Friday, April 27, 2007

The Rroundup...

Husband was on a Craig's List binge again... I was dutifully ignoring him, the last two or three things he'd gone after had been sold as soon as he'd called. (One thing I have learned about Craig's List, the old axiom "he who hesitates is lost" is SO true!) At any rate, I figured he had another on his list of "Hmmm, will this work on the boat/welder/car/whatever?"

Until he called for me to come look at what he'd found. Four beautiful, if unkempt, fuzzy faces looking at me from the screen. The ad said 4 llamas, free to good home, we are moving. Husband called. I, ever the optimist, figured they were long gone. He, ever the real optimist, found out not only were they NOT gone, we were first in line to get them. We made arrangements, and borrowed a friend's horse trailer, (didn't think Husband's flatbed would be really all that comfortable for them...)

We arrived at the place, after about an hour and some drive. There they were, in a BIG field, and not fenced in. Hmm. We buzzed up to the house, met the people who were very nice, but then they asked, well, have you ever caught llamas before? I shrugged, Husband shrugged, uh, no... She smiled, "well, this ought to be interesting, neither have we, and these guys are almost wild again." Uh, oh.

Husband and I walked to the llamas. They walked away. We wandered to them again, they wandered away faster. Okay... The gal's husband started to make for one of them, and after about 30 minutes of struggle, got it, snorting and blowing, and at least one spit, into the trailer. I was looking at Husband, mentally asking "Are we going to be able to DO this?" He must have passed Mind Reading 101, as he seemed to know what I had telepathied, "They got one, let's give them a chance to get the rest corralled." Uh. Ok... ?

I watched for the most part, as I am not able to run much, and that was the basic plan of the guys. Run fast after llama, then throw rope over neck, walk to trailer while feeding sweet mix, then push llama in trailer. This, surprisingly, worked rather well, except llama #1 kept wanting to LEAVE the trailer, as we were putting #2 and #3 in. This was prevented by a unique method, push nose of llama #1 back, put dog fencing on rear of llama #2 and push like holy... uh... heck. Then came the last one. #4. OY VEY and a half!

Llama #4 had a halter on. The gal said, oh, this one has a little attitude. Meanwhile, in the trailer, llama #1, male, was trying to get it on with llama #2, female, and she wasn't having any of it, HAWKSPITOOOOO!!! His face, his neck, and most of the front window of the trailer were now covered in greenish spit goo. He stopped. Quickly.

I watched as the guys ran her round and around and around, and behind the house, down to the fence, back up, behind the fence again, finally, someone blocked the fence entrance off. Llama #4 then had a rope put round her neck. That's when all hell broke loose she showed her attitude a bit. She proceeded to start snorting, grunting, and pulling on the rope. They told Husband to back the trailer up close so she could get in quickly, because they wanted to keep from being stomped to death wanted to keep her from stressing out too much. Her? Stressed? This coming from the guy that was mud brown from the knees down, and llama spit Green from the chest up? Uh, sure...

I was busy picking up straps and ropes and getting our stuff back to the truck, when I heard it. The llama is REALLY furious, and is going to bite gonads if people don't let her loose, yesterday scream. Oh, goody. We are bringing this demon from the lowest depths very self-assured animal HOME? I had visions of her vaulting across the yard, spitting to blind, and kicking to paralyze! But, they managed to get them all in the trailer. We waited a few minutes to let them calm down, while I got some information about them (the previous owners had 'dumped' them on these people, who gave them food, but not much attention, then moved from the place we were at, so needed them gone, as the new place wasn't suitable.) Husband looked in the trailer, and 2 of the 4 had sat down, and the other two were calmly sniffing the food on the floor. We took that as a good sign, and headed home.

We arrived, and after scaring up an extra gate, (we wanted to fence them out of the chicken yard, as we found out they adore grain, and we leave the door to the hen house open, where the grain is stored), we let them out. They jumped out, and looked around, incredibly confused. They had gone from half inch high, washed out grass, to belly high dark green grass. The confusion didn't seem to last to long, they figured out it was "good eats", and started munching away. The chickens on the other hand, nearly had simultaneous apoplexy when all these llamas started barrelling out of the trailer. In fact, they all fled to the hen house, and peeked out occasionally, squawking in abject terror when one was close.

They have been here about 3 days now, and the chickens are still wary of the llamas. After an intense stare session by the llamas, they just ignore the chickens now. And I have been able to feed the male. And Miss Attitude. Maybe there is hope for us yet!

So, I now introduce... (PUN ALERT! Yes these are the actual names I chose for them!)

Lorenzo, the male.


Rama...



Lama...



And she of the attitude, Ding-Dong.


So, I now have 4 furry friends for fiber fun! (Oh, good grief, that was bad, even for me. But they are my new spinning buddies. Or at least they will be after we get the matted mess cleaned up. Wish me luck!)

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