A Little Drama Everyday

My friend Dianne describes farm life with animals as being like a series of mini-dramas going on all the time. That was the case yesterday when I got the call that Fury was in labor in the field at our top barn. We hadn't expected this cria quite yet, so it was an "all hands on deck" sort of event. Maybe I should say, "All feet on deck", because all four of our guardian dogs gathered around to watch, as did the rest of the female herd.

The cria was a little slow to come out due to one elbow being lodged in the tract, (which I corrected) and Fury went on to deliver just fine after that. Our very shy female Maremma guardian dog, Rosa, just couldn't wait to sniff the the little boy but Fury wouldn't have it! She chased off our other Maremmas, Dylan and Crockett, but Rosa just layed there while Fury threatened to stomp her. Oh how I wish I'd had my camera just then, as Rosa displayed perfect guardian dog submission to her, getting closer and closer to the ground, averting her eyes, and then laying on her back completely exposing her belly to Fury to gain her trust. Fury nipped at her ears as if to say, "Hey, I'm watching you", but didn't hurt her as she easily could have!

The Great Pyrenees, Yoda (our very own Head of Ranch Security), just ran in circles barking around the entire group, keeping his eyes on the sky for any buzzards, which he detests even more than tires coming up and down our road. I don't know what we'd do without our great guard dogs!

We got mom and cria to the cozy warm stall at the new barn, but the cria seemed a little bit weak and slow, and he wasn't holding his head up strongly as I would have liked. I was worried that he may have been slightly deprived of oxygen during birth, so we opted to give him a little from the oxygen tank we keep on hand. This is not something we do routinely by any means, but it worked great and the cria really rallied after that and was on his feet nursing in no time! Here he is today, a beautiful Maverick boy (this must mean that Eyecatcher's going to have a girl, right? She is finally isolating herself, so maybe the birth is finally imminent?)

We had some super nice visitors today, Rod, Betty and their darling grandson Ben. Congratulations to them for becoming new alpaca owners with their purchase of two females!

(Here is Ben and Rod with our very sweet Pink Pansy, who will be available in the upcoming Belleau Wood Auction in N. Carolina).