Chapter Fourteen:
Thundercloud
[Page 1]
We had never bought or sold a llama at an auction, as we preferred
a more relaxed environment and time to mull things over. But auctions
were fascinating events, good for visiting with old friends and
making new ones, interesting for seeing so many llamas in one place.
We went to an auction that was held an hour's drive from our ranch.
"We're going to need another stud one of these days,'' Kelly
said as we drove. "With all these daughters of Levi, who are
we going to breed them to? Not all of them would be a good match
for Whiskers.'' We had decided against breeding Tumbleweed or Poco
any more, due to minor flaws.
"Want to look around at the auction and see if anything turns
up?'' I asked.
"Well, yes, but we don't really have much money to spare right
now. I don't think I'd want to go over about fifteen hundred dollars.''
"That might be enough. It seems like more people want llamas
with long wool. I've heard of people getting good bargains at auctions,
especially later in the day.'' We liked llamas whose wool was short
enough that they were suitable for packing. I kept thinking that
I would learn to spin, so I was also interested in animals with
soft wool.
We strolled among the llamas, with our friend Stanlynn Daugherty.
Kelly's artistic training and Stanlynn's experience with llamas
helped the two of them to spot Roman noses, slightly turned out
feet, knock knees, and other flaws much more quickly than I could.
After a couple of passes around the stalls, we had narrowed it
down to an Eclipse son. As Eclipse was a famous stud at a famous
ranch, I thought this llama could be out of our price range, but
he wasn't fantastically woolly. So that might put him back in. I
liked looking at him. He was on the small side; that was fine with
me and could keep his price down.
"I like him,'' Kelly said. "He has something of the presence
of his father.'' We both thought that Eclipse was a magnificent
animal.
That day there was a llama show. This llama placed fourth or fifth
in his class, below several woollier animals. In the evening, there
was a ranch dispersal auction.
Just before we left to drive home, I wandered back into the stalls
to take another look at the llama. There was a man working around
the stalls. He was one of the owners, so I asked him to tell me
more about the llama's temperament and background.
"I'll be honest with you, we really haven't worked with him
much at all. Just these past couple of weeks, getting ready for
the show, grooming him and training him some. And I've really been
surprised at his intelligence. I bet I could have taken him through
that obstacle course they had in the show ring without any practice.''
I noted on the registration that he was three and half years old.
"Has he had any babies?''
"None on the ground, but he's bred two females at our place,
and they acted pregnant, spitting him off after a few weeks. ''
"Do you know if he was bottle fed, or handled a lot as a baby?''
"No, nothing like that. We've had him about a year. He's really
a good guy.''
"Well, maybe we'll come back and look at him again in the
morning.''
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