A Weekend Of New Experiences

Big apologies, once again, for not writing sooner. I was at the ranch last Saturday. Since then I've been crazy busy and stressed to the max. Finally, I'm slowing down enough to put two thoughts together.

It's hard to believe it rained on Saturday and I wore a sweatshirt all day. A few weeks ago, it was 110! Crazy. The Alpacas don't seem to mind the rain at all. The crias enjoy playing in drizzle, but head for the covered feeders (and mom) when it starts pouring.

Little did I know that Rick had planned to trim teeth today! Wow, that was a first for me. We brought Merlin up from Boy's Town and put him in the schute. He is such a good boy. Rick has an apparatus that is amazing. There is a metal thick plate type thingy that goes in the mouth (once you get the mouth open, that is), and someone (me) holds the head real still while Rick hits the button and POOF, the teeth are trimmed. The guard on the apparatus keeps you from going down too far. I think they are ground. At least that's what is smelled like. Smelled like a dentist's office. Plus, I didn't see any teeth pieces flying around anywhere :) It's really fast and didn't seem to both Merlin too much.

THEN, we took Merlin back and got Ambush. He's pretty hyper so Rick wanted to give him a little Pacavalium to calm him down a little before his teeth got trimmed. I got to give Ambush his shot! Wow, another first. And, of course, there is the textbook way to give a shot; then there is the "Rick way". To make sure you don't stick the needle in the animal too far, Rick cuts a piece from the syringe needle plastic cover. The remainder of the cover serves as a guard. Only a small part of the needle is exposed, therefore, you can't stick it in the animal too far. How clever is that? I held Ambush's lead pretty close to me, wrapped my left arm around his neck, put my right arm over his shoulders and gave him the shot near the right shoulder. We waited about 30 minutes, and escorted him into the schute. Once we got him all secured, Rick noticed Ambush's fighting teeth have grown back. So, until he can trim them, Ambush got a reprieve on having his front teeth trimmed.

Little Oliver is still a bottle baby. It's so sad. He is such a cutie pie, but can't seem to quite get the milk thief down real good. Rick said if a mom delivers a cria soon, after a 12 hour period, he could rub the new mom's placenta on Oliver and she will think he's her cria too. You have to wait at least 12 hours because you want the new cria to nurse that long to obtain the collostrum they need for their immune system. After that, it would be O.K. for mom to nurse her cria as well as her "adopted", Oliver. The next mom to deliver is Carmel Sunday and she has lots and lots of milk, and is a super mom. She's my Vanilla Sundae's mom.

A couple times the rain really came down hard, but for a very short period of time. It was pretty cloudy most of the day, with occasional peaks from the sun. I only walked Felix. He was his wonderful self, until he saw his mom! I walked him all through the "alley" around all the fields of girls and crias. He was having a good time sniffing the little girls as he walked by. Then, we got to the North Field, where his mom is with her cria. I think I've mentioned before she has "issues", so I won't go in a field with her. Well, Felix stopped at the fence and she came running over. Felix started clucking and lifting his tail. I thought it was so sweet that he seemed to recognize his mom. While nose to nose with him, she spit right in his face! That, clearly, upset him. Heck, it would upset me too. He was very hard to walk from that point until we reached his field. There was never a doubt in my mind that these wonderful creatures have feelings, emotions and a sensitive soul. This event just reinforced my feelings.

Guess what happens when you walk through a field of Alpacas right after it rains? If you are looking at Alpacas instead of where you are walking, you'll think you've slid in to first base!
Oh yeh, those little pellets that look like bunny poo get pretty slippery in the rain. I was walking from one field to the next and slid about 3 feet down the hill, laughing all the way. As if that wasn't bad enough, Rick was walking in the gate and saw the whole silly thing. Is I graceful? I guess that depends of what your definition of "is" "is".

Dr. Thacher was going to come out and ultrasound Meg and some of the other girls. She came out today and Meg's ultrasound was inconclusive. Apparently, Dr. Thacher could see some amniotic fluid, but couldn't do a more detailed ultrasound. She drew blood and we should have the results by next Monday. I kinda think she is by the way she acts around the boys. No, not spitting, just being her goofy self. I just love her personality. And, if she isn't pregnant, we won't be able to breed her again until mid December. Because of the cruise we are going on next October, Rick & Pati have decided to suspend the breeding program from October 1 until December 15. Our cruise is from October 18-26, 2008. They really don't want crias born while they are gone. If Star isn't already pregnant, that will impact her breeding as well. It was too soon to ultrasound Star today. She did spit off pretty good the last time she was tested. I'll just keep my fingers crossed.

I didn't take any photos today. When we weren't busy doing something with the animals, Rick was helping me set up my new laptop. I'm still adjusting to not only a new computer, but Windows Vista. I'm sure it will all make sense soon.

I helped with treats before I left. Princess will still eat from my hand. Manda Smith insists on eating out of the bucket, with Aria is right behind her. I love helping with treats as there is nothing better than being closely surrounded by dozens of wonderful Alpaca moms and crias.