even the animals seem to know that the warm sunny days are numbered and they try to enjoy every moment that they can.  Do they really have a sense of what is coming?  Do they feel the days shorten and sense these cool nights mean no more lush pasture for months.  I think they do.  They just don’t talk about it as much as I do…

The cria’s are now eating grain in the cria pen and loving every min of it.  They think dinner time is now great fun since they get to act like the rest of the big alpacas and have their own pen to go into for grain. Sima who is one of the older cria’s has not been interested in things so unimportant as grain, until today.  Today she finally took a mouth full.  She immediately knew why the other cria had loved it so much,  it was delicious.  Such big gals in such little bodies.

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