The End of an Era

In the string of odd weather we've been having lately, we woke up socked in by fog, an auspicious beginning for our llamas last day here.

Toni showed up a little before 9:00 and by then the fog was gone.  She has lost about 100 pounds over the past couple of years.  She looks great and her health is much improved.

We call her the llama whisperer.

The smaller darker llama on the left is Zaria, who was five when we bought her 12 years ago, and her daughter Zephie on the right was just a year old.  Zaria has been halter trained; Zephie has not.

 Toni was pleasantly surprised that Zephie let her easily slip on the halter.

And she had absolutely no problem leading her to the trailer.

And that's when it got complicated.  Toni expected to have trouble haltering her.  The trouble was that Zephie was not going into that dark trailer.  We took turns pushing and pulling to no avail.  We got so winded we had to take breaks, but even with the enticement of alfalfa hay and COB (corn, oats, barley) which she ordinarily loves, it was a no go.  Finally Toni decided to get mama instead and left her tied up to the back of the trailer.

Zaria stuck her head in the trailer, and as soon she smelled the alfalfa, she was in.  Toni closed that stall and we went back to work on Zephie.  I got the bucket of COB and stood in front of her with a hand full right under her mouth.  She was happy to eat it - llama candy - so I inched it a little towards me while Ian and Toni pushed.  I could see her legs were shaking from exhaustion so we gave a big push and pull and she was in - finally!  She instantly kushed (knelt) and we had a hard time getting her butt all the way in to close the stall door.

One in and kushed, Zephie wasn't going to budge so when her mama llama was turning around to watch what we were doing, Zephie reared her head back and that's all the accommodation she was willing to make.  Poor scared girl.

And yes, Toni has pack llamas.

And this is how they ended up turned around as it was time to go.  Notice Zephie hasn't budged one bit.  They're really beautiful girls.

And then it was over, both kushed for the ride - the end of an era.  I talked to Toni later today to verify her PO address.  I was putting some paperwork away and found the llama registration that I couldn't locate when she was here.  She said they transported and unloaded just fine.  She took that opportunity to shear them both and now they're turned out with her llamas in a smaller pen, getting a sense of their home.  Another piece of moving puzzle falls into place.