Farewell my friend

This past week we said goodbye to three of our boys.

Snowstorm:



Apollo's Griffon



and OHVNA The Cavalier



These boys went to their new home, at a farm who is just starting their adventure with alpacas. I know these boys will have a great time at their new home.

While every alpaca on our farm is important to me, some stand out for one reason or another. While Snowstorm is *just* a gelding, he has always been one of my favorites. The first three alpacas on our farm were Kateri, Hana's Victoria and Snowstorm. Snowstorm was a gelding, but he was there to give us a complete herd (you need at least 3 to be herd). And he was a great guardian to our girls. The first few days they were on our farm, I was so sad because when I arrived to feed them, they would run out of the barn and get as far from me as they could. I had been so excited to have them on our farm, that it really hurt my feelings when they did that. I knew it was normal, but still it was hard. After they had been on our farm a few days I was in the pasture doing some cleaning when I felt breathe on my neck. I turned to see Snowstorm jump. He had been following me! As long as I didn't look at him, he'd creep closer behind me. The second I'd turn towards him he would jump back. This became our daily routine.

In those beginning years Snowstorm was invaluable to us. He was there when we just had Kateri and Victoria to give us a herd. When we added more alpacas to our herd, we could put Snowstorm in with any age and sex and he would be their guardian. We had a wealing pen, with only two young girls in there, so Snowstorm went in with them. He was gentle and acted as a loving uncle to them. Later on there came a time we had some older rambunctious boys. We put Snowstorm in with those boys and the fighting decreased significantly. Our farm has now gotten to the size that we have plenty of weanlings to fill a pen and don't need an extra gelding in there to make a herd. Ours years of needing Snowstorm have come to an end. We decided it was time for Snowstorm to go on to a new home that could use his services.

I will miss Snowstorm.

I don't mean to leave Apollo and Cavalier out of my story, but the truth is that I'm not as attached to them. There really was something about Snowstorm that stood out to me personally. I do remember the day Cavalier was born. Emma had walked home ahead of me, but called to let me know she found a baby on the ground. I rushed home to see our new cria. Here was this fluffy fawn boy, that took us days to come up with a name for him. He was too pretty for any of the macho names we had been considering. Once I thought of Cavalier, we knew it was perfect. Even though he acts like he thinks he could be tough, he's so pretty he looks elegant and luxurious.

I wish our new friend well with their adventures in alpacas.