Llama Training Is Easy to Learn

It’s easy in two ways:

1. It is quite simple for people to learn how to train llamas, even if they haven’t trained any animal before.
2. Llamas learn quickly and generally are interested in doing new things with you.

The second point is actually the reason for the first one! Because llamas tend to learn quickly, you can learn to train them relatively easily.

For example, if you have ever trained a dog or watched someone else do so, you know that it can take quite a number of repetitions before the dog really understands what you want and does it reliably upon request.  Even with newer methods like clicker training dogs, they are generally slower to grasp what you want than llamas are.

I’ve had llamas be reliable about loading into a vehicle after doing it with them five or six times. The first few times, it can take some patience as the llamas are often reluctant to enter the unfamiliar confined space.  But once they decide (with your gentle coaxing) to give it a try, each repetition increases their confidence.  Nothing surprising about that — but it’s certainly rare for a dog to learn something with just five or six practices!

It’s also easy for us humans because it doesn’t usually require much strength.  You aren’t pulling with all the force you can muster on the lead rope; you are encouraging the llama by showing it what you want. My mentor in llama training, Bobra Goldsmith, talks a lot about developing trust and willingness, and this is evident in her DVD.

Of course, llamas vary in their willingness to trust humans — just as we humans do ourselves.  A llama who has been mishandled may be much less willing to trust people than one who has only know kindness.  Llama personalities vary too — some are more placid and easy-going, some are more skittish.

It’s Important to Train Your Llamas

If you have llamas, or the responsibility for some, you want to be able to move them from one pasture to another. You want to be able to groom them, to transport them to a veterinarian if necessary or to a new home. You may want to take them on hikes. These are just a few of the countless occasions which could make you much happier to have trained llamas than untrained. Believe me,  I’ve had both kinds.

In a perfect world, every llama would be trained to do at least a few basic things: to accept a halter, to walk easily on a loose lead rope,  to go into a vehicle or trailer. Every llama would develop a basic trust in the humans that handle it.

Well, between too much to do and not knowing quite how to train a llama, over the years, a lot of llama owners have not come very close to that perfect world. But you can.

There Are a Variety of Ways to Train Llamas

Because llamas learn so easily, and because working with them is so enjoyable, a lot of creativity and effort has gone into llama training in recent decades.  As I see it, there is no one right method to train.  There are some basic guidelines that all the best trainers would agree on: You don’t need a heavy hand. Patience is a virtue. Llamas can learn by watching another llama being taught something.

My husband Kelly and I were fortunate that when we were just starting out with a small llama herd, we became good friends with Bobra Goldsmith, a well-known llama trainer even then. We have used her methods primarily, and we produced a two-hour program with her. It came out on video originally  but is now only available on DVD. To find out more, see Llama Training with Bobra Goldsmith: What Every Llama Should Know.

Rosana Hart

Llama Training with Bobra Goldsmith: What Every Llama Should Know. More about this DVD here. 2 hours, $39.95, our internet price $29.95 if you type in the Discount Code of 82R2625S.

Training Llamas to Drive, with Bobra Goldsmith. More about this DVD here. 2 hours, list price $39.95, our internet price $29.95 if you type in the discount code of 82R2625S. (The same code works for $10 off each llama DVD.)

These DVDs are quickly manufactured after you order them, through a company called Createspace, owned by Amazon.com. They ship world-wide and the DVDs are guaranteed to work in your DVD player.

Since we don’t carry them in stock, these orders can’t be combined with our book Living with Llamas.

Our Llama Book

Virtually the full text of Living with Llamas is online here at this website, though without the photos. And you can download the ebook for free from this site. But there’s still something holding a book that makes for good reading!

Please note that the book comes to you from a different location than the DVDs, so you have to order it separately.

Living with Llamas: Tales from Juniper Ridge, book, list price $14.95, our price $12.00. Buy it now through Paypalby clicking below, and we will ship US priority mail.

WHILE SUPPLIES LAST.. We are down to our last few dozen.

Our Best-Selling Llama T-Shirt

Click on the t-shirt to see a variety of t-shirts, sweatshirts, mugs, bibs, etc., with this design. These are manufactured on demand by a company called Cafepress, and shipped worldwide, with a guarantee of satisfaction.

