Monday's suck

I go out to feed the girls this morning. This is what I find trapped in their water trough.

A (insert expletive here) RAT!

I've lived here for 4 years and I have never seen a rat on my property, now I've got them vacationing in my girl's drinking water!

I can deal with possums, racoons, moles and mice. Anything but rats. The only animal that I truly, at the root of my core, HATE! I'm not afraid of them I just find them disgusting and evil. They eat anything, destroy everything, and they are nearly impossible to get rid of. They are the cockroaches of the animal kingdom.

Now, what to DO about this rat? Let it drown? Get it out and try to kill it? Shoot it? Or just let it go? I chose to let it drown. How long does it take to drown a rat? A VERY long time appearantly. I waited over 8 hours and she was still swimming. Now what? WHACk-A-RAT!!! I grab her up by her tail, drop her into an empty feed bag. Lay the bag on the ground and WHACK! with the biggest shovel on the planet. Wow! I've never killed before. Is it wrong to get actual pleasure from ending a life? Probably. But that damn rat will not be bringing her next litter to the "swimmin' hole" anytime soon.

FINALLY...Patty has her cria!

The wait is finally over. Patty had her cria today and it's a GIRL!!! Check her out. She looks just like her momma but a smidge darker. She was born without assistance while the whole family watched. I thought I was videotaping the birth but somehow it didn't record on my camera. Oh well, maybe next time.
She tips the scales at a whopping 22.2 lbs making her the largest cria we've had here so far.
Patty and her (as yet unnamed) cria are both doing fine and resting after a tough morning. The other crias are just overjoyed at the new arrival. They take turns sniffing the baby and getting spit at by Patty.

The Trouble with Crias

Yesterday afternoon I delivered one of our recently sold juvenile males to his new home. It's a great place and I was happy he was going to be with 2 other boys that had come from our farm, not with a bunch of "strangers". I was also happy he would be with a great couple just starting out with alpacas who fell in love with him the minute they saw him. All was fine when he was delivered. He found his friends and seemed content with them. He had 3 other alpacas, a goat and a dog to play with and lots of nice green pasture. I left after we had all decided he liked his new home.

9:30pm I got a frantic phone call from the lady. The little guy I had dropped off earlier had been attacked by the dog! He was bleeding all over and she didn't know what to do. Trying to remain calm, I asked if she had called the vet yet. She hadn't, so I told her to hang up, call the vet, and I would be there as fast as I could. I was just over an hour away so I packed up all of the first aid supplies I had and hit the road, trying not to speed.

By the time I reached her the vet had been there and left. The alpaca had puncture wounds all over his body and was (not surprisingly) very shaken up. I could see him sigh when he saw my familiar face and heard my voice. The vet had cleaned him up, given him a shot of antibiotics and steroids and given them directions to try to keep him calm as the stress could kill him but he didn't feel his wounds were life-threatening. The lady was very upset, feeling it was her fault. Her beautiful little boy was hurting and could die. As we sat in the barn trying to soothe our sweet baby a storm blew up outside. It seemed appropriate. When he seemed settled and began to eat a little I felt sure he would make it so I gave the lady a hug and headed home to a worrisome night of no sleep.



The next morning when I dragged myself outside to feed my alpacas I was still worrying about the young male. As I approached the girls pasture something yellow caught my eye laying out in the field. My bloodshot eyes couldn't ascertain what it could be until one of my juvenile girls came running up at top speed looking like this.....

Never in my life have I laughed so hard. That is giant fly paper that we use in our shelters. She had unraveled an entire roll and it was stuck to her fleece from head to toe. She had wrapped it around her mouth and couldn't eat. It covered one of her eyes and held down both of her ears.

While I was unsticking the fly paper I got a phone call saying our little boy had made it through the night and was well on his way to recovery.

That's the trouble with crias. They make you laugh, they make you cry and I wouldn't have it any other way.

How to entertain your alpacas for hours

While on cria watch today with Patty...

who is clearly uncomfortable and ready to pop, I noticed something moving slowly across the pasture. Upon further investigation, since I was getting pretty tired of staring at Patty's behind waiting for the inevitable, I found a small turtle that the alpacas hadn't yet seen. I went and picked it up and placed it in the middle of the area where my females were all relaxing in the shade. They all ignored it until it began to emerge from it's shell. All at once everyone was up on their feet and dancing about. One would get close, sniff it, then leap back when it moved. Then another girl would do the exact same thing... get close, sniff, leap back... until nearly all of them had checked it out, then they began the rotation again!

This continued until the poor turtle had finally made his way to the fenceline only to find that he couldn't get through the fence! I felt sorry for the little fella and rescued him. The alpacas stood and watched him until he was completely out of sight. Maybe I should have left him trapped inside the fence so the alpacas could have a pet turtle of their own??? They would probably forget to feed him, then he'd die, I'd have to go to the pet store and buy them another one before they noticed... you know the story. Better to just let him go on home.