Not Pigs

OK…it’s time for a blog about something other than pigs.
Or puppies.
But what?

I often think we should have more stuff on here about our llamas, what with the site being called llamadharma.com an’ all. But the fact of the matter is, that out of all the animals with whom we share our busy food-providing, poo-collecting lives, the llamas are by far the easiest (and therefore the least note-worthy) of the bunch.

They mooch around, eating a bit of this and a bit of that, watching the world of other animals go by, and keeping their thoughts about it all largely to themselves. The Breeders (for want of a more appropriate name) have at last got used to the pigs, and now observe them only with disdain rather than alarm.

Pedro still occasionally rushes to his field boundary to put up a bit of a show of studliness to impress Duc and Valentine, who dutifully respond with a bit of posing, but their hearts don’t really seem to be in it. It all seems like a bit too much effort, when there’s hay to munch and fallen oak leaves to roll about in.

Lilas added a bit of excitement yesterday by attempting (spectacularly unsuccessfully) to jump over the hurdles that constitute the boundary to their small, temporary catch-pen. She reacted to one of Elif’s flighty startles, and jumped, but failed to clear the top of the hurdle and succeeded only in flattening the temporary fence. And then, even though she could have run off over it at that point, she just stood back and looked at mess she’d made, looked at me, said “Oops” and then carried on eating. I think Elif may have sniggered a little, and then they all stood around looking a bit embarrassed, while I muttered and cursed and tried to reconstruct the pen which had somehow turned into one of those annoying metal ring puzzle things that you get in Christmas crackers. Only bigger. And muddier. And more annoying.

But, all in all, the llamas are just a nice, relaxing bunch of guys to hang around with. There’s something about the sensation of hot, grassy llama-breath on your neck that sort of says “Don’t worry – be happy”, and puts everything into perspective. And when I take the rampant puppies for their early morning ruckus, to let off a bit of their overnight stoked-up steam, it is truly lovely to stand still and watch the llamas moving serenely across the dawn-lit field, ankle-deep in mist, nibbling delicately at the dew-drenched grass.