Baby Alpaca Surprise!

Wednesday afternoon we were on the way to pick up some friends when I noticed in the pasture a brand new baby alpaca!  I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me, but after blinking a couple of times I realized I was really seeing Cocoa's new baby.  The crazy thing is that we never knew she was expecting a baby because Fudge (the male) has been gone for over 11 months.  However, alpacas have a very long gestation period running 11-12 months.

Things never get dull around here!  In the pictures above, the baby is one day old.  I am amazed how strong she is on her very first day.  For the first couple nights, I pinned the mom and baby in a fenced area for the night.  That gave me the opportunity to hold the baby, she is so sweet.  It's cute to her Cocoa and the baby hum to each other.  The baby has been well taken care of by Cocoa and her aunts (Twix and Angel).

On the afternoon of the baby's first day, Cocoa didn't like me removing her from the other two alpacas.  She was able to escape out of the fence because of it being slightly ajar from me moving the goats.  Then Cocoa ran down the driveway and in front of the house.  I thought she was gone for good.  Luckily I was able to draw upon my unknown alpaca powers and grab and hold her against the fence (I had never handled her before this).  Then with help of a guide rope, I was able to walk her around the fence and get her back inside the gate against her will.  In the meantime, I had Porter call Ben, a 14 yr old friend down the road.  I was thinking that I would need Ben's horse skills to get her corralled again.  He quickly road to our house on his bike with a backpack full of ropes.  I was so impressed with his quick response to my cry for help.  However, I was able to get Cocoa back in the fence just as he pulled up.