This is where you can get  Living with Llamas: Tales from Juniper Ridge. It’s now available as a free downloadable ebook, in the common PDF format. Right-click here (or the Mac equivalent) to download Living with Llamas. Then choose “save link as” or “save target as” and choose where you want to put the PDF file on your computer.

This book is the story of Rosana and Kelly Hart’s adventures with llamas, from the coming of Levi and Tumbleweed to the running of a day-hikes business and developing a breeding herd.

What happens as Rosana opens to deeper telepathic levels of connection with the animals, and the crisis that occurs when a dream comes true, provide the final tales in a fast-paced book that will charm and inform animal lovers.

This classic has introduced thousands of people to llamas. Facts about llamas and their care are woven into the narrative. The later part of the book also discusses Rosana’s  increasing ability to communicate telepathically with their llamas.

You will need the free Adobe Acrobat reader to open it — you probably have that on your computer. If not, it’s at adobe.com.

You can also read it all online, here on this website, but without any of the illustrations in the ebook. Here are tips for reading  Living with Llamas online.

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Or if you prefer, you can still buy a copy of the paperback, while supplies last. We are down to our last few cases.

Living with Llamas: Tales from Juniper Ridge, by Rosana Hart. Book, 192 pages, $14.95 list price, OUR PRICE $12.00.

WHAT REVIEWERS SAID ABOUT LIVING WITH LLAMAS:

“While few may have the chance to live with llamas, many can take vicarious pleasure in following the author’s experiences, related with warmth and humor.” — American Library Association Booklist.

“A look into the warm, touching, friendly, and funny emotions of one couple’s developing relationship with llamas. Those who don’t have ‘llama fever’ can get some insight into what it is like. A must-read for anyone just getting into raising llamas.” — Llamas Magazine

AND READERS SAID:

“I cried, I laughed, I learned, and now I’m sold on llamas.”

“Received the book Friday afternoon, stayed up till 12:30 AM to finish it on Saturday morning. What more can I say?”

“Thank you for writing such a warm account of your life with llamas — I think, perhaps, if I hadn’t read it, I wouldn’t have my lovely llamas now!”

“We’ve read most of it twice — aloud to each other!”

“It is highly readable, filled with good info and very entertaining. It is really an asset to the llama world. I will refer back to it many times and will definitely offer it as a chief reference to interested people.”

“After checking out your book from the library simply to learn about how much upkeep would be involved, I immediately read it… front to back. Upon finishing, I knew I was about to embark on an adventure. Being a true city slicker prior to our move here, I look forward to having your book nearby when my “boys” arrive next spring. Thank you for the book and for starting our family on a wonderful adventure!”

“Living with Llamas is a beautiful little book, with delightful content embellished by humor.”

“Living with Llamas is so warm and real to me; I can’t tell you how much I enjoy reading and rereading all that you’ve written. I can sense your devotion and respect to an ancient and dignified animal.”

“We thoroughly enjoyed Living with Llamas. Besides the great photos, we liked the way you said what has been in our minds at one time or another but were afraid to say. We have all had hesitations and questions about our llamas but so often are afraid to admit we don’t know what we are doing. It is refreshing to see it in print.”

“Living with Llamas is a book I recommend for new llama owners. It is full of information, presented in a delightful story form.”

Living with Llamas: Tales from Juniper Ridge, physical book, list price $14.95, our price $12.00.

Category: Books > Llamas
ISBN 0916289230

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I submitted this ebook to some places online. Here’s my blog post listing some ebook directories, in case you’ve also written an ebook you want to publicize.

And here’s one: Jogena’s – eBook and eZine Directories – Get Listed Today!

– Rosana

Here you can watch a couple of minutes from the program we made with llama trainer Bobra Goldsmith:

Also, we offer you on this website:

1. Llama Training with Bobra Goldsmith: What Every Llama Should Know, a comprehensive two-hour DVD with a noted llama trainer.
2. An article on llama training.
3. Living with Llamas: Tales from Juniper Ridge is the story of our experiences, with a lot of information on llamas woven into the story. It has introduced thousands of people to llamas and is our all-time best-seller of all the books and videos that we have ever published. It’s available to read online here on this site. but better yet, it’s also now available as a free ebook that you can download.
4. Training Llamas to Drive, with Bobra Goldsmith, also a DVD.
5. Reviews of more books on llamas
6. Llama t-shirts
7. Tips on how to create your own t-shirts, with llamas or whatever on them
8. Resource page of a few of the other top llama websites and llama training websites

A friend feeds our llama Lil Bit while Posey looks on

]]> http://www.llamas-information.com/home/feed/ 0 http://www.llamas-information.com/about-us/terms-of-service/ http://www.llamas-information.com/about-us/terms-of-service/#comments Sat, 11 Apr 2009 23:55:25 +0000 Rosana http://llamas-information.com/?page_id=13 Llamas are animals, and all animals can be unpredictable. When you work with a llama, take precautions that make it as unlikely as possible that you or the animal will be injured or harmed. Be patient in working with the llama for best results.

