Chapter Fifteen:
Talking with Llamas
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Penelope found Renny to be extraordinary in the reach of her mind
and living less fully in her body than other llamas did. That fit
my sense of reality too. Renny was always watching everything, with
intense curiosity.
"Would TEAM help her be in her body more?'' I asked. TEAM
was a method of working with horses, developed by Linda Tellington-Jones,
that was just beginning to be applied to llamas.
"Yes, it could give her some softness.''
"Penelope, her external genitalia seem still quite small to
me,'' I commented. Renny was about nine months old now.
Penelope paused a moment. "Well, she's quite boyish,'' she
said.
We turned back to Blossom. Now that she had seen what was going
on, she told Penelope, she was willing to talk. She said she was
very impatient to get back in with the other ladies; she felt they
needed her there to take charge. She couldn't see how they could
do without her!
That sounded like our Blossom all right. "Is her baby okay?''
I asked.
She told Penelope that her baby was fine. She was very confident
about being a mother.
"She would like to have lots of babies and boss the whole
herd,'' Penelope said.
She laughed and added, "I get the sense that Blossom has your
number. She likes you, but she has you in your place. She didn't
much like it when you had to work on her abscess, but she understood
that it was necessary.''
"Actually, her impatience now is detracting from the wound
healing,'' Penelope went on, encouraging us to put Blossom back
in with the others, or at least to have a common fence line with
them, as soon as the vet would okay it.
Lil Bit was next. "This llama is very maternal, and there's
a sense of her being old before her time. She's a very peaceful
animal. All the animals tell me they are happy here. Even Posey
says now that she is likely to come around and accept being in her
body more.''
We walked down to Thundercloud's field, adjoining the ladies. "He's
a very complete being who likes being a llama. He's rather solitary.
He likes to meditate. He likes being with you, but there is a certain
aloofness from you and from the other animals.''
"We've had trouble breeding him. He hasn't gotten anyone pregnant
yet. Is there anything the matter with him?'' I asked.
"No, there's nothing the matter with him. It's just that nobody
ever taught him, and he's having to experiment and figure it all
out for himself. He's a little embarrassed and doesn't like you
watching.''
Penelope said a few words about our other males. Everyone was
content. Whiskers was smart, she commented--correctly--but not as
focused as his daughter Renaissance.
We had two cats who lived in the barn, Julio and Who. Julio was
friendly and Who wasn't. In the year we'd had her, I'd scarcely
ever been able to touch her. She didn't appear when we were in the
barn, but Penelope was able to communicate with her. I asked if
I should try harder to make friends with her. Penelope said, "Who
says 'No, don't try to relate to me. I have very little use for
people and just want to be a wild barn cat. I do my job. I'm a good
barn cat.' ''
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