![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
So we took Hannibal to the Rockton World's Fair to show him in the ring. We were also showing Neo at the same time. Since Neo is more skittish and Hannibal is more of an old hand in the show ring, and because I was a lupus-fried space cadet that day, it was decided that I'd handle Hannibal and Dar would handle Neo.
Uh . . . best laid plans and all that.
Hannibal was really on edge, because we had him in a pen just about 10 feet away from an open female. Hannie is an alpha stud male. Biological imperative says MUST MATE. But he couldn't because of so many reasons. So I get in the ring, and the judge is very well-known (except by me because I have no memory of her) and quite snarky. She also has a specific way she wants the alpacas shown: march in like this, turn like this, face the alpaca in that direction, lalalalala. Very little of which Hannibal would comply with.
We came to the point where she wanted everyone to place their alpacas in front of them facing to the left. I tug on Hannie's lead. Resistance. I tug a little more insistently - nothing. I hear people start laughing and I look down and Hannie is peeing like Niagara Falls after a hard rain. He peed and he peed and he peed and he peed some more. Literally minutes went by. The judge joked about taking a lunch break. Finally he stopped. And started to poop. At least that didn't take too long. So I'm finally turning him around in circles trying to get him to line up right and not step in the poo pile. I should also note that by this point the seat of my pants was covered in straw and dirt, my shirt was coming untucked, and my show number was both wrong and turned inside out. (In our rush to get into the ring - because they changed the show order without letting us know until the last minute - Dar and I had switched show numbers). I'd also just a few days prior to this received that disastrously short haircut, so my medically-induced bald spots in back were on full display. Let's just say that the whole performance was not pretty. Pretty funny, but not pretty.
The judge starts her individual inspection of the alpacas: checking their conformation, their bite and, since this was the male category, their testicles. She gets to Hannie and me and asks me to show her his teeth. I try to open his mouth, which is the wrong thing to do - you just have to pull back his lips and show her the bite. I know this - except I completely blew it because I was so spaced out. I'm wrestling with Hannibal for a few seconds before the judge kindly reminded me to just pull back on his lips. *shame spiral begins* Then on to the testicles. Being already hot and bothered by the open female earlier, he was not up for having no humans messing about with his testicles. More wrestling, but we got it done.
Amazingly, in spite of my poor handling, he won first place. Because he's Hannibal and he's spectacular. So the announcer calls his name, and the ring manager tells everyone they can leave, which I conclude means me, too. So I start to take off with Hannibal when the judge has to call me back. She said something snarky and very funny, and I wish to hell I could remember exactly what it was, because I laughed my ass off after she said it.
All of the suri First Prize winners were called back later for the Best in Show competition, and things went much more smoothly then. He didn't pee, I didn't space out (too much), and he won that prize, too.
It wasn't my first time in the alpaca show ring, but it was my wildest. Even more so than the time Ripley decided to throw herself down on the ground int he middle of the ring and refused to get up until the judge told us to get out. Showing alpacas, guys. Not for the faint of heart :)
Uh . . . best laid plans and all that.
Hannibal was really on edge, because we had him in a pen just about 10 feet away from an open female. Hannie is an alpha stud male. Biological imperative says MUST MATE. But he couldn't because of so many reasons. So I get in the ring, and the judge is very well-known (except by me because I have no memory of her) and quite snarky. She also has a specific way she wants the alpacas shown: march in like this, turn like this, face the alpaca in that direction, lalalalala. Very little of which Hannibal would comply with.
We came to the point where she wanted everyone to place their alpacas in front of them facing to the left. I tug on Hannie's lead. Resistance. I tug a little more insistently - nothing. I hear people start laughing and I look down and Hannie is peeing like Niagara Falls after a hard rain. He peed and he peed and he peed and he peed some more. Literally minutes went by. The judge joked about taking a lunch break. Finally he stopped. And started to poop. At least that didn't take too long. So I'm finally turning him around in circles trying to get him to line up right and not step in the poo pile. I should also note that by this point the seat of my pants was covered in straw and dirt, my shirt was coming untucked, and my show number was both wrong and turned inside out. (In our rush to get into the ring - because they changed the show order without letting us know until the last minute - Dar and I had switched show numbers). I'd also just a few days prior to this received that disastrously short haircut, so my medically-induced bald spots in back were on full display. Let's just say that the whole performance was not pretty. Pretty funny, but not pretty.