Hartworks, Inc., Juniper Ridge Press, Kelly Hart, Rosana Hart,  Bobra Goldsmith, and anyone else involved in the creation of the information we present on these webpages cannot be liable for anything you do. I suppose there is a more legalistic way of putting that, but you know what this means.

You are responsible for your own actions.

Sometimes I travel now, and if I am on the road it might take me a bit of time to get back to you. Usually I reply promptly, though… within 24 hours.

Schoolkids needing information for reports

Please don’t email me. You have my permission to use ONE photo from the website or ebook in your report. You can use any of the facts if you rewrite them in your own words.

Rosana Hart

We do not ourselves collect any personal data from you. If you email us, we would then have your email address, but we never use it except to answer you and of course we never sell or rent it to anyone else.

The way the internet is set up, the IP address of the computer you are using is automatically logged by webhosting companies, along with the data and the time of access. Please note that this IP address from the computer you use is NOT linked to any personal information about who you are. It is only used to analyze things like trends, broad demographic information like what countries our visitors come from, and what pages of the site they go to and for how long. This information is then available in a summary form to help webmasters improve their sites. There are electronic, physical, and managerial safeguards in place to keep this information private.

There are links from this website to other websites. Naturally, we are not responsible for the privacy policies on these websites. However, we are quite selective about what sites we link to.

We may use third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our website. These companies may use information (not including your name, address, email address, or telephone number) about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, go to: http://www.google.com/privacy_ads.html — notice the Opt Out button near the top of the page, should you wish to opt out.

My husband Kelly and I raised llamas in the mountains outside of Ashland, Oregon, during the 1980s. Our herd was always small, and we also offered day hikes with our llamas for  tourists who came to Ashland for its Shakespeare Festival. This snapshot is of us during that time.

I wrote two books about llamas:

Living with Llamas: Tales from Juniper Ridge stayed in print for 25 years. Now it’s available as a free downloadable ebook, in PDF format — that link takes you to the download page. You can also read it on this website, as explained on that page.

It’s the story of our experiences with llamas. Neither one of us had any livestock experience to begin with, and it showed! We became quite telepathic with the llamas as time went by, and I wrote about that too.

Llamas for Love and Money was written during the era when there was a lot of money to be made. That heyday has passed, as indeed I said it would in the book. I later felt I should have titled the book Llamas for Love and Maybe Money. This book has been out of print for some time now.

Kelly produced a series of video programs on llamas, on llama packing, llama reproduction, a general program called Why Llamas? and more. We called our llama publishing company Juniper Ridge Press; now it’s part of our business Hartworks, Inc.

We received an International Llama Association Pushmi-Pullyu Award, for llama education.

Here is our product line from then:

As video gave way to DVD, we transferred the two most popular programs to DVD: Llama Training with Bobra Goldsmith and Training Llamas to Drive, also with Bobra. They are now available from this website and the first one is at Amazon.com.

This website is in association with Amazon.com, as there are llama books available here too.That means that If you click through on the links I provide to Amazon and other vendors, and if you make a purchase, in most case I receive compensation.

Please note that since we are all unique individuals, we cannot predict how quickly you would learn llama training from our programs.

Rosana Hart

(Most people will probably prefer the free downloadable PDF file I made recently. Click on the picture of the book cover in the right-hand sidebar to go to the download page. The ebook has more photos than these pages, too.)

Nearly the full text of Living with Llamas is online here. We only left out a few things that we noticed were obviously out of date. There is lots of information on llamas here, which you can find by reading through the pages or by using the tags page at the top right of every page. … or the search box. You are welcome to print out copies of these pages.

DISCLAIMER OF LIABILITY- READ THIS!!

The author and Juniper Ridge Press shall have neither liability nor responsibility to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the information contained in this book. While the book was as accurate as the author could make it in 1994, there may be errors, omissions, and inaccuracies. Please note that it has been a while since the final revision, and things may have changed. As we no longer own llamas, we have not kept up with the details.

