Late this afternoon I was working at my desk in my home office. I love my office, mainly because I think it has one of the best window views from anywhere in the entire house. It looks out to the barn, the kennel, the pastures across the driveway and all the way down to the road. I often find myself procrastinating for unknown amounts of time just staring out the window at the ever-changing view.
Today I was doing just that, when I noticed something completely out of the norm. I saw the alpacas gathered together in a circle, huddling around a small object on the ground. I immediately jumped out of my chair and, yelling for Charles like a maniac, I started racing towards the barn. My thoughts were all over the place, but I was sure that a stray dog had gotten into the pasture and the alpacas had gone into “protection mode.” About halfway in my race down the driveway (and after rolling my ankle), I realized it was not a dog at all. It was a BABY ALPACA! Codi Silver had given birth…and we didn’t even know she was pregnant!
This was quite an unexpected surprise! We called the previous owners of Codi and asked how we should proceed. We grabbed iodine, dipped his umbilical cord and tied it off. We also learned that you aren’t supposed to handle babies much in order for them to bond with their mothers. It was so hard as the little guy was only 15 pounds of cuteness. Anyways, Mom and Baby are doing well. What an amazing experience.