On the Animal Front

It's been busy.

First and foremost, Noodle had her stitches removed on Friday.

Finally after two weeks of house arrest, she was able to go back to the corral with her sister and the alpacas.  She was allowed to wrestle and jump as much as she wanted to and was kind of surprised that we let her. :-)


Noodle preparing to beat up her sister, Wonton

Babies are coming this summer!


L-R: Kocoa, Keyla, Frieda, Daisy, The Alpaca Dog, Noodle, Wonton
I love how the alpacas don't care that the puppies are wrestling right next to them.

Daisy and Frieda were the first two female alpacas born to Alpacamundo.  They are expecting their first cria in mid-August and have started showing a little baby-belly.  I'm really excited to see how they do.

Bandit is the current big man on campus and therefore is the cria-daddy for both.



Smokey's Bandit, our Silver-Grey Lead Herdsire

Keyla got a good haircut.  She apparently had a bad shearing experience in her early days because she has hated shearing for as long as I've known her.

Most of our alpacas are very calm and relaxed during shearing, but Keyla stresses out.  She stresses out to the point of prolapse.  It's rectal rather than vaginal which is better.  As if one type of prolapse can really be better than another.  So we always do her last and keep a close eye on the back end.  We get the blanket off as quickly as possible and usually have to stop and let her up to walk around in the middle of the process. 

This year, we were able to get all of her fleece off.  It's the best haircut she's had in three years.  Her head is wonky because we left the halter on during shearing to allow for a quick exit when needed.


Back to Front: Kocoa, Keyla, Daisy, Frieda

One year we were able to keep her in a corral overlooking the shearing and she did very well then.  So on my list of things to acquire is a corral's worth of movable panels so we can keep her nearby.

In other Keyla news, her munge is healing very well.  She had a big outbreak right after Apple was born last fall.  We treated her over the winter with a steroid-based cream which meant we couldn't breed her.

She was not at all happy about being open and we were in a do-loop.  Her nose would heal when we used the cream, but it would come back as soon as we stopped.  So this spring we treated the herd for mites.  The courses are finished and her nose, while not fully healed, has stabilized.  Which means we will be able to breed her this year.  Now I just have to decide when.

Last, and certainly not least, we got a cat.  Yes, we are attempting life with a kitten again.  She's bold, beautiful and rambunctious.

In her first 12 hours she killed a moth and several flies and we're hoping she will encourage the mice to move-a-long.  She is a pet cat, as in she has house privileges.  She does seem to enjoy cuddling, so I hope she will want to keep my lap warm in the winter while I'm knitting.

We named her Pancake.  Well, actually Hubba named her Pancake and I agreed.  At four pounds, she sure seems small next to the dogs.  But size is not what matters when it comes to kitties.  It took three people to hold her down for her leukemia test.

Doggie introductions are in progress and so far, so good.

Not So Happy Caturday

Three weeks ago I announced that we had a new barn cat.

Today I tell you that we are again, kitty-less.

The cat has been AWOL for about 10 days.  There are no signs in the neighborhood.  He is not at the Humane Society.  The owls are back.  The fox and coyotes are still around.  There has been no food or litter-box activity in about a week.

Yes, I know the life expectancy for barn cats is shorter than most cats, but it makes me sad to have lost a second cat in less than a year to the food chain.

So, for now, we will be using mouse traps in the barn.

The New Barn Cat aka Happy Caturday

We had a cat when we moved to our place last year.  She was primarily an outdoor cat, but slept inside at night and kept my lap warm in the winter.  Sadly, we lost her to the food chain in April and have been kittie-less ever since.  Which has been ok, except;

• We live on a farm, so we have a hay barn.
• Having a hay barn, means we have mice.
• Being kittie-less for quite some time, means we have fat mice in the hay barn.

The alpaca dog would like to catch the mice, but he's just not quick or silent enough.

I've only seen a couple of mice this summer, but with the weather cooling off, I suspect we'll have a large migration of mice into the hay barn if we don't do something about it soon.  Having an excess of mice leads to an excess of mouse droppings which can lead to Hantavirus and the Plague.  Which means I have been thinking quite seriously about replacing our cat for a while.

So yesterday, when I was visiting a nearby alpaca farm I spied 5 or 6 young kittens in the brush.  I asked the owner if she was going to be keeping all of them.  She told me about the cats, how she got them and that she had a few older ones she definitely wanted to let go.

I told her I would be interested in one or two, but needed to speak with Hubba and pick up supplies.

I think she was very excited to get rid of a couple, because she emailed me late last night saying her granddaughters had caught two of them and they were waiting in her office for me to fetch them.  :-)

Hubba agreed to one cat with two stipulations: (1) it will not come in the house and (2) it will not have a name.

So, here is the newest addition to the Alpacamundo farm... The Barn Cat.

He's quick.  Quick like a cat.  So all the photos look like this one.  But I did finally get a decent one...

He's about 6 months old, is an accomplished mouser, likes alpacas, big dogs and people.  He has some seriously big feet, so I think he'll end up being a big boy.  For some reason, I really want to call him Bruce...

Updated: One of my favorite blogs has a Saturday feature called Happy Caturday, so I updated the title of this post... since it is indeed a Happy Caturday. :-)

Miss Kitty found the Barn

Miss Kitty finally made her way out to the barn this weekend.

She hasn't been out since before the snow and alpacas.  She's not too sure about the alpacas yet, and there's a lot of new things in the barn.  Most recently, mice have made an appearance. 

It's just a matter of time before she discovers the mice and takes care of it.