I had a table of contents here on the old version of this website, but now the easiest way to read the book online is to click on the Sitemap — either this link or from the top of any page of the site. Scroll down a little and you will see Category: Living with Llamas.

Click on 1: Before the Llamas Came, and it will open in a new tab or browser.

I did all the links that way so you can open a chapter or more at a time and then read, then come back to the sitemap.

I found it hard to believe that they were only two weeks old. Their ears moved in the direction of any sound, and their faces already seemed to express ancient wisdom. Balzac looked at us from beside his mother.

Kelly and I were choosing our first llama. We watched Levi nurse from a black llama with a white neck.

“That’s Fancy, his mother,” Sally said. “His father, Rama, is away right now, being used for breeding. Like Levi, he’s appaloosa. We think Fancy and Rama are outstanding in looks and intelligence. We gave Levi his name because he has such good genes.”

Kelly preferred Levi’s pattern of spots, and I liked his name. Spots and a name were funny reasons to select a llama, but Sally knew far more about llamas than we did, and we trusted her evaluation that either young llama would suit our needs. We chose Levi.

Sally loved her animals–I could tell from the gentleness with which she handled them. She and her husband Paul had begun with two llamas a few years ago, and now had a large herd. “I come out and watch them whenever I can,” she said. “Sometimes I’m out here for hours. They’re such social animals, there’s always something going on. Look in the field by the barn.”

A dozen llamas were clustered together. “There’s a week-old llama in the middle of the herd,” Sally said. “We just put her and her mother in with the main herd, and the other females are curious.” I could scarcely see the baby, as the llamas were all trying to sniff her. My eyes returned to Levi.

“I’m sure you’ll enjoy Levi,” Sally said. “What made you get interested in llamas?”

“It just seemed to happen,” Kelly replied. “Before we moved to Oregon, I picked up a brochure about going packing with a group called Shasta Llamas. Rosana was working in the library in Santa Rosa then, and she came across a book called Along Came a Llama. We both read it, and were impressed with the intelligence and sensitivity of the animals.”

Next we went to see some llamas, just for curiosity, a pleasant outing for an afternoon. That day we realized that llamas could be useful to us, for packing and for wool.

“That’s how we became interested,” I said, “but I’m still puzzling over why.”

My background had very few animals in it. I had grown up in an academic family, with my nose in a book. The book might be an animal story, but throughout my childhood I would walk several blocks out of my way to avoid large dogs. I studied anthropology in college, became a probation officer and later a librarian, taught self-hypnosis and time management, and traveled around the world.

Kelly had at least grown up in a rural area. There were sometimes sheep or cattle on the land his parents owned. He grew up to work in film and video, play jazz saxophone, and do carpentry. He loved plants, animals, and inspiring views.

In our life together we evolved a style which was in some ways close to the land, and in other ways rushed and urban. We raised gardens and chickens. We lived by the ocean and later in an old summer camp set in apple orchards. While I worked in a busy public library system, Kelly made films and obtained a patent on a method of animation.

We were living in a trailer, situated on seventy undeveloped acres in the rugged mountains of southern Oregon. We had just moved there, and were putting in water, electricity, and a garden. The land was steep and dry, reminding Kelly of southern Idaho where he had grown up. At its highest point, there was a ridge along which a wonderful assortment of wind-swept juniper trees grew, so we named the land Juniper Ridge. The urban amenities we craved were just twenty minutes away, in Ashland, a town which combined the friendliness of rural Oregon with the sophistication of being a world-renowned theatrical center.

It would be a good time to bring llamas into our lives. What might we learn from them? Like dolphins and elephants, llamas seemed to have an intelligence very different from our own. Was there a possibility that we would develop a greater sense of harmony with nature from living with llamas? We hoped so.

We would have to wait six months for Levi to grow up and be weaned from his mother before he could come to us. As we left the Taylor’s ranch, I felt the same excitement mixed with unreality I had felt when we bought our land. Dreams coming true generally led to surprises–usually pleasant–and more dreams. Levi would be our llama, and I wondered what it would really be like. We planned to get another llama to keep Levi company; maybe we would even have a whole herd.

Would our dogs get along well with Levi? Martha, now thirteen, was happy to spend long hours under the kitchen table, becoming alert chiefly when food appeared. I didn’t expect her to pay much attention to llamas.

