Piangee's baby pictures and at one year old
Piangee
Piangee was born on 8/14/2008, a 20 lb. boy who was rejected by his maiden mom. So, you can probably guess who is doing the bottle feedings (all 7 to 8 of them in a 24 hour day). He decided that the one who feeds him, is definately his mom. He follows me everywhere, we run together (God has a sense of humor here), at one day old, he can run rings around me. He chews on my arm, hand, nose, hair, toes and cloths, hums greetings to me, makes his clicking noise to assure I am the right person to allow touching him and picking him up. His name comes from Pee on Gail and is said with a little French accent and spelled "Piangee" Lori, Gail and I were coming home from the veterinarian where he received an IV for all the goodies he needed from his mom that he didn't get. He could not find the communal poop pile at the vets and was unable to hold his urine. Gail was holding him in the back seat when it happened, so she got baptized and he got named.
10/14/2008 I must update this section and let you all know that handling an alpaca the way I have been doing is doing him a disservice. After reading an eight page article about Beserk Alpaca Syndrome, I have drastically changed the way I feed Piangee. He now gets his bottle through the fence and stays with the herd all the time except during his feedings. I don't talk to him or pet him, just feed him and walk away. I wrote about this in my blog on 10/16, and it will explain further why the change in handling him.
6-23-2010 - Well, today Piangee became one of the girls. Since we have no more room for sequestered males, he needed to stay with the girls. They were increasingly irritated by his attention. I would go out to give hime sugar snap peas and he would have green spit marks on him where the girls expressed their desire to be left alone. It took a whole lot of injections to get him to go to sleep for the surgery and I almost passed out while watching the Vet trying to find a vein to shoot the stuff in. She brought out a shearer for dogs to try to get at a spot on his neck to feel his pulse and one of the shots she gave him, bent the needle in half. I had to spend the rest of the time sitting on a rock under a tree feeling absolutely useless. He was a sweetheart and I am praying that he will settle down now and not want to chest-bump us and every new person he sees on the farm.
Piangee on the back porch - 4 1/2 days
Mmmmm. Moms shoes. I wonder what they taste like?
