Llama Biography #15: Autumn Hill's Catalina

The fall of 2003 brought 3 gorgeous babies from outside breedings.  The final one to be born was Autumn Hill's Catalina.

Catalina as a weanling.  Who couldn't love that face?

Catalina was the offspring of SHAG Cattera and PPF King's Ransom.  She definitely continued Cattera's streak of throwing predominately white babies.  I believe that my grandmother was the one to find Catalina after she was born...it was common for her to come check on the "due" moms while the rest of us were at school or work.

Catalina at about a month old.

PPF King's Ransom, Catalina's sire.

SHAG Cattera, Catalina's dam.

Three Cattera babies...Catalina is in the middle.

Catalina was a little out-shined by her more colorful friends, but overall she was a very nice little girl.  I really wish I would've shown her in halter more, she was very correct.  I took her to 1 show in Ohio as a weanling, she was 1st in halter and showmanship.  Like her mom she had a sweet personality, and amazing fiber like her dad.

Catalina and her sister Faith both had great personalities.

Such a pretty girl!

Her one and only show debut.

Terrible haircut, but her fiber was so fine it was almost impossible to shear with the clippers!

After spending the first couple years of her life as a pasture ornament and fiber producer, she was eventually sold to a big alpaca farm in Ohio (where Charity, Blaze, and Faith all ended up as well).  She ended up being bred, and had a cute little male cria a few years ago.

Catalina as a yearling.

Catalina and her male cria.

Llama Biography #3: SHAG Cattera

This week I'm being lazy and refusing to download new pictures from my camera, so I've decided to post another llama biography!  On a more current note, I will update that I have finished 2 more Christmas gifts (knitted items) and am working on an (optional) third!  Just one more to go, which after tomorrow may or may not be needed...

So on to Cattera...  Cattera was another of the three original llamas we purchased from Shagbark Ridge Llamas back in 1999.  She would be a companion for the first llama we purchased, Sheba.  When we bought her, Cattera was a beautiful 2-yr-old female, bred for her first cria (baby llama) (due in October 2000).  Like Duque, Cattera had been shown extensively by someone in Shagbark Ridge's 4-H program, and overall she was a friendly girl.  However, Cattera hated *me* with a passion!  No matter how nice I was, she just loved to spit on me!  Cattera quickly became another one of my sister's favorites, and Hannah also showed most of her crias.  I just stayed away!

Baby Cattera.

Cattera's sire, Mountain Cherokee.

Cattera's dam, SHAG Catterina.

Cattera and Hannah at the Great Lakes Regionals.

 I will give Cattera one bit of credit, she was a wonderful breeding female for our herd.  She had 7 crias on our farm, and 1 more after she was sold.  She was always a perfect mom, and gave us gorgeous crias.  Cattera's first cria was Cattessa, one of Hannah's best show llamas.

Next came Catanna.  She is easily the largest llama we've ever had born on our farm (34 lbs at birth) and matured to be the biggest too!  She was a bit stubborn to be good for performance, but she had beautiful babies.

Next was Catalina (are you sensing a trend in the names?  Every single Cattera baby had a name that started with *Cat*).  This little girl had a lot of potential, but unfortunately she didn't get shown much and didn't get to live up to it.

The first boy was Catlinite.  Amazingly he and Catalina (above) are NOT full siblings, they have different sires!  But they really do look identical!  Catlinite was my show boy for awhile, and actually did pretty well.

Next was the pride and joy of the farm, Catastrophie.  After all these white llamas we finally got some major color from Cattera!  Looking back at her progeny now, I believe Cattera produced crias with the coloration that the sire threw, and we were just unfortunate enough early on to breed her with males who threw white.  Taz was another of Hannah's show llamas for a little while, and then became one of our breeding females for a few years.

Once we finally got color, we really got color!  Cataleya is almost a carbon copy of her sire.  She was my show girl for a season, and did really well in walking fiber!

Another color mystery for you...Catallegre (below) is a FULL sibling to Catastrophie (above)!  We were obviously hoping for another reverse appy girl, but got this little tux boy instead.  He may be the most correct of Cattera's crias...he was a lot of fun to show for the few months that we had him.

After Catallegre was born, we decided Cattera needed a break from being a mom.  Instead, she got to be a grandma!  Here she is with Catastrophie's first cria, who looked remarkably like her!

This is Cattera at the ripe old age of 12, the summer before she left to go to her new home in Florida.

And the very last Cattera cria, Coosada Moon.  He also is a carbon copy of his sire, and was born at Cattera's new home in Florida.  I for one was not really sad to see her go, but it was still good to know that she would have such a great home!