Hello, Peggy-O!

In late September we visited the Big Pine Acres huacaya and sheep farm just outside of Lafayette, IN. We were immediately greeted by this fluffy ball of love: a cria that needed bottle feeding. He was generous with the kisses!

We also met a cria that was just a day old, with mom. They were both humming away a mile a minute.

Jolly the llama needed some petting as well. It seemed like every single animal on this farm was just delighted to interact with us. 

Jolly told me a few secrets. I'm glad there was no spitting in my ear.

At feeding time, I had the honor of giving the bottle. It was much trickier than anticipated due to the required angle of the cria's neck and combined with a bottle let the milk out very quickly. 

After looking over the stock and admiring the many coveted gray alpacas, The Farmer decided to think about which one we would get. He also requested a breeding for the mom of the bottle-fed cria above. 

And yesterday, she got dropped off! This is Sierra Mist, who was immediately nicknamed Peggy-O, because, you know, The Grateful Dead song name is a must-have at Shady Grove.

She didn't really want to get out, and needed a little dragging to get going.

But soon there was sniffing, spitting, exploring, and making new friends. She was super excited to get some grain!

We are delighted to finally have a gray alpaca and have a few fingers crossed for a gray cria next year.

As a special treat, the former owners gifted me a skein of gray yarn from another animal on their farm. Such a sweet gesture. The yarn is so so soft!

And as if these weren't enough amazing alpaca activities for one week, my colleague and office-mate made me this fantastic shirt on her new T-shirt maker. Big thank you shout out to Dani! I am so lucky to have so many wonderful people and animals in my life!

Good-bye to the Great Greta

Today is a joyful day at Shady Grove Alpacas (more on that in a while), which underscores the need to finally finish this sad post about our dear Greta. Greta was quite possibly the best alpaca mom, who also had to deal with multiple cria losses. As with many other moms, she stood on the sides while the crias were center stage to the action in the pictures. I regret making that choice as a photographer, because she was such an AMAZING mom. She always kept in touch with her babies by humming and sniffing them. When Greta had a cria, the barn was filled with music - my favorite!

August 5th was our first trip to the Purdue Animal Hospital. Our Bella had been taken here by our neighbors while we were away several years ago. Greta had not been doing very well all day, and she was not able to get up for most of the day. We were suspecting the deer parasite, and thought she was pregnant. It was right around the time she was supposed to have a cria.  

As usual, there was a new adventure in alpaca transportation... Yes, you are looking into the trunk of my Subaru Imprezza. We lifted and slid her right in, since she wasn't getting up. When it became clear to me that I could sit in the back seat with her, I decided to hold her neck up on the two-hour ride there. That is one heavy neck!!

We had to wait outside due to COVID restrictions while the vet did the tests. Greta turned out to have renal failure, heart disease, and was not pregnant after all. The vet suggested that we euthanize her, because she probably would not make it until morning. So we drove home alone. She lived a great life, and while 15 isn't as old as some alpacas get, it was safe to assume that we had lost an animal to old age. 

While I normally would post some pictures of her life with us, I decided to tag several posts that has her as a part of the action somewhere.  Do enjoy the past posts HERE.

Rest easy, Greta - 2007 to August 5, 2021