Llama Biography #22: Autumn Hill's Khatadyn

The last of our fall 2005 crias was Autumn Hill's Khatadyn.  He's also one of my biggest success stories!

Autumn Hill's Khatadyn.

In 2003 we tried breeding April to the very famous Tuna Catcher at Mark Smith Farms, but for some reason she didn't take.  So the next year we decided to use the breeding with one of our maiden females, Autumn Hill's Catanna.

Autumn Hill's Catanna, June 2005.

Tuna Catcher.

In late October 2005 I came home early from school one day (gotta love fall break!) to find Catanna out in the field with a new baby.  He was doing great, already up and nursing.  However as the day went on, Catanna still hadn't passed the placenta.  It appeared that she or another llama had stepped on it and drained it, so it wasn't heavy enough to pass on its own.  We called the vet, who said to gently pull on it until it came out.  **BIG MISTAKE!  NEVER PULL ON THE PLACENTA!**  My sister and I loaded Catanna in the chute, and my sister started gently pulling.  The placenta seemed to be coming out...and then Catanna's uterus came out with it.  She had prolapsed her uterus.  We made another frantic call to the vet, who said to wrap the uterus in a plastic bag to keep it clean.  We sat like that for a couple hours waiting for the vet to get there.  Eventually he showed up and stuffed Catanna's uterus back inside.  Luckily she recovered nicely, but she did prolapse again with her next cria, so she was retired from breeding.

Khatadyn at a few weeks of age.

Back to Khatadyn...  It was evident early on that he was something special.  I advertised him and our other male cria at our stalls at the North American show a few weeks later, and a man from Tennessee  took interest.  He decided that Khatadyn was the one for him, and we delivered him shortly after he was weaned.  I never even got to show him!

Khatadyn at 3 months.

Khatadyn at 6 months.

But his new owner showed him, and Khatadyn did amazing!  He earned several Champions in the few years he was shown, and got his ALSA ROM and Halter Champion awards.

Khatadyn is one of the  many llamas I'd like to get back, but I've lost touch with his owner.  Hopefully he is still loved!

Llama Biography #10: Autumn Hill's Catanna

We have actually made some progress on the fence (got 3 more corners put in!), but I don't have any pictures to show for it, so I thought I'd do another llama biography.

In June 2002, exactly 2 weeks after Autumn Hill's Charity was born, SHAG Cattera had her second baby.  Going along with our farm name and "Cat" theme for Cattera's babies, my sister named her Autumn Hill's Catanna.  Catanna was born over 2 weeks late, and was the biggest baby on our farm to date, starting out at 34 pounds!  Catanna is sired by the gorgeous Bauernheim's Showdown, a champion show llama owned by Shagbark Ridge Llamas.

Newborn Catanna.

Catanna was an especially sweet baby, just like Charity.  They were best buds, and it was funny seeing them together, as Charity was 2 weeks older but much smaller than Catanna.

Catanna at 4 months old.

Charity and Catanna even attended their first show together, the North American International Livestock Expo. in Louisville, KY.  Catanna was just old enough to show...she turned 5 months the day of the show!  She did very well for her first time, winning several ribbons with my sister in performance.  Catanna went on to be shown by my sister in 4-H and ALSA shows for a couple of years, and I even showed her occasionally.  She never really liked being shown, but she did respectfully well.

Catanna and my sister at her first show.

Catanna at the 2003 Western Ohio Triple Crown.

2003 Indiana State Fair.

2003 NAILE.

Catanna and I at the 2004 Southwest Ohio Llama Show.  She was Grand in halter!

Catanna and I at the 2004 Great Lakes Regionals.

Catanna was the first llama that my sister taught to kush (lay down on command), so she became the focal point of several pictures that year!

This was a Christmas card one year.

This has won several photo contests.  And yes, she was actually watching the TV!

When Catanna turned 2.5 yrs old, we decided it was time for her to become a mom.  She was bred to the famous Tuna Catcher (then owned by Mark Smith Farms, now deceased), and had the most gorgeous little grey male, which we named Autumn Hill's Khatadyn.  Khatadyn was sold before he was weaned, and went on to become an ALSA Halter Champion!

Khatadyn at 4 months old.

Catanna had a uterine prolapse when Khatadyn was born, so we decided to give her a year off before rebreeding her.  During her "break", I decided she should get back in the show ring.  By this time Catanna had really put on the pounds, so she didn't place as well in halter as she did as a cria.

Catanna and I at the 2006 Ohio State Fair.  She was huge!

After a year, we decided to breed Catanna to our new male, MRLF Ridge Runner.  Shortly after she was bred, the man who bought Khatadyn also purchased Catanna, and she moved to Tennessee to be with her son.  A year later, she delivered an adorable little paint male.  Unfortunately, she had another uterine prolapse, and the owner decided to retire her from breeding.  She still lives on his farm, and has a great home!

Catanna as a yearling.

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!