Llama Biography #17: Autumn Hill's Snowflake Obsidian

I'll warn you...this is a sad llama biography.

Llama #17 in our herd was Autumn Hill's Snowflake Obsidian.

Sid had a lot of symptoms of being dysmature (looked premature but wasn't born early): floppy ears, weird fiber, and soft pasterns.

In the spring of 2004, we finally managed to get our junior herdsire, AAL Navarro, to successfully settle a female.  He was bred with Casa Loma's Little Sheba, and in May 2005 she gave birth to a little male cria.

I came home from school one afternoon to find Sheba looking very uncomfortable.  I waited around to see if anything would happen, but she hadn't made any progress by the time my mom got home.  We finally decided that we needed some help, so we loaded Sheba up in the trailer and headed for the vet.

By the time we got there Sheba had managed to deliver the front legs, and the vet quickly pulled the rest of the cria.  The vet thought that Sheba's contractions weren't strong enough for her to deliver the cria, possibly due to a selenium deficiency.  We then spent an hour or so waiting for the cria to stand and nurse, and finally we headed home- Sheba in the trailer and the cria on my lap in the truck.

The night was very stormy, and after hearing a song on the radio I really wanted to name the baby "Rainmaker", but I'd been waiting for awhile to name a black and white cria "Snowflake Obsidian", so I went with that instead.

Sheba and Sid spent several chilly days and nights locked in a pen in the barn, but finally they got to have some time outside in the back yard.

Sheba and Sid.

When Sid was 2 days old, we had our other vet out to the house to draw blood for an IgG test (which evaluates the cria's immune system and how much colostrum they got).  Two more days later, we found out that his IgG was low, and the vet was back out to give him a plasma transfer.  Sid seemed to have turned a corner by the time the vet gave him the plasma, but shortly after he finished the transfer Sid started straining and acting very uncomfortable.  I'm still not sure what happened, but the next day Sid was septic and going downhill fast.  Unfortunately he didn't make it through the night.  I'll never forget my sister's voice on the phone (I was at dance that night) when she was telling me that Sid had just died.  I cried all the way home, and on and off for the next day or 2.

Sid had the coolest fiber...he may have been our first suri!

Sid was the first cria (actually the first llama of any age) that we had ever lost, and it hit all of us very hard.  Sheba cried for days, it was pretty heartbreaking.  We gave Sheba several months to recover, and then bred her for another cria.  She sold before the cria was born, but luckily she easily delivered a healthy cria the next time around!

RIP Sid.

Llama Biography #14: Autumn Hill's Faith

Faith is another one of those llamas that I've always regretted selling.  She was born in September 2003, out of Casa Loma's Little Sheba and sired by PPF King's Ransom.  Sheba was of course my very first llama, and this was her second cria.  I had loved Ransom since I first saw him, so in the fall of 2002 I decided to have 2 of my females (Sheba and Cattera) bred to him.  Faith was the first of those 2 crias to be born.  I came home one afternoon from school to find Faith up and nursing.  I was so happy to have a gorgeous paint female!

Faith at a week or two old.  (Her half sister Charity is in the background.)

Casa Loma's Little Sheba, Faith's dam.

PPF King's Ransom, Faith's sire.

Faith really was the best of both of her parents.  She had gorgeous coloring, fabulous fiber, and the sweetest personality.  I was really looking forward to showing her, but only got to take her to one show before she was sold.  She was sold along with Blaze (Autumn Hill's Blazing Starr) to a huge suri alpaca farm in Ohio, and they left shortly after being weaned.

Faith's fiber as a baby.

Faith at about a month of age.

Faith at Christmas, in the house!

I was lucky enough to be able to see Faith a few years later, when I delivered 2 more llamas that I sold to the same farm (both were Faith's half sisters, Autumn Hill's Charity and Autumn Hill's Catalina).  Faith had quickly become the farm favorite, often coming into the barn office for a carrot treat.  She ended up being quite a bit bigger than her mom, and really matured into a gorgeous girl.  Last I heard her owners were trying to get her bred, I'm sure she would have some beautiful babies!

Faith in January 2004, 4 months old.

Llama Biography #9: Autumn Hill's Charity

I was all ready for a fiber-filled post, but my camera died as I was taking pictures of my 4 new skeins of yarn, so I'm forced to use what I've got on my computer already.  Which means it is time for another llama biography!

Llama #9 is one of my all-time favorites...Autumn Hill's Charity.  We had a lot of ups and downs together...she was a great girl!

Spring 2003, after her first haircut.

What a beautiful face!

Charity was born May 25, 2002.  Her mom was our first llama...Casa Loma's Little Sheba.  When Sheba was old enough to breed for the first time, we sent her (and April) down to Yellow Wood Llamas in Martinsville to be bred to the handsome LW Captain Curry.  A little over a year later the adorable Charity was born, and she looked just like her dad!

Casa Loma's Little Sheba, Charity's dam.

LW Captain Curry, Charity's sire.

Newborn baby Charity!

Charity was the first llama born on the farm after I had started 4-H, so I had a better idea of how to start training her.  And I started early!  Charity was doing obstacles at only 2 weeks of age...she was awesome!

Charity practicing squaring up at only a few weeks old.

Charity didn't have the best conformation, but she had amazing fiber and performance abilities.  I showed Charity in 4-H for 2003 and 2004, and we really cleaned up.  She had a bit of an attitude, but most of the time we got through it.  My favorite Charity story is at the 2004 Hamilton Co. 4-H Fair, where Charity decided to spit on me while backing in the obstacle course.  Somehow I managed to take it in stride, and we finished the course...going on to win the class and Grand Champion Senior Performance!

Charity at her first show, the 2002 North American International Livestock Exposition.  She was just 2 weeks over 5 months!

Our first Grand Champion in performance!  2003 Hamilton Co. 4-H Fair.

We really cleaned up at the 2003 NAILE!

Winning costume at the 2004 LamaFest.  We were skiiers.

Charity's beautiful fleece.  She won numerous awards for her shorn fleece!  Walking fleece wasn't available back then.

Even though Charity and I did great in performance, her attitude started to get to me, and I loved training new babies, so I decided to retire her.  Charity ended up at Alpaca Jack Suri Alpacas in Ohio.  She eventually was bred to another Autumn Hill llama that we sold to Jackie, and had a beautiful baby boy that looks just like her!  Charity still has a great home, and I couldn't be happier!

Blaze of Glory, Charity's son.

Llama Biography #7: Casa Loma's Rhapsody in the Rain

Well I can't come up with anything interesting or exciting to blog about tonight, so I thought I'd do another llama biography!  This one will be pretty short, as Rhapsody wasn't at our farm very long.

Rhapsody, fall 2000.

Rhapsody came to our farm in spring 2000 with her dam, Alder Crest April Showers.  Rhapsody is a half sister to our first llama, Casa Loma's Little Sheba (same dad).  Unfortunately Rhapsody didn't get her dad's beautiful coloration, nor her mom's!

Alder Crest April Showers, Rhapsody's dam.

Muellama's Lou Chama, Rhapsody's sire.

Rhapsody spent most of her life at our farm as a pasture ornament.  She didn't quite have the personality for performance, so neither my sister nor I used her for 4-H.  We sold her to a friend of the family in 2001 (along with SHAG Lakota), and they had her bred to Gone Platinum, a gorgeous tan male owner by another friend.  A year later, Platinum's Melody was born.  Melody definitely has the coloration of her grandparents, and the brain for personality like her dad.  About a year after Melody was born, all three llamas came back to our farm.  They were soon sold again, this time to a 4-H family in southern Indiana.  All three llamas were used for 4-H, and Melody became quite the star!  Melody is still winning performance classes today with her 4-H handlers!

Llama Biography #1: Casa Loma's Little Sheba

I couldn't quite come up with a good topic for a post this morning, so I decided to start my "Llama Biography" series.  Starting from the beginning (way back in November 1999), I'm going to talk about all the llamas that have been a part of our farm.  It is going to take quite awhile to get through all of them!  Hopefully it will give you a good idea of how our farm and breeding program has evolved over the years.

Casa Loma's Little Sheba was the very first llama that we ever purchased.  After coming home from yet another family backpacking trip, we decided that llamas might be a fun addition to the family, so we started calling farms in the area and arranging to visit.  Casa Loma Llamas in Mooresville, Indiana was the first farm that we went to.  Lana Coffey, the owner, showed us around her farm and introduced us to several young female llamas.  Sheba was just a tiny thing then, only about 4 months old, and Lana haltered her up and walked her around.  It was during that visit that I got my very first llama kiss (from Sheba).  I was hooked!

Baby Sheba the first time we met her.

Since Sheba wasn't quite old enough to leave the farm that summer, nor were we ready to house any llamas at our farm, we instead made several more visits to the Coffey's farm over the fall, learning about llamas and playing with Sheba.  In November, she and 3 other llamas from another farm arrived at our house, and our llama adventure had begun!

Sheba was my very first 4-H llama too.  We both began in the program the next spring, at Shagbark Ridge Llamas in Noblesville, Indiana.  Sheba was very sweet and beautiful, but she was not the most willing 4-H companion, so it was an interesting summer.  We showed at the 4-H fair and a couple of other shows, but after that year I retired Sheba from the show ring.  She would be a mom instead.

Sheba and I as mountain climbers in a costume class at the 2000 Indiana State Fair.

Sheba was bred for the first time when she was just over 2 years old.  We found a beautiful male to breed her to, and sent her and another female down for their dates.  Almost a year later, Sheba had her first cria, Charity.  Charity looked just like her dad, but had her mom's beautiful fiber.

Charity.

A few months after Charity was born Sheba had a very bad health scare.  She somehow contracted Salmonella, and spent 2-3 weeks at the vet school at Purdue University.  She lost almost 75 pounds, but she made it through and kept her cria healthy the whole time.

The next fall Sheba was again bred, and gave us a fabulous little cria in 2003, Faith.  In 2005, Sheba had her last cria for our farm.  Unfortunately, she had a difficult delivery, and her cria was born about 2 weeks early.  We spent 5 days trying to keep her cria, who we named Snowflake Obsidian (Sid for short), alive, but he succumbed to sepsis after a plasma transfer.

Faith.

Sid.

Sheba was rebred, and then sold to be an alpaca companion for a farm in Ohio.  She went on to deliver another beautiful female cria, and still has a great home.

Sheba, her last summer on the farm.