One more boy and more bear stories

Five down and only one more to go... and the last one was a white male, so we are 4 boys and 1 girl this year. This little guy doesn't have a name yet, I had a girl name picked out hoping that it would be a girl, so much for that. But he sure is cute and the delivery was easy, thank goodness.

All the other cria a doing well, Cadence and Jonah are always running around trying to get Andy to play, Molly just spits at them til they leave her alone. I call them the twins, they kinda look the same, what do you think? Jonah is the darker of the two, and his dad is Dark Fawn and Cadence dad is black, so I would have thought it would be different too. Just goes to show how much I really don't know.

On Friday night our neighbors were out of town and the bear decided that he would like in the shed where they keep corn for the deer. We heard him at about 11pm and tried to scare him off, but obviously that didn't work. The next morning we went to look at the damage, and this is what we found. Notice that the bags of corn look untouched??? Guess it was just the challenge of getting the door off that he wanted.

Cadence

Dreamcatcher Cadence

Four down and two left to go - so far we have 3 boys and 1 girl. Hopefully the last two will be girls so we can break even, and it looks like brown is my color again this year. Yesterday, August 17, Annabelle went into labor about 9:30 am and Dreamcatcher Cadence was born around 11am. Both of his front feet were kinda stuck, so I had to go in and pull them out, while my teenage son held on to Annabelle. He couldn't leave the barn fast enough when I was done with him. Even though he didn't like it, he did a great job, besides I think it builds character. As for Cadence, his name fits him, while he was getting his bearing yesterday, he was very vocal.

Jonah and Molly

Tomorrow we will be taking the stitches out of Jenis, from her c-section. Both she and Jonah are doing great. I thought I would need to be careful and watch Molly and Andy when I put Jonah in there since he was much smaller, boy was I wrong. I thought about separating them because Jonah is a terror!! He picks on Andy, and Molly is constantly spitting at him.

C-section and alpacas

There is never a dull moment around here. It was Sunday and rainy outside, we had gotten a couple of loads of crushed granite, to fill in, inside the barn, so even though it was raining we decided to work on getting the pile smaller. It took us a couple of hours and by the time we were done we were wet, I was getting ready to head to the house when I noticed that Jenis was walking around with her tail up and every time she would take a step water would drip out... obviously her water broke. This was about 2:30 in the afternoon, so I wasn't worried the baby she had last year showed up between 3-4 in the afternoon. I just hung out in the barn. She would make a trip to the poop pile then she would cush for awhile. By the time 8pm rolled around I called the vet. Of course its Sunday, things like this NEVER happen on a week day, in the middle of the day. Apparently I wasn't the only one either, the vet was busy and it took almost 1 hr before he called me back. He said I needed to go in and figure out how the baby was positioned. So I went to the house and scrubbed up and got Charlie to come hold her, it didn't take long to discover that it was a tail and a hock instead of a nose and front feet, so now it is 9:20pm and we are at least 30 min away from the vet hospital. So we get the trailer hooked up, get her in it and head down the mountain. By the time we get there the vet has called in some help and we were greeted by 3 vets and 2 techs. The vet tries to manipulate the baby so it can be delivered normally, but was unable to, so the decision was made to do a c-section. A c-section that is done on an alpaca is done under local and sedation, so we get her on the table and prepped for surgery. Jenis ends up on her back with 4 feet in the air, Charlie ends up holding the front legs, which leaves me with the back ones, where I have a view of everything that goes on. It was pretty interesting, but not for the faint of heart. The cria was delivered and there weren't any problems. We were able to bring them both home, so by the time we got home, made sure the baby was nursing and the Jenis was awake enough that she wouldn't fall on the baby, it was 2am.... way past my bedtime. Of course I woke up before 6am worried that they were ok, so got up to check on them and all was well. Later that day, imagine my surprise when I went to doctor the umbilical cord and found an extra growth where it shouldn't be - it is a boy not a girl and no one thought to correct me from the night before, they even had him upside down stitching up his umbilical. But both mom and little boy are doing great, we just have to take out some stitches in about 3 weeks.

