Friday evening at the Willingdon's - Vern get's sloshed!

It all started out so innocently.  Peter was working late and dusk was settling upon this little house on the ditch.  The alpacas were out in the pasture and it was time to bring them in.

I haven't had much luck wrangling 4 alpacas by myself but I was resolved to get it done tonight.  With determination and perhaps a bit of foolishness I headed out to the pasture.  Chupa came right to me.  She's so easy!  Surprisingly Chaca - one of our new girls - came right to me as well.  Cadbury and Cheeka weren't so keen on the idea.  After hanging on to two and chasing two for a while I decided it wasn't working.  It wasn't going to work so I gave up and brought the first two to the barn.  When I got back to the pasture Cadbury was quite distressed as she had never been separated from Chupa before and was ready to go.  Now.  She wasn't very interested in helping me round up Cheeka so I took her to the barn as well.

That meant three alpaca were in and one alpaca was out.  That should be manageable!  The problem was, she simply didn't want to come in.  I chased her around the pasture for 10 minutes and finally got her cornered by the gate.  I was so pleased with myself.  I stuck to it and I was going to have all the alpaca in... by myself!  As I approached her she went low to the ground and  "POOF" she was under the gate and out of the pasture!  Loose in the big old scary world!

I don't generally have a potty mouth any more but expletives flew.  By now it was well past dusk.  It was dark.  Cheeka is black.  Not a good combination.

I called Peter.  He didn't answer his phone.  Even if he had it's not like he could have come home instantly anyway but at least he could not dawdle once he was through with his patients.  I pondered my options.  Cheeka would not let me approach her - if I moved toward her it just made her go farther.  I tried to tempt her with grain in my pocket.  That didn't work in the pasture and it sure didn't work out of the pasture.  I called Peter again.  Still no answer.  In a panic and with very little other resources I called the freighbor.  I barely had to get out the words:  "alpaca's loose" and she said "we're on our way!"

She and Vern, her husband, showed up in mere minutes.  It didn't take long for Shelly and I to get her between us but she bolted before we could get close enough.  She ran south.  She ran past Vern and we lost her in the dark.  We looked and looked with no luck.  I decided to go get her sister, hoping she would be able to tempt Cheeka into joining us.  On the way to get Chaca I spotted Cheeka in the newly dug vegetable garden.  We closed in, she bolted, heading north.  Vern and Shelly went north, I went to fetch Chaca who really wasn't very happy about being drug out in the dark to be bait for her sister.  We spread out with flashlights and headlamps searching in the brambles, through the neighbor's fields, we looked in the creek, across the road, in the woods.  We looked for over an hour and found no sign of her.  I tried to call Peter a couple more times with still no answer.

I put Chaca in the pasture with the hope that she would draw Cheeka to her and then continued my  quest.

I wanted to cry.  I'm not REALLY a farm girl - I just play at being one and I just couldn't imagine where my lost girl could be.  How far would she go?  What would she do over night if we couldn't find her?  I told myself that I could not give into the luxury of sitting down in the field and sobbing like a baby no matter how badly I wanted to.  I had to fix this.

Two hours into this adventure I was searching down the back laneway and heard a big splash.  At first I thought it was Cheeka but then realized the splash had a flashlight.  Vern had tried to jump the back ditch and didn't make it.  :(  Poor Vern got wet.  Sloshed even.

Vern and I followed the alpaca's usual path to the barn and I poked my head in and said "there are my first two.." and Vern said:  "there are three in there!"

Sure enough, I took a second look and there was Cheeka, standing by the stall without a care in the world!  relief washed over me.

I briefly considered leaving Chaca out in the pasture for Peter to get but we had to go out and fetch Shelly - who was now lost in the dark somewhere.  It wasn't long  before I rounded up both of them and we headed back to the barn.  Just as we rounded the corner by the house we bumped into Peter - who had just gotten home.  Nice timing I say!  He had accidentally left his phone home and was sorry to have missed all the fun.

As of this moment I don't think I'll be attempting to wrangle alpacas by myself anymore.  I might change my mind one day in the far distant future but for now, nope, I couldn't possible handle too many more nights like this.