The tears behind the story

First, thank you all for your congratulations :) We'll pass them along to the boy alpaca when we get him back here with us, which we're hoping will be Tuesday at the latest, because oh my god . . . we need to rescue him.

We've had him agisting with a friend who raises her own alpacas. Backstory for those who don't know: Hannibal was coming to maturity as a sexually active male, which meant that he was bothering the females, being somewhat aggressive toward the still young Adama, and generally needing to be separated from the females and the crias. Unfortunately we did't have the males' shelter and paddock down yet, so our friend said she'd take him since she's been keeping our herdsire Iceman for the same reason.

Anyway, Hannibal has been there for five weeks, but we haven't seen him for the past four; we'd get frequent reports and everything sounded fine. We saw him yesterday when they unloaded him at the show grounds and we nearly fell over. He's so thin! And his fleece has lost its lustre, and he walks very stiffly now, as if his hip joints are frozen. He looked so pathetic that darlong started crying. We were appalled.

It turns out that they don't feed their alpacas very much, and our poor boy is literally wasting away. Now keep in mind that this isn't malicious on their part; their alpacas are healthy - small for their age but healthy. And Iceman is looking good, but he was a full-on adult when we brought him to their farm. Hannibal, however, is not thriving at all. We were so shocked by his appearance that we'd decided not to show him at all, and pulled his name from the list.

Our friend didn't realize that, and when it came time for his category to be shown and we didn't appear to lead him out, she threw a lead on him and took him into the ring. Where he won second place. It was all over before we knew about it. And then Dar got chewed out by one of the officials for not caring enough to be there to show him, and he was such a beautiful animal, and he should be taken away from her (us)! WTF!! So Dar explained what had happened and that's when I stumbled onto the scene and found out what was going on. Meanwhile our friend is just beaming because she got Hannibal into the ring on time and he won. And what were going to say: she was only trying to help and she was so proud for us.

It's just a mess. They (she and her husband) are our friends; none of this is malicious, but it's obviously harmful for Hannibal. (sffan, honestly - you'd be very upset at how he looks.) I know it sounds like we're being hysterical because after all . . . he won. But really, he was a robust, spectacular looking alpaca. (Ok, goofy, too.) But now he's thin and listless and obviously depressed. We took turns staying back by the pens where he and the other alpacas were kept, taking him for walks off and on and just generally keeping an eye on him; at one point he was kushed on the ground with his head and neck straight out on the ground in front of him instead of held up. Everyone who I told that to was concerned, because that's a sign that the alpaca is either sick or very stressed. Our poor guy.

So we're trying to come up with a quick solution so we can get him back here and get some meat on him again, let alone improve his disposition. The new paddock and permanent shelter can't go up yet, because the ground is too muddy to either put in the fencing or prepare the ground for seeding. We'll come up with something, because all of us are just feeling so worried and, I have to admit, guilty. We'll get him back to his old self, I know it, and then watch out - he won't just be a champion in Ontario. We're aiming for world domination :)