Camelids on the rampage!!!!

Rasberry - the leader of the pack!

Yes, really - on the hoof, in full gallop, on the rampage indeed!!!

After yesterday, I know the following about camelids:

- they love food, but it is NOTHING compared to freedom
 - they laugh at the notion of humans owning them
 - humans cannot outrun them
 - they are extremely intelligent and far too crafty for their own good

Are you guessing what happened?

A mighty escape bid through an open gate... a chase... two humans on the verge of a heart attack as they watched their entire life's investment rushing off....

We were moving them - just across a small private drive, which we have done before - to another field. But one of the llamas had other ideas. She got spooked by a small dog on a lead (or maybe something else) and shot off up the drive!

The others, being the perfect herd animals, trotted dutifully after. Did I say trotted? No, galloped like mad things!

OH MY WORD.

I saw them go, Gerry running after them, and just like that, they were out of sight. I ran to get the 4x4 to try and - well I was not sure exactly - head them off somehow, only I didn't know how to get into the very long drive from the opposite end.

Luckily a quick-thinking neighbour appeared just on cue and offered to do just that. I don't know how he just appeared like that but he did, and we are so grateful to him.

Meanwhile, driving up the drive, I found three stragglers munching at the vergeside - Hayely and her cria Tiree, and Alba, who has vision problems. They were just about to tuck in to some daffodils but I made sure there was going to be none of that by distracting them.

I walked up to them thinking I could somehow herd them down a side lane into a field nearby (which was thankfully empty) but they were having none of it.

They took off up the drive to join the others, and I followed. Luckily they were quite a slow group, and I managed - God knows how - to spring over to a gate, open it, rattle the feed bucket and catch Hayley's attention, all in about one microsecond.

She looked at me - she is one clever alpaca - and looked at the open field, a huge one, and made the right decision. Look at all that space, she thought, and belted into the field. Her cria and Alba dutifully followed. I was so relieved I literally went weak in the legs.

Three secure, I'd almost forgotten about the rest. I was keen to fasten the double gates, as you can imagine, and I'd just done that when a horde of galloping llamas and pacas appeared in the corner of my eye....

I fumbled and fumbled with the gate lock, which was particularly tricky.... and... it was a race against time like in one of those dreams when you try and try but can't get something done.... I don't know how, but I swung them open just in the nick of time, rattled the feed, shouted 'paca, paca, paca'...

The leading llama looked at me with wild eyes and I could see a moment of decision - she was confused by my appearance and by the other alpacas being in the field. She kept running, but at the very last minute she sheered off and galloped into the field.... the others followed, with one or two wondering if they'd go back down the track. They saw sense and came back to join the others.

Gates shut.

Well.... Gerry and the neighbour drove up - they'd managed to head them off and were pushing them back down the road, thinking they'd go all the way back down to the other field. But I got them in there and that was all that mattered to me at that moment.

I am NEVER ever ever ever going to do that again. We've done it before with no problems, but that's it. The alpacas will be trailered even for the shortest trip over the road. The llamas, you see, don't like the trailer and are unloadable, so we normally walk them.

Thankfully the field we chose for the emergency securing of the herd was empty and is a sheep field with lovely grass and a water supply.  So we did OK in the end.

We'll transfer the pacas down to their other field tomorrow and then run the llamas down to join them (with lots of helpers!) when our hearts have stopped beating out of their chests!

Camelids - who'd have them? Humans - how stupid are they? Feed buckets - how utterly dull are they when there is a whole world out there to tempt you?