After twelve, yes twelve, days of travel, the new llamas arrived yesterday morning. They weren’t in the cleanest state but they were in good spirits. I wouldn’t choose to put any animal through 12 days of travel, so if asked if I would do it again my answer would be no. But alas, we didn’t know there would be delay upon delay when we decided to do this. And l always choose local animals when possible, but unfortunately llamas are hard to find in Texas and when you find one they’re basically backyard breeders that I don’t want to support that have llamas that would take forever to tame.
I’m just thankful that they are home and seem very healthy. I am also glad we ended up getting two so they had each other on the trek and they’re in for an easier adjustment since they’ve been friends “forever.”
We’ve only known them a day and they say it takes a few weeks (or a month?) for true personality to really come out. But so far all three of our llamas are vastly different. Llami Salami, who has been here about six weeks, is curious about people, loves cookies, loves walks, hates pigs, is a bit skittish, and doesn’t like to be petted. Freedom (Cupcake may be his permanent name but it’s too soon to tell what name he will send us) likes to walk right behind me and all but run over me, is interested in people, doesn’t give a hoot about cookies, is neutral about pigs, is not skittish, and enjoys being petted but he doesn’t keep his ears in an upright curious way as much (also he has permanent stitches in one ear from another llama biting his ear and doing severe damage, so that could be part of it). Star Spangled Banner (he gave me the name Jesse while I was walking him but we’ll see if he sticks with it) is calm, friendly, loves pets, is not skittish, and sniffs cookies but won’t eat them. He absolutely loves hay. In fact, while Llami goes through one flake of hay per day, the two new guys ate five flakes yesterday (or more—I lost count!). I’m not sure if their journey made them extra hungry or what, but I can’t say I expected that. However they are very “thick” llamas, good sized, not boney the way Llami is, so maybe they just eat more. While Llami would be very uncomfortable to ride on (kids under 60 pounds only!) the two new guys would be great. But while Llami’s back legs look pretty safe, these new guys could really send a powerful kick if they wanted to! Luckily they are so calm and people-centric I don’t see it being an issue. I have this weird thing about new animals—because I don’t know them I always find them a bit “scary” for the first few days. I’m hesitant to hang out with them until I have a better understanding of who they are. So that’s where I’m at with these two. I think I got Christine to walk Llami for the first week because I was afraid he might do something I didn’t expect. Now we’re good because I know him.
Like I said before, all animals require learning a new language if you want to connect, communicate, and bond well. We have goat down. We have pig down. Horses, well, we both grew up with them so that was easy. Llamas though are a language we are still learning.
Llami has been very curious about the new llamas but we’ve got them in quarantine so they won’t get to know each other until it’s safe to do so. He already seems happier though to know that llamas are near.
Yesterday we kept the new guys in a stall so they could look around and take in their new environment, get used to pig and chicken noises, etc. We walked them around yesterday evening on their halters/leads so that they could learn about their new enclosure. An electric fence will be new for them and they have more neck hair so they may not feel it. Llamas are usually pretty respectful of fencing but their old fencing was much taller so that will be another adjustment for them. We had planned to let them out today but we woke up to a big rainstorm so they will be in for another day. The good news is, they arrived into cooler weather; the high is only 84 today whereas it was 105 just a week and a half ago. I will have their hair cut shorter as soon as the shearer is able to come.
For now I’m thinking that Banner/Jesse/? is the most solid of the three and will be ready for Llama-grams (a COVID-safe activity in which someone orders a llama sent to a loved one and we arrive and prance around in their front yard with llama dressed up in a themed costume and kept at a distance) and even carting soon. He’s the oldest llama so it does make sense he’s probably had more training and I know he has been in parades and on errands to Tractor Supply.
We still don’t have our cart yet, not that there’s much hurry for it since we have to work on getting them used to the driving harness first. It sounds complicated and not a lot of information is out there—I have a DVD about how to train them and I’ll go from there. (And of course bonding is #1 priority before even training them.)
It’s a lot in the heat and I have no idea how slowly or quickly the training will go. People keep asking me if llamas are intelligent and I don’t really know what to say. Intelligent how? They care about people a lot. They observe EVERYTHING. So in that way, yes they are. Are they easy to train? Heck if I know…but I’ll find out soon enough.
Oh and back to the name thing, I will say that I thought all the names they came with were decent names. I’ve even been feeling a new sense of patriotism this year so I enjoyed “Freedom” and “Star Spangled Banner” (not so much plain Banner, though SSB is a mouthful). And Indigo—Llami’s first name. All good. But sometimes the animals love their names and sometimes not. Sometimes they love them yet want a new name for a new chapter of their lives. These two new guys haven’t really told me yet, other than a flash of the name Jesse while I was walking SSB, and “Cupcake” appeared today while I was sitting inside looking at a picture of Freedom’s one blue eye. My childhood pug was named Cupcake, named by me when I was 3. I’ve also read a book about llama packing with a llama named Cupcake, so it’s probably more me thinking of that than a name he has chosen for himself. We’ll see what shakes out.