Happy Easter!

Happy Easter Rebels!  I got the most amazing Easter present ever!!!  My second hatch started a bit early on Thursday, with Royal Ranch's first chick; we were so excited, especially since the chicks were pre-sold.  The poults started coming the next day, but too slowly for the sake of the chick.  She/he was getting DARN hungry and wanted OUT of that incubator.

So last night we very quickly opened up the incubator (you are not supposed to open the incubator mid-hatch due to dropping the humidity level), and grabbed out the one chick and five, YES FIVE, poults!!!  I was concerned about the other "babies" picking on them, so we put them in a box in the brooder.  If you all remember, we have four chicks and poults that were hatched/purchased in late February; so I was not sure how they would all get along.

I know it is hard to see, and that is because the poults that are just babies themselves already have the instincts to take care of the itty bitty babies!!  The new ones are safely tucked under the wings of the others.  Mother Nature truly amazes me!  Happy Easter and God Bless.

Ode to Shasta

Shasta and Shade

Please Lord, wake me up from this nightmare that I am in.  Oh wait, I am fully awake and this is my real life.  Last night I went to put my daughter to bed and our Baby Girl Shasta was lying peacefully on her bed like she had been all day.  When my daughter grabbed her to cuddle up for the night she made an odd sound and her mouth sort of fell open; I tried to act normal and finish putting My Bell to bed and took the cat out of the room to my husband.

She was gone within minutes.  She made one more noise, a loud meow and then she was gone.  My husband and I just stood there in total shock, our beloved Raggedy Ann Doll Kitty was gone forever!!!  She got this reputation from years of being carried around like a rag doll; literally being tossed over the shoulder of many children with her arms on either side of their necks.  She would hug them as if her little life depended upon it and let them take her wherever they were headed off to play...


Although most visitors to the Royal Ranch did not even know that we had Shasta as she was very shy, but she had a soft spot for the children, especially our son Austin.  She was drawn to him from the very beginning of his and our oldest son Thomas' friendship so many years ago; and she would sleep on him whenever she got the chance!  Their next visit home will not be the same without her...

In loving memory of the best Raggedy Ann Doll a girl could EVER ask for.  We love you dearly, Shasta.

PS  When I clicked on the link to find it for Shade, I re-read that post and thought GEEZ, if I only knew then what I know now....  Yes, the loss of Shade really was an indicator of times a changin'; I have lost my herdsire, Marcel since then, which to be honest really made me lose my passion for llamas...  Now the loss of my beloved Shasta.  The loss of The Royal Ranch is taking its toll on us all it seems; it is most definitely time to move on and get a fresh start.  When we told our kids about the foreclosure, my son Nathan said that it was okay because he thinks that this place may be poisoning us and after what has been going on I'm not too sure if I don't agree with him.

Crocodile Tears, from a Llama

Marcel

20 years old

dressed to impress for a wedding at The Royal Roost

That is the only description for what I saw and cried in the last two days.  My Marcel slipped away peacefully in his sleep last night.  Yesterday when I went up to do the morning chores I knew he was dyeing.  He was down; just quietly eyeing me from the corner of the barn.


I just chatted with him while I did the turkeys and fed Hunter, the llama that I thought would die sooner than Marcel as he has been ill....but he never got up to greet me.  And when I went over and saw the single Crocodile Tear escape from his eye....

Many of you may know that Marcel is my lead llama, but what you may not know is that Marcel is also my very favorite llama ever.  He has saved me in the forest (from a cow, but he thought it was a real danger LOL) and been on every single pack trip that my business ever took!

So it killed me when I had to leave his side for a bit to celebrate my husband's birthday, but he made it until we came home and we all got to say goodbye to him.  My daughter saw him cry too; it was only when we talked about saying goodbye.  This was an amazing animal, with amazing instincts and emotions.  He will be missed dearly here at The Royal Ranch.

Thank you for your Leadership Marcel; you were the kindest Leader I have ever known.

Love Forever,
Mama J~

Happy Humorous Monday

Welcome Double J!

I would like to take this opportunity to introduce the newest member of the family...The Double J Ranch!  You can find us at dbljdotorg (soon) and dbljdotorg.blogspot.com (NOW!).

Life's funny little bumpy roads.....

":) Being a leader, especially a leader of conscience, isn't always easy."

Yes, read that Rebels and let that sink in for just a minute.  I had to.  Dear friend and Rebel, Daisy sent that to me when I thanked her for her support about my letter to Ms. McGee a few days ago.  And it was funny because I got it on a day I had also taken on another llama big wig, the day I had to have another MRI on my back.


The day had been a hellish day anyway. I must say that sometimes it is easier to just count on yourself than to have partial support.  Tom had told me he'd take me to the appointment, which is great, but then he had to go back to work....and it was almost worse than if I'd just counted on my own strength the whole time, you know what I mean????  I had had to go and pick up my daughter sick from school and that threw a wrench into the morning....


But the big tests these days seem to be coming from my so called peers.  And what I have realized is that they don't know I am their peer; and that is where things went all wrong.  I'll give you a bit of background on the story, although it really isn't all that important to my point, but over a decade ago when I first got into llamas I mistakenly bought 2 llamas.  At that time I didn't know that there were rescue llamas that needed homes.  Llamas were on the downhill slide of the fad I guess....


One of those purchased llamas is the only one that has ever given us much trouble.  He is the only llama that I have ever had to spend vet dollars on other than maintenance because I have tried to figure out what the hell is wrong with him.  He has knocked each of my family members down, he has bitten me and all of these things are absolutely NOT normal llama behavior.


In the decade since owning this llama I have learned A LOT!!!  I have also rescued more than twenty llamas; many of them I (little old me at 120 lbs soaking wet as my husband would say) have trained to pack from being not even halter broke.  I have no formal training in llama handling besides what my wonderful mentor Bobra Goldsmith taught me before she died; which was a lot.

She taught me to simply expect good behavior from my animals; and that is a theory The Royal Ranch has always had.  When I train a llama to pack it is simply an agreement between the llama and myself....I'm going to trust you and you're going to trust me.  By the time I put the pack on them I have been building a working, trusting, loving relationship with the animal for as long as I can.  I don't stand for bad behavior and I never will; that is just the way it is.

Speaking of hunting camps..

  Take for instance our first hunt camp ever.  We had been getting advice from everyone that animals are afraid of the smell of blood and that our llamas were going to freak out unless they had been trained to be around meat, etc.  We had even been told to stuff their nostril with some sort of Mentholatum so that they wouldn't smell anything; to me this sounded like abuse. 

