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DS2 and DIL had given us an alpaca walking voucher at Hope Farm Alpaca Rescue near Wimborne, so we went there this afternoon - it was great 
We went into a field where several alpacas were tied to the fence, and allocated one each. There were lots of very cute ones, but Mr N and I were both drawn to a pair of large and rather unkempt ones - which just happened to be the ones we got
They were an older, bonded pair (so had to go next to each other in the line). Mine, the brown one (Julius), was the oldest there, and older ones are clipped less often; the white one, Alfie, was a different breed, which have more rasta hair. Mr N, who had Alfie, was given some advice - he can be a bit of a pain, pulling, trying to get into the borders on each side of the path and roll, and eating anything he can eat, so you need to say 'Walk on' and turn him in a circle. He'll get bits of bramble in his coat, then he'll get grumpy because of the brambles in his coat, but don't try to pull them out because then he might spit at you. Usually only llamas spit and alpacas never do, but he does.
I nearly burst out laughing - Mr N had got Jasper reincarnated, in alpaca form!
Julius apparently came from the Duchess of Bath (if I remember right), as the rest of her ageing herd had died and alpacas don't do well on their own. Apparently if you wanted to get his attention from the other side of the field, you had to shout 'Julius!' in a very posh voice. Alfie had been kept on his own for several years, and then kept with dogs, so no wonder he was a bit confused, bless him...
Just look at the state of that coat...
We went into a field where several alpacas were tied to the fence, and allocated one each. There were lots of very cute ones, but Mr N and I were both drawn to a pair of large and rather unkempt ones - which just happened to be the ones we got
They were an older, bonded pair (so had to go next to each other in the line). Mine, the brown one (Julius), was the oldest there, and older ones are clipped less often; the white one, Alfie, was a different breed, which have more rasta hair. Mr N, who had Alfie, was given some advice - he can be a bit of a pain, pulling, trying to get into the borders on each side of the path and roll, and eating anything he can eat, so you need to say 'Walk on' and turn him in a circle. He'll get bits of bramble in his coat, then he'll get grumpy because of the brambles in his coat, but don't try to pull them out because then he might spit at you. Usually only llamas spit and alpacas never do, but he does.
I nearly burst out laughing - Mr N had got Jasper reincarnated, in alpaca form!
Julius apparently came from the Duchess of Bath (if I remember right), as the rest of her ageing herd had died and alpacas don't do well on their own. Apparently if you wanted to get his attention from the other side of the field, you had to shout 'Julius!' in a very posh voice. Alfie had been kept on his own for several years, and then kept with dogs, so no wonder he was a bit confused, bless him...
Just look at the state of that coat...
