OUR PLANS MULTIPLIED: Llama Babies

OUR PLANS MULTIPLIED

In the beginning, JD adamantly only wanted two children. I thought that four would be perfect. Once we caught God's vision of putting orphans into families, our plan was multiplied by God. We are currently blessed with 12 children; five biological, six adopted and one more waiting in Ethiopia. Our first adoption was from the U.S., the next three were from Liberia, West Africa, and our last two were from Ethiopia. We are supporting our 12th child in Ethiopia after her adoption could not pass court.

Friday, August 17, 2018

Llama Babies - Crias

So, an update on Bree is that she is still in the home and care of the zoo-keeper in Richmond. She is doing much better in the health department, but whatever happened to her neck is not healing as hoped. A third vet that is weighing in says to let it go another week, but if it doesn't show any improvement, then it's unlikely to heal at all. The whole thing has been rather emotionally and financially exhausting.

In the meantime, I scheduled the llama vet #1 to come out on Monday to check Glacier and give the llamas shots. I was also going to do an ultrasound on Glacier to see if she was pregnant. That morning, Julia and I de-wormed the goats, trimmed their hooves and scooped llama poop. I then mowed the back yard and went in to take a shower before the vet's 1:00 arrival. When she arrived, Selah and I headed out and Selah started yelling that Glacier had her baby. I guess she saved me the price of the ultrasound and the vet was able to give the baby her first shot also.

We are so fortunate that it's another girl, because boy llamas can not live with a herd of females long term normally. This baby is doing very well and her name is Jewel, after the unicorn in The Last Battle in the Chronicles of Narnia series. Bree is named after the talking horse in The Horse and His Boy. (As a plug for that series, listen to the Focus on the Family CDs as an adult - it is so, so good and there is so much hidden in there that I never got as a child!)

Here is Jewel with her momma just a few hours after birth - she weighs only 14 pounds!

We are feeling sorry for Butte since she doesn't have her baby anymore, but I'm not sure she really remembers.

Jewel is less people friendly than Bree was, just like Glacier is more skiddish than Butte.

I am babysitting Alei's dog, Lucca, for the weekend. His entire goal in life is to get wet, and although we try to minimize his water options, he usually finds something. This morning it was the old, small llama pool upside down that accumulated a small amount of rain.