So Tom and I headed up the mountain with our very untrained pack train of llamas to pick up a huge bull elk for a friend.  We figured since it was a good friend of ours at least if the llamas freaked, no biggy.  We got to the camp and we did what we usually do; we packed up that elk and we put it on the llamas....that was that.  They were a bit jumpy at first but when they saw that we just expected them to behave like any old job, and we weren't going to take any crap from them, it was the end of their nervousness.  They knew they could trust us.  One of them even had to wear the antlers and the cape (which is the hyde) of the elk down the mountain!  It was sort of weird to look forward (I of course am always in the caboose position with Tom in lead) and see a llama with antlers-ha!!!


But back to my point, I am no llama schmutz.  I know what the hell I am doing when it comes to these animals.  I am the Co-Colorado Coordinator (it's an awful big state) for the Southwest Llama Rescue, and not by mistake, I was voted in.  If there is an aggressive male within a four state radius of me, chances are he is going to end up at my place for evaluation and rehab if he is capable.


So it really surprised me when I called the breeder of that fat, lazy llama and had to get into a battle of wits with him over the behavior of said llama and what to do about it.  Now that my spine is not quite what is used to be, I'm not really sure I'm comfortable, or really need a spoiled, over de-sensitized llama in my yard when I have spent the last decade of my life to saving llamas that really need homes.  As I mentioned this man, like Ms. McGee is in the llama world...you know, people that give a crap what other llama owners think of them.


He acted as if I was still some newbie, the same nobody that had walked into his yard 12 years ago looking at llamas for the first time and offered to come assess the llama for me.  Well, no thanks.  I've been assessing him and paying for him and having to watch out for my family's and visitor's safety from him for ten years now.  I gave him a very clear assessment of the situation, and simply asked if they were in a position to take him back now that my back is in such bad shape and he poses a real danger to me with his pushy behavior.

Well, needless to say, the llama will be staying where he is at.  The llama breeder got told exactly what I thought of his assessment.  And I kept thinking "Really?  Two people in one week?  My name is going to be $*@! in the llama world"  But I don't give a rat's patooty because that guy had it coming. (Well, I sort of did, I actually threw a baby fit when I got off the phone with him he had made me so mad, but it was just a natural reaction-ha!!!!)

And then I got that sweet quote from Daisy worth repeating again, "Being a leader, especially a leader of conscience, isn't always easy."; and it made me smile.  Thursday, I got a call from a gal on my rescue group who asked if I had a few minutes; I gotta tell you after the week I'd had with llama folks I thought I was really in for it now.  Actually she was calling to answer a question I had posted about; but more importantly she was calling to ask me if she could gift me a sweater that she had cherished for years because it had llamas on it.

She wanted me to have it because I have added such "vitality and personality" to the group.  All I thought I did was respond to the emails and try to help out a few llamas when I could-who knew?  It truly was a wonderful phone conversation; one of those where you really just enjoy getting to know the person at the other end of the line.  This amazing lady owned llamas from 1978 to 2008, and here I thought I was all that-ha!  But the point was, I know it sounds silly, but I felt like the chosen one, you know?

Then last night I answer the phone to the cutest little southern voice you can imagine and she is just thanking me up and down.  And it took me a second to figure out what the heck I had done.  Oh yeah, email again, I had sent a positive, reinforcing email to a newbie llama owner.  Amazing how far positive reinforcement goes, eh?  Whether it is with ourselves, our kids, our dogs, our llamas, whatever; I think in this post alone I have given you several examples!

These new folks have been SO kind to adopt some llamas from Nebraska; the issue is that they live in Texas.  Which as you all know is having a drought and heat problem.  The Colorado folks took in the Nebraska llamas temporarily until we could get them down south.  Well, somehow these folks got to thinking that our talking about expenses to get those llamas down there meant they were a burden (we should have switched to a more private Yahoo board in hind sight to avoid hurt feelings maybe!) and I tried to clear that up, right quick.  Anyone sticking their neck out to rescue one (and they are taking in 11!) of my wondrous creatures is no burden to me, that is for DAMN sure!

So my week had turned from on the attack to on the receiving end of so many blessings. I do believe strongly in everything I told those people I had to tell off, but I also truly believe even stronger what I told those people in loving manners.  Originally when I first started this post a day or so ago, it was called "Being kicked while you're down...", and then these crazy events just kept happening and I could no longer call it that, could I?

Dear Ms. McGee,

You called here screaming at me last night due to an email I sent you.  You were wondering (again and again) "just who the hell I am" to write you such an email, and how dare I suggest you give away your livelihood.  Well, my dear, My name is Judy Jeute.  And it is called a tax donation.

See, readers, I had emailed Ms. McGee that she should be ashamed of herself for attempting to make money on those of us who have stuck our necks out to save the hundreds of  starving llamas from the Montana Sanctuary in the middle of winter.  She is offering half price llama handling clinics to those kind folks who rescued llamas; and I told her "Half price?  Gah!!!"

When I picked up the phone she almost immediately was on the attack and so I got the uncomfortable chuckle like humans tend to get, and that really pissed her off!!!  But what I really realized is that what she was the maddest about is that how dare some unknown llama nobody suggest that Queen McGee get off her ass and actually do something to help not only the almost thousand llamas that came off that sanctuary but almost hundreds of HUMANS that helped them!

So, no Ms. McGee, I will not apologize for my "Nasty-gram", which really wasn't all that nasty, if it gets you to thinking about folks other than yourself.  The IRS will thank you kindly.  And I would imagine it would do wonders for your business as well, those friends would tell their friends, etc.  Much better press than this!

Kind regards, er, not so kind regards,
Judy Jeute
Manager/Co-owner
Royal Ranch

Llamas and sheep and turkeys, oh my!!!

Photo courtesy of Kevin, our renter.

It seems that my last few posts have continually been of me sort of apologizing for not being here for one reason or another...I realize that is because my life has really been in an upheaval of sorts lately.  My sons moved on to college, my youngest started middle school, and I found out that my back "issue" is a permanent disability all at once; which led me to start making huge changes here at the ranch.

Well, this last week has really been a whopper if I do say so myself.  It started last Saturday when we place three llamas; and I must say that those boys really moved up in the world!  They now reside on 160 acres in a spectacular valley about an hour drive away; so I will be able to visit them often.  The transfer of the boys went flawlessly thanks to my fellow llama wrangler and partner in life and all things crazy, my hubby.

The very next day we headed off to the sister in law's house; as she works at a livestock auction.  I was going to take Paco, my ram, whom I was so positive would go as a fantastic breeding animal.  We loaded him and Esther, my ewe up (just for company for Paco) and headed out for eastern Colorado.  Monday was the big livestock auction, and when I say big, you must take that with a grain of salt because this really is a small town auction, but that is what I wanted for Paco and us since this was our first experience ever.

When we backed the trailer in there was commotion about our beautiful sheep and so I put Esther in the auction too; with a minimum.  They both sold at a premium price for what sheep are going for these days; I got what I purchased them for two years ago!  So, anyway, Annie (SIL), didn't have any help that day, so Tom and I pitched in and helped "load out".  Meaning that we got to load out all of the animals that were purchased at auction that day.  Some of them just a day old.  It was quite a learning experience for Tom, Isabella, Nathan and myself; but it was really cool because I was able to tell some of the new owners "hey, this one has a cough" or "this goat needs to be milked right away" or whatever.  I am hoping that maybe some of the new owners got instructions that they might not have gotten otherwise.

Esther had been one of the first to go.  I was sad to see her go, and I am pretty sure that she went to a great home.  And I say pretty sure because as the day wore on and I got more tired I saw some pretty crazy stuff.  Like a guy stuffing 16 goats and a giant pig in a trailer on top of a load of lumber that he had purchased; but we got them in!!!  All day I waited and wondered when Paco's new owner would come....and then a semi pulled up to the loading dock and my stomach sank.  That's right Rebels; my beautiful ram was headed to PA to a packing plant.

And that is also why they don't let crazy chicks like me carry guns; because when I went to say goodbye to him I literally thought that if I had had a gun I might just shoot him dead right there to avoid him having to travel half way across the country to get the old hammer head.  But I am a big girl, and I had made a big girl decision and I had to abide by it...  Think what you want of me but that is truly the way I felt.

Tom didn't think I looked to good after that little shock and working so hard all day so he took us all to Carl's Jr. after the auction; and that is when he calmly reminded me that he needed to take Tia with him the next day; she was to have knee surgery.  A dear friend was paying for her surgery and was going to care for her during her rehab so we were supposed to lose her for at least a couple of months; while she recuperated (I didn't think I was capable with my back).  I lost it!  I started choking on my all time favorite guacamole burger and was literally making a scene.  I had forgotten that the days were so close together and just didn't want to talk about one more loss at the time.

So Tuesday dawns and I have to say goodbye to Tia.  I get through that and take my son to the orthodontist and finally get his braces on.  Now this is a really big deal.  This kid has been waiting 18 years for these braces; he has a cleft pallet that has never been properly fixed and the clock was really ticking on this thing; if we didn't start now, there was no fixing it at all.  Big emotions there (this is my adopted son).  And then he's gone...back to college.  Another goodbye.

I'm not ashamed to say, Tuesday when I was driving home, I have never been so tired in my life.  I had said goodbye to my kids multiple times by now.  My back was killing me from working the auction the day before, I couldn't get the fact that my spectacular ram was on that semi headed east towards a hammer that I don't even believe in and now I was contributing too out of my head.... And my beloved Tia was gone for months!  At least, maybe more.  I got the kids off the bus and went to bed.

Well, it's amazing what a nap will accomplish; because when I woke up there was a message.  There had been a mix-up and Tia had to come home for a night....which led us to find out she really didn't need any lifting....she could still walk on three legs just like she did before the surgery!  And  do you know the most amazing thing Rebels????  My dear friend (actually Tia's breeder) still paid for her surgery!  And sent us all sorts of meds for the dear patient, like stuff for her arthritis which she is sure to get, and pain meds that oh thank the Lord that she has had because this has been one very painful surgery for the girl.

Tia and I have had a very busy week, what with all the pain and biting at her knee; we didn't even realize it was getting so close to Saturday....Turkey Day!  You know, I wasn't sure how to feel about Turkey Day, I was dreading it and looking forward to it all at once.  You Rebels know how much I loved those turkeys.  They were my pride and joy; they followed me all over the ranch, even to get the mail and when I laughed they gobbled.  But due to human intervention, if we had not harvested these turkeys, they would have gone down on their legs (their breasts are too large, the legs can't support them), or they would have died of a heart attack.

Photo courtesy of Teri, our friend/neighbor/customer!

Of course I had done a ton of research and was all ready for the big turkey harvesting and we turned it into a big party.  Check out some of the pictures on the facebook page if you want, still don't have a camera, thinking about putting on a donation button for that!  The pics were taken by a friend/neighbor/customer.  We were blessed that morning by our first visit by a big bull moose so I knew things were going to go well that day.  (I may do a post on turkey harvesting for my own records and for those that are agriculture readers, so  those that aren't beware!)

I can't believe all the changes we have made around here.  Three llamas, two sheep, two turkeys...  And we are not done yet.  But I think that is enough for right now.  My heart and head are still reeling from the loss of all the critters and kids.  And I would like to say another thing, I always say that things happen for a reason and I firmly believe that.  Like one of my turkeys getting killed by a neighbors dog and us not having one of that type to harvest for our family this year; well maybe our family is meant to have a heritage turkey (meaning not human intervened) for our first bird; who knows?  And we were invited over for the turkey dinner at our friend's house...there sure is plenty to go around!  Things always turn out the way they are supposed to...now wait to hear what I have up my sleeve!  Please, stay tuned in!!!  I have a music clue cued up for tomorrow as to what The Royal Ranch may be up to next....

Royal Ranch Royalty: Shades of Change

 Shade

Well it is time to sit down in front of my computer and try to heal my broken heart with words.  See, I have been telling you Rebels about changes here at The Royal Ranch and they have all really started to hit me these last few weeks; thus my absence from this blog.  

We lost our beloved cat Shade a few weeks back and I knew it would be very symbolic of the times ahead.  Shade was our nurse and one of my best friends here at the ranch.  If any one was not feeling well, Shade was the first to let me know by laying by that animal or person and meowing insistently!  It was uncanny his ability to know that a spirit was not well before they actually showed symptoms outwardly.  I guess it was from his time living at the vet clinic for so many years; Shade had been a blood donor cat before he came to live at the Royal Ranch.

Which is how he became a character in my childrens book, Llucky Llama.  His name in the book is no other than Cuddly Cat of course.  Cuddly Cat is buried right next to Dedicated Dog; my first Great Pyrenees that was one of the greatest dogs I have ever owned in my entire life.  As a matter of fact, that spot has not been used since Marilyn (Dedicated Dog) passed.  Tom tried to bury another dog there one time and about got his head bit off by me-ha!  Sometimes there are just animals that are extraordinarily special in our lives and Shade and Marilyn were those type of animals.

As I said, I knew the winds of change were blowing; I just didn't know how hard.  That week I had gotten the news about my back.  I had gone back in because my back just isn't making progress.  It will be a year in October since my surgery and I have tried everything except chiropractic care.  And I do mean everything.  Walking, Pilates, stretching, yoga, acupuncture, etc., although it is all very good stuff it does not completely take away my pain.  I saw multiple docs in one week, one of them a specialist on the field who then sent me to another ultra-specialist who all agree; this is a lifelong issue.

The good news is is that the last specialist I saw did give me a shot in the spine that sent me into a horrific tizzy for about a week; and boy was it a painful tizzy, but I am better now.  So Rebels, please keep your fingers crossed that I can get these shots every three months for a little bit of pain relief!!!!  The timing was perfect because my back was feeling better just in time for me to deal with my next big change....

Which is losing my sons.  And to be perfectly honest, I suck at letting go.  I know that they are going to college and that they are doing the best thing for them, and that this is what is supposed to happen, but it still really hurts my heart.  I miss them sooo much it physically hurts sometimes.  And I know I'm not the only one out there; maybe I am the only willing to admit it, I don't know.

We took them to Gunnison, Co; the home of Western State College on Friday.  They will share a dorm room and will start classes on Monday.  Thomas already got a job and Austin has an interview today; so their lives are just going wonderfully!  My heart bursts with pride each and every time I get a text or a call or an email from one of them.  I really can't believe that my 2 sons are at college; to be honest I wasn't sure it could really happen.

These are two boys that come from homes that are not made of money.  As a matter of fact they are the first of both their families to ever have gone to college.  Thankfully, due to Austins legal circumstances (our adopting him) his schooling is entirely paid for with grants and loans (mostly grants-yeah!); but it really came down to the wire with our Bubby.  We have been selling things (anyone need a plow truck? ha!) and creative budgeting like no one's business.  I even swapped for some of his text books (review of book swapping sites to come in the following days, there are definite differences!).

Speaking of Austin's other home, that has been a constant source of stress this week also.  Since we have been a part of his life I have been very careful to include his other family and try to make one big happy family so that the boy does not feel as if he has to choose between the two.  I know that he loves his dad and his sisters and needs to keep contact with them; it is very important.  But this last week has just about killed me.  His Dad has let him down one too many times in my book.  As have the step mom and the sisters and the rest of them....I just couldn't take the hurt expression on my sons face any longer.  On the way up to Gunnison, I kept asking Tom what I could do to make up for the terrible week he had had, and all he kept saying is "Hon, you've got to let it go, you are already doing the best you can.  Just be who you are.  He knows how much WE love him."

I was telling my sister that I was so upset that Thursday, the last day I had with the boys had been such a stressful day because we had been running to Austins last dental appointments and needed to get their toiletries, etc.  And that at first I was wishing we had spent it differently, but when I looked back on it, I had been able to sneak in the fact that I had asked the dentist about cleft pallets and they are not related to fetal alcohol or drug abuse; a fact which Austin had grown up thinking and blaming his Mother for.  And when his Dad told him he wasn't coming home to say goodbye to his own son before he left for college; well I was there to buffer the blow and explain to Austin that it was because he just couldn't handle saying goodbye.

So, sometimes even a harried, stressful day can turn into one that is very meaningful to those we love.  That night when we got home, hours later than we had planned, our neighbors were waiting for us.  They were here gathered to say goodbye to our beloved boys.  They are the ones who truly love and respect these kids.  It's not always blood that makes a family.  We had my daughter's best friend and her Mom and sister.  The boys' best friend who is one year younger (poor kid getting left behind) and his family, who have truly become our dearest friends; and our beloved neighbors Dan and Judy over.  It was so perfect.

In the midst of all of this; I have been eluding to changes here at The Royal Ranch.  They have been a long time in the making I suppose, but it sort of came as a shock to me.  The biggest being that I have realized that I am probably not going to be doing pack jobs anymore.  There are times when my back is bad that I can't even make it up the stairs so it is a bit concerning to make a reservation for a pack trip up a mountain that is six miles one way.

Which really means that I have way too many llamas than I need.  And on top of it, I am losing my Great Pyr, Tia.  She has a cruciate tear that needs surgery that we cannot afford nor take care of after the surgery.  I am very blessed that the person who gave her to me is willing to take her back and pay for the surgery that I have arranged through a dear friend of mine and then care for her during her recovery stage....We will take it one day at a time after that.  The problem with caring for a dog that weighs more than I do, is that she will need to be physically moved, etc after her surgery.

So, I am slowly but surely placing my llamas, Tia will leave around the 13th of September, Paco my ram is going to Auction where he should pull a pretty good price and will not get eaten because Rams are yucky to eat and so I can finally feel comfortable taking an animal to auction and seeing how it all works.  I may replace the ram; the main reason he is going is because I would like to breed his daughter this year.  But the whole ghist of the ranch is changing a bit...

As a matter of fact, I had decided that I was going to do poultry.  That was until the neighbors dog killed one of my prize turkeys last week.  Yes, in the middle of my crazy week; I was in filling out paperwork with the boys which is how it happened because normally when the turks are out I have my eye on them at all times.  But this day, we were busy doing last minute stuff for the college, and I heard a ruckus and went out to find the dog eating my turkey.

Although they have offered to compensate me financially, it was very hard for me to determine a price on the first turkey.  First of all, the turkey was not harvested properly so I was unable to save the feathers which on these types of turkeys is a good portion of their value.  We, of course, were unable to save the meat after a dog had been eating it.  But what really bothered me the most was the waste of the whole thing.  I think you as Rebels know that I do not waste anything.

Let alone the amount of hard work and time and love that we all had put into these turkeys.  We knew that the turkeys were going to die; as a matter of fact we all were quite proud of the fact that these three were going to be the first animals that we actually planned on raising from the get go and eating.  Now we will not even be tasting our own hard work as the remaining two have already been sold to friends who have driven in our driveway, taken one look at those beautiful turkeys and asked if they were for sale.

So, my future business plans are as follows:  I am going to continue my writing; I think I may even finally have time to take that second childrens book out of my head and put it onto paper!  The ranch will continue to size down a bit, literally.  The llamas will find the right homes as they come along, and I will slowly grow my poultry/feather business as I feel it is safe.  The loss of my sons I guess I will get used to(?!?), but the loss of Shade....well, that was an indicator of times a changin' I'm afraid.

I would really love to hear from you Rebels.  Have you dealt with losing your children to college and if so what helped?  What about other losses and changes in your lives.....???

Metaphysical Monday

I woke up this morning thinking how ironic that it was Monday and August 1, the day that I had chosen to make the announcement about my Life Readings and Animal Communications.  See, I've got to tell you, this has been one of the weirdest couple of months in my life; so weird in fact that I will probably split it up into two different posts so as not to confuse things much.  My next post is going to be about changes and losses here at The Royal Ranch, mostly due to me facing the fact that my back is not getting any better.

But today, Metaphysical Monday that happens to be August 1, and the day that I had committed to announcing to months ago, I want to talk about a new phase of my life.  You all know that I have a strange "sixth sense" that allows me to work with my Spirit Guides and communicate with animals.  Well, on June 15, 2011 I had sent out some letters to friends and people I have worked with over the years (no family) to let them know that I had been nudged to share my gift on a professional basis.

My letter stated that I feel very strongly that I can help my community by helping those in it.  I think there are a lot of souls out there right now who need the help and don't know where to find it.  And I am willing to barter.  We are a world that has lost it's spirituality and I would like to help bring it back one person at a time.

So anyway, back to the affects of the letter.  I got plenty of calls and responses, just like I was hoping.  And I did get to work on my "Spiritual dictionary" (I was a bit concerned that my Spirit Guides would not be able to help me enough on a professional basis; read=I was worried about charging people $$$, or bartering for my services), but the most amazing affect was on my confidence.

The letters revolved around the number 7.  Our address is 7, of course lucky seven; and then I was doing 7 free Life Readings in the seventh month.  My goal had been to send out 7 letters, but when I got to looking at addresses I coincidentally came up with 17.  My first free Life Reading decided that she did want me to do a Tarot reading on her when we were done (I am careful not to depend on tools for my readings), and of course a 7 was the first card we pulled!

As the readings progressed and my confidence grew a bit, I found that I was not quite so shy about my gift.  Like when we went to the Rivera's place to shear the rescue llamas and their dog had a nice long chat with me while we sheared away.  A while later the owner of the dog was telling me about how she was feeling guilty about an accidental breeding that had happened; and I knew why it had happened but was not sure if the people would think I was a nutcase if I told them their dog had told me why.

Being the hesitant soul that I am, I sat on it all for a few days....and remembered how they were with their beloved bird, and how they had been with those llamas that they had lovingly fostered and I took a chance and sent them an e-mail AC (animal communication) consultation.  I had written down everything I had learned while I was at their place from all those lovely critters.  And you know what?  They didn't think I was a nutcase at all, they truly appreciated the insight into their household. 

It had all been so cute because the dog (a boston terrier) had won a battle to get to talk to me.  The Rivera's have 4 Boston's and they all had come running up to greet me fighting over who got to talk first.  Growling and snorting like flat faced dogs do, and then when the chaos was all over the group in general didn't have too much to say, except they sure were proud of their swimming pool!  But one of them followed Tom and I when we went back to work and just chatted away, and when she was very adamant about something she would come over and quietly lick my leg and then go back to her corner and sit.

Again, an experience like that was one that I had to share with her owners.  Especially knowing that they carried a bit of guilt when actually the whole thing had happened for a reason.  I find that so often when I work with Spirit, which is why I have chosen to do this...there is a reason for everything, and we need to have some sort of Sprituality in our lives.

Speaking of spirituality.  I had another hunch that I knew I needed to share with a friend.  I hardly know this family; actually I really don't know them at all.  This gentle man is the man who runs one of the Yahoo groups that I follow; an organic gardening group.  He and his family recently suffered a terrible loss in their orchards, not only the loss of their fruit, but the stripping of the trees which of course means their imminent death.

He had been kind enough to help me via e-mail with a few of my very atypical and difficult high altitude gardening questions, but I still felt like some sort of stalker sending him and his wife a note letting them know that I had a very strong vibe that this was just not an orchard or fruit or $ issue like they were talking about on the group.  I felt very strongly that it was personal and that he and his family needed to take some precautions.

You can NOT imagine my surprise when I received the story of his lifetime back.  It is one I will read again and again.  As a matter of fact I asked him if I could repost it here, and he is not comfortable with that.  He did say that Creator told him to share the story with me, and I feel that it is because of the upheaval in my life at this time.  Needless to say, I was correct in my assumption and they are taking all precautions; and they did appreciate my kind thoughts.

The seventh month has passed, and I had helped people that I didn't even think I might be able too.  I will leave it up to the Spirit Guides and Creator, because obviously they have a plan for me.  Thank you for the interesting few months; it's been a trip.

The Royal Ranch Visits Oklahoma

Wow!  Did we have a wild and woolly trip to Oklahoma!!!  Literally.  We started the trip off by heading to my in laws place in Matheson, CO where we spent the night and got to spend a little time with my wonderful BIL (Brother-In-Law) and niece.  My poor SIL had to work that night, but we did catch her sleeping on the ground hoping to catch a glimpse of her nephews and niece that were happily all sleeping in her bunkhouse.  They had all spent the night playing Wii and who knows what cousins do to all hours of the morning.  I just about burst out in tears when I saw my almost grown kids all cuddled up in blankets out in this barn style bunkhouse and their Aunt keeping watch over them by the fire outside, with the rooster crowing and the horses grazing in the background...

We left the kids in the very capable hands of the family for the day while Tom and I went to shear and pick up some llamas a couple of towns away in Peyton, CO.  We had such a wonderful time at the Rivera place...Really.  Here we were there to work, and work we did, but we made some wonderful friends as well.  We sheared seven llamas in no time flat thanks to their great hospitality, a fantastic chute (Tom and I have never worked with a chute before, interestingly most llama people will tell you you have to have one to work with llamas!) and the fact that they had so many helpers.

While we were there, we found out that Henry Rivera (sorry no link, contact me for his information) is a fantastic artist.  And here we had just been outside swapping sweat with the guy!  Ha!  The Rivera's treated us like Royalty; they teased us that they had gone to the website and knew that we were The Royal Ranch and must be treated as such.  Lunch was wonderful, the shearing was smooth as silk, excuse the pun, and the loading went as well as could be expected for ten wild llamas.

We headed back to the in-laws to get the kids and some much needed rest, we thought; and just when I drifted off to sleep my cell phone rang and it was the gentleman we were to meet in Oklahoma with the llamas.  He was on his way.  What????  Okay.  So we loaded up the kids, oh yes, we were blessed with all our of our children this trip, and headed for Oklahoma!

See, these llamas had been adopted by a family in Washington, OK.  We were to shear them and then transport them to Guymon, OK to meet the new owners halfway.  I guess they got a little excited and I miscommunicated, but it all worked out because I wanted the llamas to travel in the cool of the night anyway.  But, the problem with that is the storms.  And let me tell you about the storms.  I mean I thought we were in a tornado at one point in time, the lightning was crashing and hitting the fields right next to us.  We passed a cow that had been hit even.  It was crazy!  And then once it got dark and the storms were bad, all you could see was when the lightning struck it lit up everything for miles....and then back to pitch black and that howling wind!

Amazingly enough, two people coming from six hours apart, arrived in the same little sleepy town of Oklahoma within five minutes of each other.  And even better, the llamas were so tired and road weary and afraid of the storms that we had passed through (and thankfully avoided while we traded llamas), did not give us one bit of hassle.  We found a hotel with a pool for the kids and piled in.  Goodnight, ya'all.

