OFF 2008

Edit: I am sad to say that Snowy was not a good fit for our family. However he found a new life on a rabbit farm in Forest Grove as a breeder rabbit so he's...you know, a stud bunny now.

Fate handed us a new pet today. Well...the Oregon Flock and Fiber and fate. And $15.00 for the cage. And $39 for the supplies....

Meet Snowy!



Max originally wanted to name him "Whitey" but I convinced him that Snowy might be better.

We also saw sheep and, of course, members of the Alpaca Cult. I bought a small amount of yarn, but really the bunny was the major purchase.

Max and I had an insanely busy weekend, we went the Chinese Classical Garden on Saturday with his Papa and Susie which turned out to be...well, not in the most fantastic part of town. The garden was lovely though and we made it up to them by taking them to Imbrie Hall for dinner.

Alpaca Extravaganza!!!

So, today Max and I decided to head down to the Alpaca Extravaganza at the Expo center...and so began another weird and wonderful foray into the world of Alpacas....



First, we took the train to the Expo center which I have to say was pretty much painless...well, except for the guy on the train who kept telling his girlfriend that she "was just a bitch" and she would respond with "I'm just trying to better myself" about 25 times two rows down from us. Luckily, Maxwell was pretty oblivious thanks to someone having left a bunch of balloon animals on the train for (I'm guessing) random children to find.






but on to the show...Ok, so there are apparently two main types of alpaca, Huacayas and Suri. The most popular of the alpaca breeds are the Huacayas, which are your typical curly haired fuzzy alpacas. The Suris are actually Huacayas with a few recessive genes thrown in there, but the Suri, with their corded hair and adorable little goofy faces are starting to advance in the US. Although people in South America have been breeding Suri alpacas for...I don't know millions of years or something, they have only been in the US since 1991. Of course, you would never want to mention cross breeding a Suri with a Huacaya to a Suri breeder, because then the breeders will come after you with pitchforks, conveniently already located in the stalls for clearing of hay ridden with alpaca pellets.

They also come in variations of 3 colors, red, white and black, and all of the color variations come from those three colors. I have to say that I did see some beautiful animals there, including this one on the way to be judged...



Max called these "Teddy Bear Alpacas" and started mincing me saying "oh, hello there beautiful, aren't you a beauty?" He wouldn't touch them, but commended me on my bravery for letting them snuff my hand...they have little noses that are like velvet!



He looks mean, but seriously, this was the friendliest alpaca there...



Roving, roving, roving...



I like to call this one a "Rastapaca"



Of course, the Alpaca Cult was there, recruiting as always...





These were all Suri alpacas, but they come with the requisite "enforcer" alpaca in case you start asking too many questions, if you know what I mean...



Max tried his hand at spinning





And then we went back on the train where I gave him smoothie and enjoyed a quiet ride home before the sugar hit...incidentally, did you know you could get a durian smoothie at the Saturday Market? I had no idea...lucky for me Max was more into strawberry and banana than corpse fruit.

Alpacas of the DAMNED!!!

Originally posted to Livejournal 5/23/05

Our encounter with the Alpacas of the Dammed or as Max calls them, Moopacas of the Damned began early this morning on our return from Bellingham...I saw a sign on the road that said "Antiques, Tulips, Alpaca" and I thought "well, who doesn't love antiques, tulips and Alpacas? Let's turn off the road!




Unfortunately, the antique shop was closed, there were no signs of tulips and the entrance to the Alpaca pens was also closed. As soon I said "Oh...it looks closed" I was greeted with the kind of whine that can only emanate from a 3 year who informed me at 3:30 that morning that he 'had a great nap and was ready to watch little bear now' and was starting to feel the effects of waking up so early "but...I want to see...Llamas...you...said...we could see Llamas mommy..."
"Alpacas, honey"
"I want Llamas!"
"Al...alright, give me a minute"

At this juncture, my brain already slightly addled by lack of sleep and relatives, I decided to take my toddler trespassing across a plowed field to get to the alpaca pens.



Ok, so you know that movie, Village of the Damned, where the kids are spooky and murderous? It was kind of like that, only with alpacas. I mean, I don't think they were aliens or anything, but there was definitely something unsettling about these ungulates.


When we walked up to the pen, I pretty much expected the alpacas to behave as every other barn yard animal on earth, review the situation for feeding potential and then resume normal activities such as staring off into space as soon as possible. Not so for the alpacas. This lovely little group of herd animals, which originate from the Andes mountain range in South America, remained unnervingly alert to our presence.







First, they were really quiet. I looked down at Max for a moment and looked up to see them gliding to the side of the pen and eying us with suspicion. The whole time I did not hear one sound from these creatures. Second, they were shaved. Not like the "oh, it's that cute" kind of shaved, the "what the hell?" kind of shaved.

I'm not sure what human could have done this, so it must have been part of their alpaca cult initiation, especially since not all of the alpacas were shaved. In addition, several of the alpacas had their "true names" (i.e. alpaca cult names) around their necks. I noticed that only the shaven alpacas had these little names on them, so the two must be connected.




I half expected the alpaca grand master to shimmy out of the barn and demand we be served up with the morning's alfalfa. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that the grand master was already there, in our midst...I kept trying to make light of it, talking about how cute they were...how they were so sweet, all the while trying to back Max away from them...I even took a a video...Max knew...listen to the end.







I realized he was the grand master because he kept coming up to me, just...staring. Finally, we made a run for it. You can see the grand master alpaca warning me never to return in the background, along with his underlings making sure we had taken off.

We were lucky to escape with our lives.