The judge starts her individual inspection of the alpacas: checking their conformation, their bite and, since this was the male category, their testicles. She gets to Hannie and me and asks me to show her his teeth. I try to open his mouth, which is the wrong thing to do - you just have to pull back his lips and show her the bite. I know this - except I completely blew it because I was so spaced out. I'm wrestling with Hannibal for a few seconds before the judge kindly reminded me to just pull back on his lips. *shame spiral begins* Then on to the testicles. Being already hot and bothered by the open female earlier, he was not up for having no humans messing about with his testicles. More wrestling, but we got it done.
Amazingly, in spite of my poor handling, he won first place. Because he's Hannibal and he's spectacular. So the announcer calls his name, and the ring manager tells everyone they can leave, which I conclude means me, too. So I start to take off with Hannibal when the judge has to call me back. She said something snarky and very funny, and I wish to hell I could remember exactly what it was, because I laughed my ass off after she said it.
All of the suri First Prize winners were called back later for the Best in Show competition, and things went much more smoothly then. He didn't pee, I didn't space out (too much), and he won that prize, too.
It wasn't my first time in the alpaca show ring, but it was my wildest. Even more so than the time Ripley decided to throw herself down on the ground int he middle of the ring and refused to get up until the judge told us to get out. Showing alpacas, guys. Not for the faint of heart :)
Alpaca Fight
29 April 2010 18:53
Valentino chases Hannibal with intent to do harm. They're both machos (adult male studs), and sometimes the testosterone flies.
( They're not always fluffy and goofy. )
Alpaca news
25 September 2009 10:56This will be of more interest to some than others, but I'm here to report that Sparky the Ambiguously Gay Alpaca is now Spartacus the Macho Male Horndog. Dar heard him orgling* the females a few days ago. That was strange enough, but yesterday the Testosterone Fairy stopped by and whopped him in the (truly impressive) testicles. Or something. He was suddenly Threat #1 as far as our herd sire Hannibal was concerned - and with good reason. Spark was going bonkers trying to get through the fence so he could get at the open female. (Who I'm guessing is Cinnamon Girl.) Hannibal was still in with the girls at that point. He was on one side of the fence; Sparky and his little shadow (Neo) were on the other side and the spit was flying fast and furious. Then Hannibal tried to climb the fence to get at Sparky. Then Sparky tried checking out how he could crawl under the fence to get in with the girls. I managed to get Hannibal back into his own paddock, and then I started trying to batten down the portions of the wire fencing that were loose enough for Sparky to try to crawl under. I'm not sure he would have made it all the way through, but it would have been a hell of a mess if he got stuck and I had to try to free him by myself.
Everyone mostly settled down once I separated Hannibal out. I think it was the fact that there was an adult male in with the girls that was causing all of the problems. BTW, our other horndog, Valentino, was blissfully ignoring all of the testosteronics, which is very strange in and of itself. I don't get those boys sometimes.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
*Orgling is the sound a male alpaca makes when he wants to mate or is in the process of mating. It's a pretty unique sound if difficult to describe. Think of it as sounding like an animal humming while he gargles. Loudly.
Everyone mostly settled down once I separated Hannibal out. I think it was the fact that there was an adult male in with the girls that was causing all of the problems. BTW, our other horndog, Valentino, was blissfully ignoring all of the testosteronics, which is very strange in and of itself. I don't get those boys sometimes.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
*Orgling is the sound a male alpaca makes when he wants to mate or is in the process of mating. It's a pretty unique sound if difficult to describe. Think of it as sounding like an animal humming while he gargles. Loudly.
(no subject)
21 August 2009 20:17Hannibal, our herd sire, got his right rear leg well and truly trapped in the fence this afternoon. Dar found him lying on his side, then ran back to the house to get Maddie and me. Maddie fended off the rest of herd while I held Hannie and Dar cut him free. We're hoping that his leg is bruised and inflamed rather than broken, but we'll know more tomorrow after the swelling goes down. Dar gave him a shot of banamine (pain med plus anti-inflammatory), and he seemed to be doing OK walking and balancing on it. Send good thoughts, guys. Hannie is very special to us.
It just never seems to end, you know? One piece of good news is usually surrounded by three that are bad. At least there is good news: we've got a third offer coming in for the house. That one is still being negotiated. So that means that every showing has resulted in an offer. We can't really grasp the popularity of this place. We didn't really like it when we bought it; we just needed a place in a hurry after the original Casa sold. I'm figuring that it's a combination of the two out buildings (both with water and electricity) and the fact that it's priced to sell. I was telling Dar that while we're not getting our money back on the cost of installing the barns, it's increased the salability of the place.
