Chapter Fourteen:
Thundercloud
[Page 2]
I said to Kelly as we drove home, "I'm getting kind of interested
in this llama. It's quite a challenge, not to get too attached.''
"We'll just have to wait and see how it works out,'' Kelly
said.
"Yea,'' I sighed. I wasn't fond of waiting and seeing. That
night, I dreamt of llamas but didn't remember any details in the
morning.
At the fairgrounds, Kelly said, "Let's take that male out
and walk him around a while, to get a good look at him.'' When we
got to the barn, a man was looking at the llama. My heart skipped
a beat; the man strolled on casually.
The llama looked at us as we approached him. One of his owners
was there, and we asked if we could take him out for a walk.
"Sure,'' she said, and gave us a lead rope.
At first Kelly walked him around, and I observed. The llama was
a dark brown, almost gray, with just a little white on his face
and neck. His undercoat had a gray tinge. Hmm, breed that to Lil
and you could get a lovely baby.
Kelly observed while I took a turn leading the llama. We checked
out his legs, the straightness of his back, the way he moved at
different speeds--everything we could think of. He led quite nicely.
We talked to his owners more about his health and his history.
I wanted this llama. "Uh oh,'' Kelly said, "you're catching
auction fever.''
At the auction, the promoter and the auctioneer were up on a podium
behind the little stage where the owners showed their animals. In
front of them were three cowboy-hatted men, whose job it was to
work on the crowd, scan their section for bidders, coax people,
and let out cowboy yells.
We watched the bidding for the champion animals. The male grand
champion was a magnificent Eclipse son with abundant wool. The bidding
quickly rose, up and up, into the twenty thousands, into the thirties.
Every now and then the promoter would give a little spiel. "How
often do you get a chance to buy a son of Eclipse here?'' He asked.
"I tell you, people, this is a rare opportunity.''
That was hardly what I wanted to hear. The llama sold in the upper
thirty thousands. Later an Eclipse daughter went for a high price,
and again her famous father was praised. There was only one more
Eclipse offspring in the entire auction: the one we wanted. A friend
I was sitting with guessed that he would go for three to five thousand
dollars. I agreed with her that he was worth that, but I was still
hoping.
Kelly and I left the stands to get some lunch. There were dozens
of females to be sold, plus some alpacas. The male we wanted was
about halfway through the males in the auction order. It would be
fairly late in the afternoon. That was to our advantage; a lot of
people would have left. I reminded myself to stay easy with whatever
happened, but I also convinced Kelly that we could go a little higher
than the fifteen hundred dollar limit he'd set.
When we went back to the stands, they were rapidly selling males.
A llama who resembled our intended llama sold for four thousand.
The next one, nothing special, went for a thousand. Next a charming
juvenile, then a classy fellow with lovely markings, and a Dr. Doolittle
son we had liked, all went through.
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