Cider would. A Rhodesian Ridgeback puppy just a few weeks older than Levi, she was growing into a long-legged, large dog, loving to run. She was of a breed developed in Africa to hunt lions. Sometimes Martha let Cider attack her, but we were Cider’s main playmates.

Sally sent us photos of Levi; he gazed at us from the refrigerator door, along with a Peruvian postcard of a llama herd which my father or grandfather had picked up in their travels over the past fifty years, little imagining that llamas would become a topic of intense interest to their descendent. I was sorry they had both died before I could ask them about it.

The llama is a South American animal, part of the camel family. Like camels, they have padded, even-toed feet and split lips. I was surprised to learn that their common ancestors originated in North America and lived on this continent for over forty million years. These earlier animals evolved into camels in Asia and Africa and the lama family of llamas, alpacas, vicunas, and guanacos in South America. They had only died out in North America some ten or twelve thousand years ago.

In South America, llamas live mainly in the high Andes. Vicunas and guanacos are wild. Vicunas are famed for their fine wool; its softness has brought them to the brink of extinction. Guanacos are believed to be the forerunners of llamas; the two species are similar in many respects, though the guanaco’s wool is fine and shorter. While guanacos do not have the official status of endangered, their numbers are a tiny fraction of what they were a century ago.

Alpacas and llamas have been domesticated for centuries. The alpaca is a smaller animal than the llama, with wool that is more highly prized. There are far more llamas than alpacas in North America.

Archaeological findings indicate that llamas were living with man by 3000 B.C. The vast Inca empire, which reached its peak toward the end of the Middle Ages in Europe, used llamas in many ways. They were beasts of burden, essential in a mountainous society that had not utilized the wheel. Their wool was used for blankets, ponchos, and other items. They played an important part in the religious and ceremonial life of the Incas: many llamas were sacrificed to the gods.
One of the world’s most versatile domestic animals, the llama is still used as a beast of burden and for wool, primarily in the Bolivian and Peruvian highlands. Its dung is used for fuel–it is said to be odorless when burned. Less and less are llamas used for long-distance transport, though, as trucks reach further into remote areas.

Llamas were brought to the United States during the nineteenth century and early in this one by William Randolph Hearst and others. In the 1930s, an importation ban was imposed on South American livestock, for fear that they might bring in foot and mouth disease. In the 1980s, importation of llamas and alpacas was resumed in a limited way, with the animals coming in through special government-run importation quarantines and facilities.

The largest one, the International Llama Association, was sponsoring a conference in Sunriver, a resort in eastern Oregon. I had been looking forward to it, but when Kelly and I walked into the large wood-beamed conference hall filled with hundreds of chatting llama owners, I felt intimidated.

“Kelly! Rosana! What are you doing here? Do you have llamas?” We turned to see an old friend, Tanya Charter, whom we hadn’t seen in several years. During that time she had acquired some llamas. She introduced us to a couple sitting with her, and they turned out to know one of Kelly’s sisters. Small world. I stopped feeling shy and delved into three intense days of information and conversation.

“Do you pronounce llama ‘lama’ or ‘yama’?” I asked llama owners. Though ‘yama’ was the Indian and Spanish pronunciation, most called their animals ‘lamas.’ So we did too.

One evening at the exhibit booths, I bought a copy of Speechless Brothers, by Andy Tillman, a history of llamas and a guide to llama care, now out-of-print. At bedtime I thought I would glance through a few pages. It was after three in the morning when I finally turned out the light, and my dreams were filled with llamas, South American Indians, and mountain trails.

The conference wound up with a tour of Patterson Llamas in Sisters, Oregon, containing the largest herd of llamas in the United States. It was astonishing to see over five hundred llamas in one place. The llamas came running to see the hundreds of humans too.

The late afternoon sun blinked through miles of pine forests as Kelly and I drove home, thinking it all over. When I asked, “What makes a beautiful llama?” people answered in many different ways. I liked Dick Patterson’s rejoinder, “What’s a beautiful woman, a beautiful horse, a beautiful painting? It’s in the eye of the beholder.”

I felt enthusiastic about llamas, and I talked to Kelly about maybe becoming breeders ourselves. If what we had heard at the conference was correct, llamas were an excellent investment. I thought we could make part of our living by raising them. It would be a lot of fun.