Meanwhile the ongoing saga of my battle with Immigration has reached a ridiculous point: they have no idea where my paperwork is. None. Their only ray of hope is that the woman I talked with two months ago - the one who said she knew where that last missing piece of info was being held up and was going to walk down the hall to fetch it - will be back at work on Tuesday. She has apparently been gone since that day. Because that's the way my world rolls. Eight months guys. My visa - and my health insurance - expired eight months ago. I just . . . I just want it fixed, you know?
I'm still on a higher dose of prednisone because of the tomato flare, and it's the usual good news/bad news. Good - no joint pain! The trade-off in trying to get off of pred is that joint pain increases. While I'm trying to fight off this latest flare, my joints are feeling pretty good. I can make a fist! Y'all should fear me :) The downside is increased insomnia and hunger. I've still got this incredible fatigue, though. And a shelf full of uneaten tomatoes.
We had a crazy storm yesterday. Torrential horizontal rain. The wind was so strong and sustained that I can't believe we didn't lose any trees. We lost a large old tree a few days ago as the result of wind storm, but this time we lucked out. No tornado, either, thankfully, although a small town in southern Ontario was just about leveled by one with this latest storm. I had no idea that southern Ontario was the site of so much extreme weather: blizzards, tornadoes, damaging thunderstorms, and down drafts. I'd never experienced down drafts before moving here, and I can't say that I feel all the luckier for having them now. For those who haven't been in one, it's a very localized sudden strong wind that can have the damaging effect of a small tornado. It just comes out of nowhere, too. Very freaky. O Canada. And I'm sure that the Albertans on my flist have a few choice words about the Chinooks that they deal with.
My brain really wants to go to sleep, but my body says no. I think I'll just lie here and let them fight it out. There's a horror movie on the Movie Channel at 9PM that I'll probably check out. Anybody here seen Quarantine? It stars Jennifer Carpenter who plays Dexter's sister on Dexter. I like her, so I may tune in during commercials on Rachel Maddow's show. My life, she is so exciting. Actually sometimes it is, just not in a good way, eh.
It just never seems to end, you know? One piece of good news is usually surrounded by three that are bad. At least there is good news: we've got a third offer coming in for the house. That one is still being negotiated. So that means that every showing has resulted in an offer. We can't really grasp the popularity of this place. We didn't really like it when we bought it; we just needed a place in a hurry after the original Casa sold. I'm figuring that it's a combination of the two out buildings (both with water and electricity) and the fact that it's priced to sell. I was telling Dar that while we're not getting our money back on the cost of installing the barns, it's increased the salability of the place.
Meanwhile the ongoing saga of my battle with Immigration has reached a ridiculous point: they have no idea where my paperwork is. None. Their only ray of hope is that the woman I talked with two months ago - the one who said she knew where that last missing piece of info was being held up and was going to walk down the hall to fetch it - will be back at work on Tuesday. She has apparently been gone since that day. Because that's the way my world rolls. Eight months guys. My visa - and my health insurance - expired eight months ago. I just . . . I just want it fixed, you know?
I'm still on a higher dose of prednisone because of the tomato flare, and it's the usual good news/bad news. Good - no joint pain! The trade-off in trying to get off of pred is that joint pain increases. While I'm trying to fight off this latest flare, my joints are feeling pretty good. I can make a fist! Y'all should fear me :) The downside is increased insomnia and hunger. I've still got this incredible fatigue, though. And a shelf full of uneaten tomatoes.
We had a crazy storm yesterday. Torrential horizontal rain. The wind was so strong and sustained that I can't believe we didn't lose any trees. We lost a large old tree a few days ago as the result of wind storm, but this time we lucked out. No tornado, either, thankfully, although a small town in southern Ontario was just about leveled by one with this latest storm. I had no idea that southern Ontario was the site of so much extreme weather: blizzards, tornadoes, damaging thunderstorms, and down drafts. I'd never experienced down drafts before moving here, and I can't say that I feel all the luckier for having them now. For those who haven't been in one, it's a very localized sudden strong wind that can have the damaging effect of a small tornado. It just comes out of nowhere, too. Very freaky. O Canada. And I'm sure that the Albertans on my flist have a few choice words about the Chinooks that they deal with.
My brain really wants to go to sleep, but my body says no. I think I'll just lie here and let them fight it out. There's a horror movie on the Movie Channel at 9PM that I'll probably check out. Anybody here seen Quarantine? It stars Jennifer Carpenter who plays Dexter's sister on Dexter. I like her, so I may tune in during commercials on Rachel Maddow's show. My life, she is so exciting. Actually sometimes it is, just not in a good way, eh.
1. ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cajoje is on her way back to Albert after a not-so-relaxing stay. She pitched right in to help with all of the blow-back from the new cria's scary entrance into the world, and she did it at the expense of getting some other things accomplished that were important to her. That? Is the definition of friend.
2. Cria boy is doing well today. I got to try my hand at feeding him this morning, and let's just say that it's not exactly in my skill set yet. I'll get better at it, but we're all really hoping that he'll get the hang of nursing on his own so I won't have to learn how to wield that bottle.
3. I, at least, am calling him Jack.
4. Poor Pixel kitty has been suffering from constipation, and I didn't really catch on until very late last night. I suck as a kitty mom. So today, we all got together to enjoy the experience of giving her 1) an enema (it didn't work) and b) a suppository (which did.) Dar did all of the hands-on, so to speak, while Mark and/or I held her. The yowling could be heard throughout the county. And that wasn't counting the noises Pixel was making.
5. Speaking of bodily functions, I got the latest blood work back from my PCP. I have protein in my urine which points to kidney problems but is most probably because I'm lacking in B12 this month. The upshot is that I have to take the dreaded (by me) 24-hour urine collection. I hate giving urine samples. Hate. I'd rather give blood. I have terrible aim and lousy motor control. I once ended up spraying the entire bathroom because the urine apparently bounced off the side of the cup and went all Bellagio Fountains over the room. Followed by much cursing and ripping of paper towels and more cursing. Jack Bauer should have such a 24 hours as I'm going to have.
6. We didn't make it to the big alpaca show today, but our alpacas did thanks to our friends. And . . .
( The Winners Are )
7. BSG continues to rock in glorious ways. I have to rewatch it because I was very distracted toward the end because of Pixel, and I was also dead tired. I hit the wall, as they say, about 5PM standing in Zehr's waiting for the pharmacy to fill a prescription. "Just another few minutes" turned out to be 35 minutes, and it just pushed me over the edge of the amount of fatigue I could deal with. I know it sounds wimpy, but trust me, fatigue isn't the same as being tired. Anyway, BSG. I have no frakking idea what's going to happen from episode to episode, and I love that about this show. So well-written and acted.
cajoje is on her way back to Albert after a not-so-relaxing stay. She pitched right in to help with all of the blow-back from the new cria's scary entrance into the world, and she did it at the expense of getting some other things accomplished that were important to her. That? Is the definition of friend.2. Cria boy is doing well today. I got to try my hand at feeding him this morning, and let's just say that it's not exactly in my skill set yet. I'll get better at it, but we're all really hoping that he'll get the hang of nursing on his own so I won't have to learn how to wield that bottle.
3. I, at least, am calling him Jack.
4. Poor Pixel kitty has been suffering from constipation, and I didn't really catch on until very late last night. I suck as a kitty mom. So today, we all got together to enjoy the experience of giving her 1) an enema (it didn't work) and b) a suppository (which did.) Dar did all of the hands-on, so to speak, while Mark and/or I held her. The yowling could be heard throughout the county. And that wasn't counting the noises Pixel was making.
5. Speaking of bodily functions, I got the latest blood work back from my PCP. I have protein in my urine which points to kidney problems but is most probably because I'm lacking in B12 this month. The upshot is that I have to take the dreaded (by me) 24-hour urine collection. I hate giving urine samples. Hate. I'd rather give blood. I have terrible aim and lousy motor control. I once ended up spraying the entire bathroom because the urine apparently bounced off the side of the cup and went all Bellagio Fountains over the room. Followed by much cursing and ripping of paper towels and more cursing. Jack Bauer should have such a 24 hours as I'm going to have.
6. We didn't make it to the big alpaca show today, but our alpacas did thanks to our friends. And . . .
( The Winners Are )
7. BSG continues to rock in glorious ways. I have to rewatch it because I was very distracted toward the end because of Pixel, and I was also dead tired. I hit the wall, as they say, about 5PM standing in Zehr's waiting for the pharmacy to fill a prescription. "Just another few minutes" turned out to be 35 minutes, and it just pushed me over the edge of the amount of fatigue I could deal with. I know it sounds wimpy, but trust me, fatigue isn't the same as being tired. Anyway, BSG. I have no frakking idea what's going to happen from episode to episode, and I love that about this show. So well-written and acted.
1. Both Dar and I got done in by the sun today. It knocked me out like I'd been hit by a sledgehammer, and it gave her a migraine. Woe is us, eh.
