Alonso

On Saturday, April 12, the mesa welcomed a new member. Alonso was born at 8:30 a.m., wobbling on his spindly little legs a few moments later, and within an hour was sporting a jaunty red jacket. His mom, Val, was doing fine, despite the fact that the birth took place outside the normal 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. birthing window (anything too much earlier or later would have been a sign of fetal distress and very dangerous for the mother and baby). Karen, the alpaca herd's owner, was out of town, so our neighbor Maggie was responsible for checking the afterbirth to see that it had been properly delivered (watchdog Lars ate the whole thing soon afterward, making sure that no coyote-attracting scraps remained). Maggie also had to put iodine on Alonso's new belly button to prevent infection. This was Maggie's second "solo" delivery, and this time she was much less panicked about the whole thing (frequent phone contact with Karen helped to ease her worries, too). By the time we visited Alonso, he was six hours old and seemed quite content with all the attention from his mom, who made constant cooing and clicking sounds. Alonso's many aunties (Maggie calls them the sister-wives) gathered around too, giving licks and nuzzles and surrounding him with warmth on this cold, rainy day.

Alonso and Val:


With the sister-wives: