Named after the comet that is close to earth at the moment, little Lulin the llama arrived yesterday, 3 March 2009.
She is a lovely, healthy little girl, as pretty as a picture. We found her at about midday, after we got back from a lovely sunny walk around the local green lanes. (It was eventful – we found a fox in a snare which bit Chris as he tried to free him. Later Chris and Benj freed him using boltcutters and we had a trip to the doctors for antibiotics. Luckily there is no rabies in our part of France so Chris didn’t need to undergo a horrendous series of anti-rabies injections.) But back to Lulin. She can’t have been born very long, as she was still wet and had a lot of her membrane ‘envelope’ still on her. We brought her and mum out into the sunshine and dried her off. She soon warmed up and began trying to stand up. She rolled into a kushing position first and we carefully carried her back into the stable where we’d spread out a thick carpet of clean hay. We left her and Gabby to bond but kept an eye on things and were delighted to see her struggle to her feet. She could only walk backwards to start with, and not for very long, but gradually she got stronger and more co-ordinated. Today (4 March) she is suckling well and trotting around next to Gabby, who is proving to be a super mum. Chris and I are doting ‘parents’ too! I was up between 3am and 5am making a cria coat for her, and Chris has mended the battered stable door to keep the draught out. Keep checking in for progress reports!
Here is a photo of her at about 2 hours old:-
Lulin
4 March 09