When we thought it was a girl we were going to name her Leah, but since its a boy his name is Jonah. Remus (in the picture with Charlie above) and Eve love him and Eve keeps trying to lick him through the fence.

This is a picture of Molly and Andy - they can't wait to play with Jonah.

Molly Marine

Once again I find that time has flown, we are now into the baby season again and shearing time has come and gone. Our first cria arrived on Monday a white girl who we named Molly Marine (in honor of Dana, our daughter, who is currently serving). The picture below is of me, Dana and Rossi, it was taken on Family Day at Parris Island, the day before graduation from Boot Camp, which was April 10, 2009 - a day I will never forget, thats for sure.

We have a new guard dog, her name is Eve. At the end of May, Gonzo stopped eating on a Saturday and by the time we were able to get him to the vet, on Tuesday (Monday was a holiday) they did xrays and discovered that he had cancer and his organs were failing. What a sad, sad day. I was actually farm sitting for some friends so I wasn't even home. It's amazing how fast it all happened, the vet was actually here on that previous Friday for some alpaca stuff and he was fine but by Monday morning he had labored breathing. At least he didn't suffer for long and although his life was short, I believe it was a happy one. So, because of the bear situation last year and the fact that Remus had lost another partner (Romulus was the first) we wanted to get a replacement ASAP..... enter Eve. She is another Anatolian Shepard and is about 10 months old. We kept Eve in a stall where Remus could smell her for a couple of days then put them both on leashes out in the pasture and walked them around one evening, the next evening we kept Eve on the leash and then the next morning after feeding we let them both out. There really hasn't been a "dog fight" Remus will put Eve in her place, but there has been no blood shed. Eve is a very sweet girl. She seem to love the alpacas. Marquez put his head through the fence and while I was getting him unstuck Eve was giving him kisses, he didn't like it, but she was happy.

She also loves the baby - she lays by the fence all day. Today I think I will put them in the pasture, should be fun to watch. So Nadine is the next one due, I think she will have it next week. After that I will have a few weeks off then for the entire month of August and into Sept I will be on baby watch again.

Bruno, Tessa

I has been quite a while since I updated the post, and lots has happened. My daughter has joined the US Marine Corp and currently is in recruit training in Parris Island, SC. Although that really doesn't have to do with the Alpacas it has certainly changed things around here. We are extremely proud of her!

All of the babies have been weaned and we have started halter training. That's always fun! The babies are all that small anymore. This picture is of them eating, of course the day before, when I was inspired by this picture they all looked up at me, at the same time and I didn't have my camera, figures. From left to right (up above) they are: Ozzi, Legend, Ninah and Macey. We moved Ozzi over to the boys barn this last weekend, he was getting FAT. But he still has the personality - I close them out of the barn to clean, before feeding and I can hear him out there humming, then when I open the door he comes running for his pellets and follows me until I put a bowl down.

This is a picture of Bruno, I put this one in because he is no longer with us. We got Bruno because he was kindof sickly from the beginning. Every winter we had to put a coat on him when it got cold. This winter was no exception. It has been a warm winter for the most part, but the problem came when it was near 60 one day and dropped to the 20's the next. Of course he had his coat on, but when I went to the barn to feed he was cushed (laying down) in the barn and couldn't get up. I got a heavier blanket on him and got him under the heat lamp and put hay in front of him to eat. When Charlie got home he helped me get him up on his feet and he was fighting with Sergio over food (a good sign I thought). Needless to say he was gone the next morning despite keeping the heat lamp on all night, and it didn't get below 0. I guess it was the temp extremes. But it was very sad. He was the one who was always chewing on sticks and leaving them in the water buckets. We will miss him. I have some beautiful yarn from him, so I think I will keep some for myself. His yarn is always one of the first to go, it is very nice.

It is time to think about shearing, GWAS (a big alpaca show) babies and our semi-annual Open Barn (March 28th). Below is a picture of Tessa she is the first on the list to deliver a baby this year. It should be in mid June. She is a sweetheart. Usually alpacas don't like to be messed with, Tessa even though she is pregnant loves attention. She will just stand there and let me look at her fleece, very unusual for an alpaca. But I'm not complaining.