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

Yesterday was a rare beautiful day, in what has been a long and rainy winter. Far too nice a day to waste with nothing but grueling farm work. Seeing how the transport box was still on the back of the Ute, I decided to take Jim (the llama) into town.

Catching him in the paddock was no big deal. There was the usual 5 minutes of him balking, then finally relenting and letting me put on his halter. Loading him onto the ute presented a bigger challenge. He really, really didn’t want to go and leave his girls behind. And when you are dealing with 200+ kilos of balking llama, brute force will not work. It took me an hour of various tricks, but he finally relented and walked up and in, no problem. Previous we had “shamed” him ontot the Ute, by leading up an alpaca cria first. He would get this lovely look of “well! If that little ‘paca can do it, I can!” and march right up the ramp.

I parked at my usual place behind the Woolworths, and took Jim on a walk through town. It is still school hoilidays, so there were plenty of parents and kids about.

Jim was, as you would expect, a hit. He did very well when mobbed by kids coming up to pet the llama. He had his photo taken by a number of people, including one real estate agent (“he will go out on our next brochure!”). One of the best moments was when a woman I had been chatting with asked “can I hug your llama?” I said yes, she gave Jim and big hug, and she was very happy.

It makes me glad to know that I suudenly and unexpectedly made the days of 30 or 40 people much better. It is very satisfying to do good while having a fun time. Jim probably enjoyed some of it (though probably not the hugging, though). Going to a new place is very exciting for him.