Kelly was driving. He didn’t seem to be as involved in my daydream as I was. He knew I tended to get carried away. Then he said, “What about small llamas?”

“Huh?”

“I wonder if we could breed small llamas,” he said. “Most people seem to favor the large animals, and that makes sense for wilderness packing. But what about people who might just want some for pets? Small ones would still be useful for backpacking, even though they would carry less. They could travel in smaller vehicles, too.”

“Small ones would be good for people who might be intimidated by large animals,” I reflected. “That one time I was on a horse has left its mark on me.” At an uncle’s ranch one summer, I had gone for a long ride on a horse who tried to scrape me off into the trees.

Another reason for small llamas occurred to me. “Weavers might be interested. What if a smaller llama with long wool could produce roughly the same amount of wool as larger llamas with shorter wool? It could be like dwarf fruit trees.”

“I don’t know if it would be hard to breed them, but it would be fun to try,” Kelly said. “I’ve been thinking about Tumbleweed. Remember him?”

Indeed I did. He was an exceptionally small young male llama at the Taylor’s ranch. Tumbleweed had a dear face, with a bit of hay usually dangling Huck Finn-style from his mouth. His wool was longer than Levi’s. Like Levi, he had appaloosa markings.

I remembered that Sally thought he was special too. “Would they sell him? How could we know if he carries genes for smallness? Maybe he’s just stunted in his growth for some reason.”

“His mother was on the small side, and Sally mentioned a small half-brother from the same father,” Kelly remembered.

“Sounds good. And after all we heard at the conference about llamas being such herd animals, I bet Levi would be happier with another llama right from the start.”

“Seems like we’re getting serious here,” Kelly said. “When I pick up Ajila and Levi, shall I find out more about Tumbleweed and maybe buy him?” He would soon be going to the San Francisco airport to meet his teenage daughter’s flight from New Orleans. On the way home, they would pick up Levi. The Taylors, soon to move to Montana with their herd, lived in northern California.

“Sure! I guess you can fit Ajila and her luggage and two llamas into the van. I wonder what she’ll think of all this. So we don’t have any llamas yet, but we have an official breeding plan, small llamas with long wool. I wonder if we could breed for good disposition too. Llamas generally seem to be good natured, but there’s bound to be some variation.”

“I don’t know how much that’s a matter of inheritance,” said Kelly, “but let’s go for it.”

At first Levi and Tumbleweed stood up, but as they became accustomed to the rolling motion of the vehicle, they sat down between the built-in bed and the sink. The window shades in back were pulled down so the llamas wouldn’t be distracted by things outside the window. Neither had ever traveled before.

Ajila went back and scratched their necks. Levi stretched his neck toward her as she rubbed.

The llamas were making humming sounds with an inquisitive tone. It was easy to translate those to something like, “What’s going on here?” It was harder to interpret the hums that were more of a monotone. Kelly knew that llamas are social animals who use sounds and body language to communicate. Understanding them was going to be like learning a new language. Ajila imitated the sounds.

In the hazy heat, a traffic tie-up forced them to stop. Cars and trucks were parked as far ahead as they could see. The llamas stood up, pulled at the velcro on the curtains and sniffed Ajila’s guitar case. Kelly talked to the other motorists. There was a chemical spill a few miles north of them, and the freeway had already been closed for twenty-four hours. A trucker said that the road was expected to be open again in a couple of hours.

Kelly pulled the van into the shade of a large truck, and they waited. Ajila pulled out some playing cards, and she and Kelly played desultory hands of gin rummy.

Tumbleweed was foaming at the mouth. Was it from the worming medicine Sally had given him by mouth that morning? Kelly hoped so. He thought so. But still he felt like a new father, not sure what to do. Maybe the llamas would like to go for a walk, but their first lesson in loading into a vehicle had been that morning. He’d better keep the llamas in the van.

He pulled up handfuls of tall grass–not yet dried by the summer sun–from a field nearby. Ajila offered it to the llamas, who seemed happy to munch. Tumbleweed’s foam disappeared, and Kelly’s anxiety along with it. He and Ajila continued to pick grass. What else to do, anyway? They made a nice pile of grass on the floor of the van.

The llamas ate, and soon Levi followed a natural inclination. Luckily, llamas’ droppings are much like deer’s, little pellets, easy to clean up. Tumbleweed sniffed where Levi had gone, and he began to follow suit. Kelly grabbed a shoe box and tried to catch the cascade of pellets. At that moment, car engines around them started up. Kelly threw the shoe box down, Ajila jumped in the van, and they began moving north again.

