Goodbye Sig

This weekend was full of goodbyes. On Saturday Kateri and Snickers left our farm for their new home in PA. Today JLFA Pot of Gold's Northwestern, AKA "Sig" left our farm.

He only came to live with us this past September (story of his arrival is here).



We decided that he is not herdsire quality, and not even just that we wouldn't use him as a breeding male, but that we don't think anyone should us him that way. This makes him a fiber boy (AKA pet/4H animal/companion animal). While I love to spin fiber into yarn, I have plenty of fiber from our breeding animals, I'm not interested in keeping fiber only animals. So we were looking for a nice home for Sig.

At the same time, a family just a couple hours drive from us was looking for a companion for their horse. Their horse was struggling with separation anxiety and needed a companion. They contacted us to see if Sig would work as a companion. While typically alpacas are in herds and that is generally the preferred home for them, many alpacas also lead happy healthy lives as a guardian for sheep, or as a companion for other animals. The key being they have to be with other animals. An alpaca on their own would be very stressed, unhappy, and ultimately not healthy.

We brought him to his new home today. The entire family came out to greet him and learn about him. They were very excited for him to arrive and I can just tell they are going to love and spoil him just like he deserves.

We gave them a run down on all the alpaca health information. Then we helped get him in the pen with their horse. Both animals were curious, but also friendly to each other. Sig and the horse both took some sniffs at each other, but then Sig went to investigate and took a walk through their pasture. By the time we were leaving the horse was following Sig wherever he went. Maybe Sig will be the leader of that herd :)