another sad day on the farm....

baby snakes

i haven't posted in a while yet again. i'm afraid my my voodoo didn't work exactly as planned. we were able to rescue baby snakes, but not edwin.

edwin developed berserk (or aberrant) behavior syndrome. you see, we were misinformed by his previous owner. we were told he was a 4 year old gelded (neutered) male. and that baby snakes was a 13 month gelded male as well. turns out edwin was not gelded. he was intact. and much older than 4 (judging by his teeth probably around 10yrs). and baby snakes was not a gelded male either. in fact, SHE is not a male at all. two male llamas are a good combination and a valuable asset to a farm. but a male and female llama are a dangerous combination. especially when the male is intact. this explains why they would not stay put.

edwin could not be contained. he was leading baby snakes back and forth across the highway during traffic. almost caused several accidents. he was also keeping her from eating. he was endangering both her, himself, and our neighbors.

once llamas develop this syndrome it is almost impossible to rehabilitate them. we built an 8 foot cage and he still managed to escape. and when he escaped...baby snakes would follow.

it breaks my heart that we had put him down. he was such a beautiful beast. i feel like a failure. we should have researched llama behavior much more. and we should have double checked to see if they were intact, etc.. instead of just taking a stranger's word.

i vow never to make a mistake like this in the future.

but some good has come from this... baby snakes is safe. and she acts like a new animal. she stays inside our fences. she is friendly. she eats (a lot!). and she is slowly learning to tolerate the other farm animals. she really is a sweet girl. and we are glad she is now home to stay.

baby snakes lectures the pups

rest in peace, edwin.