Alone at Juniper Ridge, I was looking down our long dirt driveway every few minutes. Would there be one llama, or two? How would Ajila have changed? She had spent most summers with us since she was two. I loved the first look at her, seeing what letters, phone calls, and even snapshots couldn’t convey.

After hugs and hellos, we coaxed our new llamas out of the van by tugging on the lead ropes attached to their halters. The light breeze lifted their fuzzy wool, and the late afternoon sun made shadow patterns on it. The llamas looked around.

Our dogs investigated the newcomers. Cider, the puppy, jumped on Ajila and ran long-legged circles around the llamas, inviting them to play. They watched her. Martha, the ancient one, surprised me by barking and trying to nip at the llamas’ back feet. They watched her too, and deftly stepped out of her way.

Ajila was exploring. We had moved since her last visit, and it was all new to her. “Wow, what a view!” she said, looking south to where snow-covered Mount Shasta, some fifty miles away, was gleaming.

“Which is our land?” she asked.

“Let’s walk up to the ridge with the llamas–we can show you better from there.”

Kelly and I were each holding one llama’s lead rope. Both llamas walked easily on lead, sniffing at each other and us, leaning over for a mouthful of one plant or another. The dogs came along, Martha growling intermittently at the llamas.

“Kelly, the llamas are really here! Both of them!”
“Yes, I was so pleased when Sally said she’d sell Tumbleweed too. Hey, they’re pointing their ears forward, maybe because of the squirrel under the juniper tree. They sure do watch things.”

Levi sniffed my shoulder. Tumbleweed stayed further away from us. He seemed to be more adventurous about exploring new places, as he went along the ridge from one snack to another. Kelly followed at the other end of the rope. The two llamas were already showing differences in personality. I liked how each of them blended calmness and curiosity.

Kelly showed Ajila the boundaries of our land. From the ridge, the cliffs dropped down to a flat meadow. “We like to hike there,” he told Ajila. “We have sixteen acres below the cliffs, including a place we call the Magic Place. We’ll take you there. We’re planning to live on top here–we are still thinking about what we want to build. There will be llama sheds right near it.”

Ajila looked at the panoramic view of mountains, turning luminous as the sun set. “Sure is different from Louisiana,” she drawled.

As the evening progressed, I kept popping out to the llama yard, to watch how the llamas sat down or stood up or had a drink of water. Once Levi rolled over on his back–to scratch it, I surmised.

The llama yard had been the dog yard; now the dogs were in the trailer, where they much preferred to be, and for now the llamas had a space the size of a small suburban back yard, sloping up the hill by the trailer. A large juniper tree provided shade and nibbles. A few bushes provided more nibbles, and there was some grass.

The main course was hay, in and around a cardboard box. I had brought the hay home in our tiny station wagon, carefully arranging it so I could fit three bales in. Munching hay, the llamas seemed right at home. Soon we would build a llama shed, fence a larger pasture, and buy a pickup truck.

Ajila considered her choice of accommodations. The tiny second bedroom in the trailer was already my office, so we offered her our camping tent, pitched on a flat place next to the llama yard, or the van in which she had arrived. She chose the tent, and neatly arranged her things in it. Cider slept with her in the tent, an arrangement which didn’t last past the second chewing of our good down comforter.

Kelly and I walked up to the ridge. There was a breeze, as usual; our land was on a mountain pass, so if the wind wasn’t blowing from California, it was usually blowing from Oregon. This evening it was blowing from the south, appropriately, I thought, considering what had just blown in from California.

The western sky was still glowing as we strolled hand in hand. As we came back toward the trailer, the llamas were sitting with their legs tucked under them. Levi’s ears were forward; Tumbleweed’s were back.

“I thought ears back was an aggressive signal,” Kelly commented, “but Tumbleweed keeps his that way a lot. While I was driving, I watched the llamas in the rear-view mirror, and his ears were back most of the time.”

“He hardly looks aggressive now,” I said. He and Levi were gently chewing.
We could see them from our bedroom window. I woke up several times during the night and looked out, but there was no moon and nothing much was visible. At first light I woke again and peered out. Levi was sitting tucked up, and he was looking at me. I was thrilled. He didn’t miss a beat as he chewed his cud.