alpacas | jmgoyder

Okami and Uluru

by jmgoyder

Our two alpacas, Okami and Uluru, are the gentlest creatures I have ever come across. Son gave them their names when we first got them and, because we’d been told that their presence here would deter the foxes that lurk somewhere out there, their names reflect this. ‘Okami’ is a Japanese word that roughly translates to ‘wolf with spiritual powers’ (my paraphrase), and ‘Uluru’ is, of course, the Aboriginal word for that big brown ‘pebble’ in the centre of Australia, previously known as Ayers Rock. Somehow their heavily symbolic names don’t seem to match their placid personalities. I don’t think they could kill a fly, let alone a fox!

Here are some recent photos of them:

They do everything very slowly; they wander around slowly, chew grass and the wheat I give them slowly, stare and blink slowly. When my heartbeat is galloping I only have to watch Okami and Uluru for a minute or so and their tranquility calms me down.

This morning I tried to beat Okami in an unblinking competition but he easily won. Perhaps this is how they deter the foxes?

Animal

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The gentlemen

by jmgoyder

Since our two alpacas, Okami and Uluru, have been shorn, they seem much tamer and friendlier, and they come right up to me now. It’s almost as if all that wool got in the way of our friendship!

They are still very shy and are the most placid animals I have ever come across, but they are also very curious and love to roam around with the birds. If you recall, that is why we got the alpacas in the first place; they are supposed to be good fox deterrents. Somehow, Okami and Uluru don’t seem the fox-attacking types, but you never know!

They are such gentlemen. Okami is the white one and Uluru is the brown one.

Curiouser and curiouser!

As for my own two gentleman (the human ones) Husband has been home again for the weekend. I will have to take him back to the nursing lodge soon but he is really positive about this now and keeps talking fondly of the nurses (mmm!) And Son will be home soon from yet another sleepover with some best friends. This afternoon, we will get ready to go to Perth for the operation; Son will be admitted tomorrow, with surgery scheduled for 8am Tuesday morning.

My gentle, gentle men – and me:

I feel as if I am entering one of those tunnel rides where you don’t think you’ll see the light again and then, whammo, you emerge unscathed into the frothy bubbles of life, life, life.

Animal Wings

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Proximity cures phobia!

by jmgoyder

Yesterday, my niece, Ashtyn and her extremely bird-phobic mother, Julie, visited. Julie has suffered bird phobia ever since being given a rather wild weiro a couple of decades ago, so this visit took enormous courage! Ashtyn is a little nervous of birds too as you can see below!

But Julie was in a state of suppressed horror. As she has read my blog, she was particularly frightened of Godfrey who was just outside the frame of the picture below. Little did she realise that the evil Baby Turkey was even closer.

Eventually, she began to feel more at home with the birds. In the photo below you can see her biting her lip with determination not to scream!

And Ashtyn’s expression says it all!

For some reason, neither Julie or Ashtyn wanted to come into the emu yard. I’m not quite sure why….

Julie insisted on some soothing music so Son and Grandma obliged.

The unflappable Alpacas, Okami and Uluru, also had a soothing effect on Julie.

It was a visit full of hysterical laughter!

Wings

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Gobsmacked

by jmgoyder

I am still gobsmacked by our ‘changelings’. You see, we weren’t home yesterday when the Alpacas, Okami and Uluru, were shorn. So, because we weren’t there to see it happen, it was even more of a ‘before-and-after’ shock.

Many of our birds also seem amazed. Angelina’s hair stood on end when Okami and Uluru approached the food bin to munch out on wheat – and, previous to the shearing, I thought they were a bit fat! I’m about to go and buy some more food for them!

The following photo was taken on the day we purchased the little fellows so how was I supposed to know what was underneath all of that wool???

Oh yeah, we now have several bags of Alpaca wool if anyone is interested! There is enough here to carpet an entire continent – ha!

Animal

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Transmogrification

by jmgoyder

To transmogrify (def. verb): to change in a radical sort of way. Think the Transformers series!

Okami and Uluru (our two Alpacas) were shorn today for the first time in their lives. We bought them at a few months of age so, by now, they are both around a year old; Okami is little bit older than Uluru and they are half-brothers.

This is what they looked like this morning:

This is what they look like now. Yes, it has been a bit of a shock to say the least! An amazing transmogrification – amazing! Son and I have been in hysterics whilst trying to adapt to this enormous change. I mean Uluru and Okami were relatively cute before but now – wow! – they are utterly cute – ha!

Animal

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Alpacas and apostrophes

by jmgoyder

There are two reasons for the following punctuation missive. The first is because teaching grammar and punctuation at the local university was my speciality, and the second is because, a few posts ago, I replied to a comment with the sentence “It’s the alpaca’s drinking trough” when I was talking about two Alpacas, not one.

I am very embarrassed now about this appalling punctuation error!

The apostrophe is that punctuation mark (like a comma that has had too much coffee, so keeps raising its eyebrow) that indicates either ownership or plurals. For example:

Ownership: “The Alpaca’s face was beautiful” (we are talking about one Alpaca here).
Plurals: “This is the Alpacas’ drinking trough” OR “This is the Alpacas’s drinking trough” (we are talking about two Alpacas here).

I hope you found this post exhilarating! Here are a few apostrophes to make your day ”””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””

Okami and Uluru (pictured above) just don’t seem to really care – mmmm!~

Animal Uncategorized

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The party

by jmgoyder

Last night was Son’s 18th birthday PARTY! I didn’t mention it earlier because of my blog’s link to facebook; i.e. we didn’t want gatecrashers. Son and I spent all day manically getting the place ready, then went to visit Husband, then stopped at the local shop to buy a trough to put the ice and drinks in. I had let Son invite as many as he wanted but he kept it down to around 40, thank goodness.

Anyway, it was a resounding success with most of the kids staying the night in tents and swags.

This morning there are around ten kids still here, all sitting around one of the picnic tables out front, drinking copious amounts of water and eating leftover pizza (I over calculated on that one!) And this is only half of the pizza order.

Many of my friends thought I was crazy having that many teenagers all by myself, so I was pretty nervous, but there were no incidents. I solicited the presence of two older males for ‘crowd control’ but no control was needed. Instead they provided me with some adult company because, for some reason, I was overcome by shyness of the youngies and I don’t recall ever having felt so ancient as, for the first time ever, Husband wasn’t here to be the old person – hehe!

Son, dressed up for the occasion, was in heaven, as you can see!