A baby!!

After our year of so many cria losses, we needed some good news for a change. J has been looking for a way for us to have 3 2011 cria. Three gives us a cria gang to run around our farm, and 3 is the perfect number to fill a pen at a show next spring. We already have Our Peruvian Dark Thunder, but he's lonely and could use a mate or two.

This week we added this little girl:





We actually acquired 3 alpacas. Butterscotch Bay:



Bay came to live with us along with her 2010 cria and her 2011 cria. Bay was already named, but her two offspring were not. We were given the opportunity to name these two. Names are something that is often negotiated at the time of sale (unless the alpaca is already registered, in that case the name is already official). The farm that owns the dam at the time of the breeding actually has final say in the name. The farm we purchased these from asked that we use their farm name and the sire's name, but then we could name the rest. We decided to go with a water theme for Bay's offspring (each of our breeding females has a theme for their offspring). We have always wanted to have a line with The Deadliest Catch names (The Deadliest Catch is a tv show on the Discovery Channel). Long ago we mentioned how there were so many names associated with this show that would make great alpaca names.

The 2011 cria we named Dutch Harbor (her official registered name will be JLFA Frango's Dutch Harbor). On the farm we will call her "Dutch". Those who watch the show will recognize the name as the port in Alaska. Dutch is one of the first cria from her sire, JLFA Casanova's Peruvian Frango, an award winning rose grey male. Dutch is only a couple of weeks old:



Dutch with her mom, Bay:




Bay's 2010 cria is a fawn boy we named The Northwestern (his registered name will be JLFA Pot of Gold's Northwestern). His farm nick name will be "Sig", who is the captain of the Northwestern on The Deadliest Catch. Here is Sig:



Sig does have a patch of fiber that was shaved down on his neck. It was not a medical issue. His former owner let a local vet school practice on Sig. Poor guy was a pin cushion for learning vets to practice drawing blood. Sig is fine and since we need more vets who specialize in alpacas, I can only hope he won their hearts over.

The interesting thing about Sig is that he's Victoria's half-brother's half-brother. I love to play on family trees. While this is true, he and Victoria are not related at all. Victoria has the same mother as SHVN The Buccaneer (he was a male we bred to Kateri to produce Pocahontas), Buc's father is Pot of Gold just like Sig. I do have to say that we LOVE Buc (he is the reason I fell in love with black alpacas). So we were excited at a chance to acquire a boy from Pot of Gold. Within the alpaca community, it's not usual to find common ancestors. It actually can be difficult to find new lines to add to your herd. We are at the point we don't want to see another alpaca join our farm who has Royal Fawn in their background. While Royal Fawn has produced some incredible alpacas, we don't want him in both the male's and female's lineage. Thankfully these new alpacas bring new genetics to our herd.