Sunday the kids wanted to swim of course before we hit the road to who knew where (that's sort of how the Jeute's roll).  My fifteen year old son went to jump in the deep end and couldn't get his footing because the bottom was so slimey.  All righty then.  Think I'll just stay walking around to get my exercise in the shallow end, thank you very much.  Kids, please shower after this one...But we all were giving my husband a hard time because he just seems to attract the "locals", if you know what I mean; and can talk to just about anyone, including the guy who needed to wait for my kids to get out of the pool to shock it with four pounds of chlorine.

Or the guy on the side of the road in the middle of the night holding the road sign.  Tom had decided to pull forward and ask him how he liked his job and about the local economy and such.  Well, all we kept getting out of the guy was a "Yuup", and I'm thinking to myself, can we back up?  How long could this wait possibly be?  Ha!

So anyway, we leave Guymon, and again in Jeute fashion we really have no idea where we are going, but decide that we want to go home through New Mexico instead of the same route we had just come.  We see a black road on the map that looks pretty good and we take it...not looking at the legend of course.  Remember, these accidents often happen for good reasons.  I had all of my family trapped right there in the truck with me. And we were on a dirt road...I was in heaven!

We saw turkeys and deer and elk and the plants, oh I was absolutely enthralled with the plants.  We stopped at Black Mesa Nature Preserve where there was an entire ecosystem that you could just walk right up to!  Complete with fish and cattails and dragonflies,etc.  The petrified forest nature hike that we took was really cool, there were lizards for the kids to watch and all sorts of species of plants for me to guess at.

We made it to Raton, NM Sunday night and the kids gave Tom and I a hard time because of course we chose this little hillbilly looking motel across the street from the big name Hotel.  While Tom was inside the boys were in the back just complaining away saying that this place was redneck and going to suck and be small and not have wifi, etc.  Then we opened up the door to our huge room (with all amenities), and they both (the eighteen year olds) said the other place had nothing on this one-ha!  It had a nice clean pool too; and we even got a late check out so that we got to spend some time there on Monday!

It was a tad bit of a bummer that the restaurant that they suggested was no good, they took forever and I got sick.  Yeah, I got sick, and I never get food sick.  And the day we were traveling home too.  But it was quick and over, so I was pretty lucky. 

The ride home was uneventful, but I will say that we are heartsick for the parts of  the country that are experiencing drought.  The little bit that we saw was devastating.  I have been hearing about poultry houses that have lost thousands of birds due to heat stress and it makes me thankful every single day that my birds can free range to go where they need to go to adjust their own body temperatures.  And I am so blessed to have had the rain these past few weeks.  We drove past fields that were simply left because of drought...

So thank you America, for another wonderful vacation and the chance to spend time with my family. 

Bailey Day 2011

 Entrikin Cabin located in McGraw Park

Photo courtesy of Gary Nichols

Well, here it is Bailey Day 2011; and boy did this one sneak up on me!  I had to look up in the newspaper when we were expected to be there, now that is pretty bad....but you know what I told myself?  I decided that that meant that I am getting so good at my job that I don't need much time to prepare for gigs like this anymore and no big deal; I can do them in my sleep practically.  And it is true.

But that doesn't make Bailey Day any less fun.  Or important.  This is our towns big event; and it is important; it is important to our town and it is very meaningful to us as a Ranch as well.  See, this will be our 9th year at old McGraw Park with the llamas; our historical park in downtown Bailey, CO.  And it is a beauty.  With cabins that have been carefully moved there from their original homesteads and then meticulously refurbished; a schoolhouse that received the same loving treatment all from our very own county.

Our town really does this celebration up right too.  Lots of great vendors and food too.  And it is so fun to teach people about the love of llamas...  So, if you live in the area and feel like a drive today; head west towards the cool air of Bailey, Rebels.  Consider this your personal invitation.

Jakoti has got it going on!

I can not begin to tell you how much I LOVE these new shears.  As a matter of fact, what got me to thinking about writing this post was the shears laying next to my computer.  That's right Rebels, these shears have become my right hand tool.

I purchased them as llama shears.  You know, to remove the wool from those fidgety creatures that inhabit my ranch...Well, let me tell you a little about shearing a llama at The Royal Ranch.  I don't think it's like shearing at typical wool producers.  We have to cut through hay and pine needles and whatever else is hidden inside that wondrous coat.  So over the years, I have learned A LOT about shears; and that is that they are truly lacking.


A good pair of Fiskars, which is our next choice since we hand shear will run us around $13-$15 with a coupon, etc.  If I sharpen it I may be able to get that one pair through one season of shearing, but sometimes they only last one llama!  If you get cheaper scissors, they will wear out your hands (not spring loaded), and big electric shears usually scare the you know what out of rescues so that is out for us.

I do want to give you a bit of background here, just so you know that I am sticking to my Rebel roots.  When I first heard of these shears, I was told that you could only get them in one place in the US; and that place is by a llama trainer that I don't particularly like.  This woman had rubbed my "animal sense" the wrong way over the years, but when it came down to saving hundreds of dying llamas in MT and all she did was offer reduced price behavior clinics for new owners while the rest of us small farms struggled with the starving...

Well, it made me decide to look a bit further for those shears.  And lo and behold I found them on the World Wide Web, funny thing about that...it covers the whole world.  Better yet, I got two pairs, direct from the UK (yeah, I know, I'm normally a buy US only, but they just don't have this sort of shear...sigh), for a little more than I would have spent on one pair plus shipping on Ms. Behavior Clinic.com.  Man, I hate it when people are buttheads.

But, anyway, these shears came and we have just been shearing our butts off.  Well, our butts are fine, and it is Tom doing most of the shearing anyway.  But dang do the llamas look nice.  And when I got on the link to send it to a friend, because believe you me, I'm telling everyone I can not to shop at so and so's-ha!, I read that they are great in the garden.

So, I took them outside and can you imagine the cutting power of these babies on grass?  Geez, if they can cut through that crap in the wool, grass and dandelions along the fence line is like butta, baby, butta!  And the best part about it was that I wasn't polluting the air with a weed whacker either.  I did go a little crazy and now the grass along the dog yard looks like it got a bad hair cut from Mom back in the sixties....

Well, I guess you get the point, if you're looking for either garden or llama, sheep or goat shears these are the ones.  Spring action, self sharpening, yes you read that right engineers, I don't really get it, but it says it does it...They are the best.  Oh, I do have one critique...they could use a "petite" size.

Make a Miracle Today....

Well, you know you have fallen behind on your blog when the most recent picture on it no longer resembles the animal that is residing in your garage!!!  My ticks are so different looking it is amazing, they are almost Turkeys... and if I had a working camera right now I could show you...and I am typing this from a precarious position atop my freezer...but technical difficulties aside; I couldn't let my Royal Rebels go another day without an update!

