Welcome back! Our new Llama family members really fit in quickly and nicely. They seemed very happy being part of the ranch and seemed to really thrive in the new surroundings. As I mentioned before, they were professionals and showed it in the way they acted. I know my mom’s team was pleased to have them and I think Louie was happy as well. Life on the ranch was great. We all had our day to day responsibilities and tasks. A herd cannot survive without everyone carrying their weight and we made sure everyone understood their roles and followed herd rules. We are a close unit and that made things much easier.
From time to time, our normal days were broken up with visitors. They called these visits, an Open House. We liked Open Houses, because it meant more food for us. All we had to do was look cute and not spit at anyone! Visitors = food! Our humans would put our halters on us and walk us out of our pastures to meet the visitors in front of our barns. At first, we were a little scared, leaving our pasture and seeing so many different faces, but we quickly learned that these days were a good thing.
The visitors always want to pet us. We usually allowed them to pet our necks as long as they had a big handful of grain as payment. Sometimes there were little Cria humans, which were shorter than us. We really enjoyed them, even though their hands didn’t hold as much grain as the adults! They seemed to really enjoy petting us and while we weren’t crazy being touched, we put up with it. Remember we weren't allowed to spit! They would usually make noises like “Ooooh and Ahhh” after touching our fleece. We thought it was funny, but we didn’t say anything. They were learning about our breed and we loved showing off our heritage!
Our team was very good at looking cute and posing with the visitors for pictures! Alpacas are normally timid, but grain is a great reward for being brave. We also knew our humans would never let anyone hurt us and we also knew Louie was watching. Of course, he was eating too, but he always had one eye on us. He didn’t like it when the humans took us out of our pasture, but he would stand by the gate His job was to always protect us, and he took it very seriously!
After several hours of acting adorable, smiling for the cameras and eating handful after handful of grain, we were exhausted and very full! We usually slept well after the Open Houses. It was fun meeting new people who appreciated alpacas, llamas and our ranch. It was also a nice break from our normal routine.
We took pride in our ability to represent Huacayas and I know the Llamas felt the same about their group. All in all, the Open Houses every few months were great! Many humans came back over and over again, so I guess they enjoyed themselves. We always enjoyed the yummy grain. You can never have too much grain! We look forward to new and exciting adventures coming up soon - B