s e v e n i s a j o u r n e y

This weekend we took our five girls up to Palmerston North, to drop them off at the stud. A simple procedure. You simply (a) assemblle the transport box, (b) load the five girls into the box, (c) drive the 120 km to the other farm, and (d) unload the girls into one of the temporary holding pens. Things were going well, until we got to (b). Then the fun started.

We had managed to halter 4 of the 5 girls. Boo, who has never had a halter on, was not going to let this be the day she wore one for the first time, despite our best efforts. Galadriel and Concetta, who are partially halter trained, we got into the truck by Tam yanking on the lead while I picked up their hindquarters and “wheelbarrowed” them up the ramp. They were not happy, but they went. We tied the two of them off to the front of the truck, and went to work on the others.

Problem 1- Galadriel and Concetta, agitated from being loaded, had their heads tied inches from one another. A massive, continuous spit fight ensued. Unending. Green. Goo. It splattered the insdie walls like a grade-B slaher-flick.

Meanwhile we were trying to cajole Victoria or Boo up the ramp, without luck. Then Jennifer (who along with Steve had come out to help us load the ‘paca, bless their hearts. We literally could not have done it without them!) had a brilliant idea- chucker them! Chuckering is a procedure where you tie a soft rope around their lower abdomen and hook their hind feet in. Once chuckered they have to stay kushed, and cannot stand. I started by chuckering Concetta and Galadriel, then pushed them around so they were facing in opposite directions to end their green and stinky machine-gun-fire.

Then it came time to chucker Boo. This was not a trivial task. She is big, fat, and very strong. Just getting the rpe around her and tied was more rodeo-like than I really wanted, and as I gt her chuckered she started screaming, which started to upset all the other ‘paca (except Vicotira, who is deaf as a post). Then Steve and I picked her up, and carried her into the truck. Thus the comment about my spine. My back and arms still hurt from the pulled muscles three days later. She is probably about 100 kg, at some point we will get stock scales and find out for sure. Victoria was much easier to chucker and load, as she has been mis-trained to use passive resistance whenever someone wants her to do something, she was quick good at rolling her hips when kushed to prevent me from immobilizing her back legs. But in the lend we got her loaded.

And after all this drama, it was time for Joy. She looked at us, looked at the girls who had been loaded, and then calmly walked up the ramp into the truck! Good girl! Smart girl! We have very high hopes for Joy, it looks like she will be our star girl, intelligence and personality-wise.

Last night I was talking with Jeanette, who took care of Joy for about a month before she was shipped down to us. She passed on a story how one of her girls who is a rather poor mum had left her very young cria behind at the top of the hill when she came down for her morning feed. Joy could see the little lost cria, and was humming in distress. Joy looked at Jeanette, who just said “Well, go get her”, at which point Joy ran up the hill, got the cria, and led it back down to her mother. Good gril!