Life at The Royal Ranch is never a dull moment...since I last spoke with you all we have taken in another rescue llama named Russel (no worries, introduction to come...), we have lost our potential adoptive home for two of our boys, but hopefully gained homes for four, possibly even five!  We have planted many seeds both literally and figuratively, I hope...and I am still working on simplifying.

Although I am running today, as I have my final dentist appointment, which you can read all about here; all in all this has been such a wonderful experience, but boy am I glad that all of that driving is over!  Anyway, since I am pressed for time this morning...I wanted to lay out my next few posts...for all of us.  That way I am committed to writing them, and hopefully you all are looking forward to them.

First and foremost, I am so excited to write about our new son Austin and our adventures into Legal Guardianship.  This has been such a rewarding experience for us and not that I think every family should go out looking for some kid to try and "save" or something, because that is not at all what Austin is to us; he is a member of our family.  But, really this story is worth sharing, and if it could encourage someone else to do the same thing...well even better.

Also, I have been wanting to post about some of the gardening things I have been doing and trying and testing.  This is between doctors appointments, my middle son turning 15 and needing a drivers permit, oh Lord yes, you heard that right, and dentist appointments.  My point being that a pretty busy person can squeeze in some garden time...even at 9,000 feet in elevation...even in April!

Last and certainly not least...my sister has been diagnosed with breast cancer...wow...just threw that one in there didn't I?  Well, I've sort of had a, okay really had a hard time figuring out how I want to talk about this.  So give me a few more days and that might be the last on the list....But know that my sister is one Hell of a woman and handling this with such grace and dignity that it is amazing.  She has DCIS and will be totally fine after undergoing a double mastectomy.  Sort of an oxymoron, right?

Well, from atop the freezer, in snowy CO...finally...I am happy to report that hopefully we are back on track...maybe not daily...remember we are trying to simplify here (LOL), but at least we have things scheduled, right?  So come back for some great pictures of my new son and my old son and their Prom dates (thank goodness Dad figured out how to get them off my phone!)...hopefully by then I can get my camera fixed!  It's been a really long time since I've said it, but make a miracle today!

Man's Best Friend

This video was shot not long after the tsunami rolled out of Japan.  Man's best Friend is also his own best friend...Thank goodness by the time this video aired the dogs had been rescued and were being treated at local veterinary hospitals.



The following is a translation of what the reporters are saying; it too is quite touching:

We are in Arahama area. Looks like there is a dog. There is a dog. He looks tired and dirty. He must have been caught in the tsunami. He looks very dirty.

He has a collar. He must be someone's pet. He has a silver collar. He is shaking. He seems very afraid.

Oh, there is another dog. I wonder if he is dead.

Where?

Right there. There is another dog right next to the one sitting down. He is not moving. I wonder. I wonder if he is alright.

The dog is protecting him.

Yes. He is protecting the dog. That is why he did not want us to approach them. He was trying to keep us at bay.

I can't watch this. This is a very difficult to watch.

Oh. Look. He is moving. He is alive. I am so happy to see that he is alive.

Yes! Yes! He is alive.

He looks to be weakened. We need to them to be rescued soon. We really want them rescued soon.

Oh good. He's getting up.

It is amazing how they survived the tremendous earthquake and tsunami. It's just amazing that they survived through this all.

Royal Ranch Royalty

Well, what a wonderful way to welcome us all back from my little break....A new lamb!!!  It is a female and it has been quite an adventure for this little girl and her mommy; and their Shepherd now that I think about it.  Tom says that I am a real rancher now that I have had my hands inside of an animal, but that is beside the point.  I was unable to save her twin...but I did save Mama and as far as I'm concerned that is almost all I could ask for.

This little girl was born Friday afternoon, after a very long morning of laboring for my ewe, Esther.  Although I knew that Esther typically has multiple births, we watched and waited; and waited and watched until I was frozen in position.  No more babies and no more signs of labor.  I checked with the vet and they said that not always do they have multiples and they couldn't obviously diagnose her over the phone, but that things sounded okay.

That was until I got up early to check on them yesterday morning and found her straining and pushing!  A whole day later...which is not a good thing.  We ran back to the house only to find that the vet had a morning already filled with patients...it was do or die time.  My handy dandy vet kit, a bucket of clean water and the daughter, husband and I were off!

Husband held Esther, daughter held baby right where Mama could see her and I went in!  Baby #2 was lodged in a breach position and was stuck in her pelvis, I had a heck of a time getting him out, but I did it!  I cried and mourned when I got back home, like any good Shepherd would, but I am still very grateful I have so far been able to save my Esther Girl, and we were all thankful that this guy was not in position #1.

Now, I have learned a few things from this experience.  First and foremost...call your trusted friends and neighbors in times like these.  I called a neighbor about getting the new baby some raw milk in case we need to supplement her and she had a great pointer for me.  When a female still has a baby in her belly, their tummies are still hard and when they are done with birthing, it goes soft; I sure wish I had this bit of info the day before.  There is a simple way to test for this, by wrapping your arms around the female and sort of hugging her in a downward motion as you straddle her.  This is something not even the vet had mentioned.

The other is to always trust your instincts when it comes to your critters, or anything for that matter (more on that and why I have been absent in future posts...), but especially when working with animals.  They have no way of telling you when they are in distress, and believe me, I spent hours on Friday looking for signs of labor or distress and saw none.  They are absolute masters at disguising any weakness.  My gut told me that I should have gone in sooner, but who wants to stick their arm in a sheep unnecessarily?  Not me.

Not only because of the obvious reasons, but for Esther's sake mostly.  I didn't want to infect her unless I absolutely had to.  I am also a newbie (second year) at Shepherding, even though it was my maiden name, and so I don't know if all sheep who usually have multiple births always have multiple births, you know?  I wasn't sure I would even know what I was feeling for.

Lastly I would like to say that the internet was no help at all (about things like how far apart lambs should be born, etc.).  Either people that have sheep spend a ton of money and really depend on their vets (they must not be hands on or in in my case-ha!), or just don't get online much.  But, after talking with my neighbor, I did find a very informative website about goats that will help me with these endeavors in the future.  Goats and sheep are very similar and so I will be able to take what I need and adjust and apply it where I see fit.

I say it time and again folks, trust your instincts, make a list of mentors and friends to help guide you through the emergency times, and then most importantly remember to use it!  Oh, and don't forget to let everyone in on the fun, even Avalanche the rooster had to be a part of lambing season at The Royal Ranch!

Royal Ranch Royalty

Chief

This is Chief...I had introduced him as Big Whitey before.  The spots of war paint are under both eyes...and he always has this look on his face.  The look of not quite trusting, and very aware...He is the Big Chief.  Always on the lookout, and never quite at rest.