2. Poor Hannibal nearly suffocated this evening. We use these string bags to hold the hay for the alpacas; we buy the bags at the farm stores where they're sold in the horse supply section. Somehow today Hannibal got his head completely wound up in the strings - and when I say strings, I mean heavy duty, thick nylon webbing. When I found him he was tightly tethered to the pole that we hang his feedbag off of; the webbing was around his neck and his nose. Alpacas must breathe through their nose, but it's very easy to cut off their breathing because the bone in their nose is very high up near their eyes - pressure anywhere lower on the nose will cut off their breathing. I freaked when I saw how he was caught, but I didn't panic. It took some doing, but I finally managed to get the bag unwound from him, and he didn't seem the worse for wear. Regardless of that, we're getting rid of all of those bags tomorrow and coming up with another system for getting their hay to them.
3. We had a breathtakingly beautiful sunset this evening. This pic doesn't begin to do it justice, but here you go anyway:
2. Poor Hannibal nearly suffocated this evening. We use these string bags to hold the hay for the alpacas; we buy the bags at the farm stores where they're sold in the horse supply section. Somehow today Hannibal got his head completely wound up in the strings - and when I say strings, I mean heavy duty, thick nylon webbing. When I found him he was tightly tethered to the pole that we hang his feedbag off of; the webbing was around his neck and his nose. Alpacas must breathe through their nose, but it's very easy to cut off their breathing because the bone in their nose is very high up near their eyes - pressure anywhere lower on the nose will cut off their breathing. I freaked when I saw how he was caught, but I didn't panic. It took some doing, but I finally managed to get the bag unwound from him, and he didn't seem the worse for wear. Regardless of that, we're getting rid of all of those bags tomorrow and coming up with another system for getting their hay to them.
3. We had a breathtakingly beautiful sunset this evening. This pic doesn't begin to do it justice, but here you go anyway:
Hannibal's home!
20 April 2007 21:37I went to see the friend who's been agisting Hannibal and told her that we were ready to bring him home. I skirted the "My godz you've been starving him!" issue, because as I've said, it wasn't intentional. I just told her that we missed him, and Dar wanted to do some homeopathic work on his hip and reassured her that we weren't mad at her for showing Hannibal in the arena because 1) she didn't know that we'd withdrawn his name, and 2) he won. So it's all good.
I assumed that we'd have to wait until this evening or possibly tomorrow, but she got right on the phone to talk to one of her sons and see if he was available to bring Hannie home right then. He was; we did. I wasn't home when Hannibal actually made his triumphal return because I was out finishing all the errands I still had to do, but I hear from Dar that it was a very happy reunion among Hannibal, the rest of the herd, and the assembled humans. Love fest, as it were.
He's fenced off from the rest of them, but Dar said there was much touching of noses across the fence line. I know that they all stayed pretty close to each other. The whole dynamic has changed, and it's pretty fascinating to watch. When he left he was just an adolescent, kind of annoying but still part of the herd of females and crias. But after hanging around with the other machos (as the young males are called), his return brought a new place in the heirarchy. He's the alpha male and they are his harem. Except for Adama, of course. This brings up the issue of introducing Iceman - our true herdsire - back into the equation. Han and Ice were best buds back at our friend's place, but here there may be some competition in the future because both of them will consider themselves to be the alpha. Can't wait to see how that plays out :)
But until we have to deal with that, there is ( paca pic spam! )
I assumed that we'd have to wait until this evening or possibly tomorrow, but she got right on the phone to talk to one of her sons and see if he was available to bring Hannie home right then. He was; we did. I wasn't home when Hannibal actually made his triumphal return because I was out finishing all the errands I still had to do, but I hear from Dar that it was a very happy reunion among Hannibal, the rest of the herd, and the assembled humans. Love fest, as it were.
He's fenced off from the rest of them, but Dar said there was much touching of noses across the fence line. I know that they all stayed pretty close to each other. The whole dynamic has changed, and it's pretty fascinating to watch. When he left he was just an adolescent, kind of annoying but still part of the herd of females and crias. But after hanging around with the other machos (as the young males are called), his return brought a new place in the heirarchy. He's the alpha male and they are his harem. Except for Adama, of course. This brings up the issue of introducing Iceman - our true herdsire - back into the equation. Han and Ice were best buds back at our friend's place, but here there may be some competition in the future because both of them will consider themselves to be the alpha. Can't wait to see how that plays out :)
But until we have to deal with that, there is ( paca pic spam! )
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 thatdarlong 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 :)
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 :)