This is one of our Montana Large Animal Sanctuary (you know, it galls me to even call it that, but I have to for linking purposes...it certainly ended up not being a sanctuary for these guys!) llamas.  We knew he had been a herd leader right away, because when the vet body scored him; he had a pleasant surprise...Chief is quite average on the body score scale, a 4 out of 1-9.

But then we got him here to The Royal Ranch.  And we knew right away that he was the Big Chief; he was doing the alarm call whenever the dogs came out of the house.  Which at our house (the house of Many Dogs) is quite often.  The smaller, more fragile rescues followed him around like he was God, seriously!  But the story he told...and I can't really describe how he told me...was just that of a weary Chief.

(See how they surround him?  The red line down his back was a sorting mark from when they transported him from MT to CO)

So, that is why he is the first of our fantastic new rescues to be Royal Ranch Royalty.  I do believe that this is one of the proudest llamas I have come across in my career of rescuing animals, of any variety.  Welcome to The Royal Ranch Chief; I seriously hope you can find some peace here.

And the Winner is....

Bandit!!!!

And Rebel Jose!!!

And in rebellion of all the crap these guys went through, here is what I did:

 So, I am happy to report a win win win situation!!!!

After I saw this:

It changed how I look at "animal rescue" forever.

So as I was cutting off the hair off this magnificent creature;

kneeling in the snow and ice,

with my comrades of love and mercy,

I secretly hatched a plan...

He was not going to be the only fella losing his locks!

For informational purposes only:  I have chosen Pantene Beautiful Lengths to donate my ponytail to this time.  I have blogged about donating hair before, and thought I'd try something new.  I chose them because I thought they might have a bit of a disadvantage since it is for women only and not for kids.

Montana Llama Rescue 2011!

Wow!  I have had one of the most amazing experiences in my life, really.  Even the big, bad, biker, Tom, said so.  And remember, he was my reluctant cohort in this rescue mission in the first place.  Well, not once he got there and met these wonderful folks:

The guy in the middle (the driver), looking at the ground, he too is a reluctant participant; because he is used to working with steers.  And until that trip, he thought llamas were sissy animals...I don't think he thinks that anymore; but he still didn't like his picture taken with a bunch of llama nuts!

This is the rig that he drove clear across Montana and Wyoming(in very bad weather, I might add) to deliver our boys to us:

Twenty llamas arrived on this trailer.  It took them two days to get to La Porte, CO.  Which is where we met them at our very wonderful host ranch.  Four foster homes met up to pick up their allotment of rescue llamas, a few various wonderful llama lovers, and rescue friends to lend a hand and a small crew from CSU Veterinary School was on hand.

None of us had ever met before, face to face; but we had been preparing for the big arrival via e-mail for a few days...so we greeted each other as old friends would, with hugs all around (that poor cattle driver never knew what hit him...)!  All was well...

Until we saw this!!!!

This poor guy was down in the trailer, getting trampled by the other llamas as they unloaded.  We all held our breath...Was he alive?  He tried to stand up, fell back down, stumbled out of the trailer and then fell again....  The group, collectively, had not taken a breath yet!  He finally stood up triumphantly, and we all just stood there for a second in absolute shock!  None of us had ever seen anything like it.  His legs were so tangled up in his own wool, it had caused him injuries.  We didn't know whether to cheer for him or cry for him.

After our initial moment of horror wore off, we all knew what needed to be done.  An in field, on site shearing party it was.  With scissors no less...the poor guy got one hell of a bad hair cut, but I'm sure he feels A TON lighter!  After the shearing was done, we got down to separating the boys and figuring out who was going where.  Tom and I had to laugh later that all of us had bonded with Big Guy (the one with the bad haircut), so when the straws were drawn, and yes, we used actual straw, or maybe it was hay...We all wanted Big Guy!

But, as you can see, there were plenty of great llamas that needed care and love.  It was decided that Big Guy (his official name I heard via e-mail last night-ha!) stay near CSU because he has some very specific medical needs that I really don't want to take on.  I have five gelded (meaning fixed, neutered, castrated, whatever) males from this herd at The Royal Ranch, and it has been an adventure getting them home and settled.

As you can see from the pics below, they are settling in.  They don't like dogs...that is for sure!  But, as my youngest son pointed out, in Montana they've probably seen wolves and a canine scent is a canine scent!  When they see our Great Pyrenees, Tia, the big white one does the alarm call to warn the others of danger!

 Big Whitey (so far)~ this guy must have been one of the herd leaders (Wow! out of 800 llamas!) because he scored 4 (on a body scale of 1-9), which is quite good, so he was getting most of the food.  We also think there is a chance that this guy was at some point in time a herdsire, meaning that he was someone's top breeder.  See the tag in his ear?  That could mean that he is an import from Chile or Peru.

We got home well after dark on Sunday, and thanks to a good friend and neighbor's headlights, we got the trailer all ready to unload them, thinking they were just dying to be out after two days of traveling....and NOTHING!  They were comfortably bedded down for the night and that was that.  So we tied the gate of the trailer to the gate of their "Quarantine" area and left them be.

 This is Jose and Shadow, Shadow is our most critical patient (scoring only a 1-2).

 This is Mellow (so far) because he is Caramel colored and very mellow as you can see from this picture.  He is also the only one that willingly got haltered and loaded into the trailer!

 A better shot of Jose, if SWLR accepts us, we may adopt this rebellious boy, he pulled a muscle in the big, bad, bikers back putting him in the trailer, and he was the smallest of all!  Leave it to me, to like the roughest one of the bunch!

A group (or butt) shot of the boys checking out their small outdoor yard.  I wanted it small on purpose.  I don't need these boys getting a ton of exercise and fighting right now.  This is a resting and healing zone.  On the other hand, they do however have a huge covered area that gets a ton of sunshine and fresh air, just what the doctor ordered.  Maybe not the photographer though!

And this dear Rebels, is your llama.  I thought it would be fun for you all to get involved with the naming game!  I am sorry about the light with this picture, but he is a spectacular boy, because he goes from a cream color to a caramel color that gradates into a dark brownish rust.  And then as you can see, he has some white socks too.  Once we get this nasty batch of wool off of him, the wool that comes in, will be fantastic!  I am hoping to find spinners for him, Big Whitey and Mellow, as they all have beautiful wool. 

It really has been an amazing few days.  Sunday was unbelievable.  Those folks were wonderful and are friends for life now, even if we just e-mail each other for support from now on...which the e-mails have been flying!  But to be a part of the nation's biggest animal rescue has been something I can't even describe in words...beyond satisfying?  Now you too can be a part of it, help name our nameless guy...