LLAMAS: Skinny, but well cared for

Let us introduce ourselves; we are the Llama Ladies out on Highway 97. We live with our man, Gelding, on 300 acres. We come in all shapes and colors and get along just fine, thank you very much. We wait in line at the manger for our 50-pound compressed hay. Some humans could take a lesson from us. We are not power hungry. I told you, we are ladies!

Our ancestors lived in North America until the ice age. You can find us now in the Andes. We survive well in cold weather. Keep in mind we are much like deer; we graze on grass, twigs, and bark. Notice what beautiful eyelashes we have, lash extensions - we don't need honey!

We are new celebs now thanks to one particular person of a special interest group. She and an associate said we were starving. If we are starving then so are all of our deer and elk friends that come by to say hi and share in our hay. This person called the television stations and newspapers and had every one in animal control come out, who, by the way, all said we were in great shape.

Our owner on her own brought in a veterinarian and - la tee da - we now have papers saying we are "first class" and have always been healthy. They said our owner was doing a bang up job! Our owner had our fence redone this summer. The fence along 97 has had its wires cut and lately a quarter of them fell over; we found them on the ground with some of our signs that were pulled down. We figure the culprits are some bull elk, or maybe some two-legged critters. While our owner was out repairing the fence five men came by. Instead of complaining, these angels got out and helped her repair the bigger part of our property on 97. How's that for being truly neighborly?

I guess what all this boils down to is there was some political opinions expressed by our owner that this person from the special interest group did not agree with. So e-mails were sent out attacking us, saying we llamas are skinny. Thank you very much; we ladies love to be called skinny!

We are trained to be pack animals and have always been well taken care of in the winter and have never had to have a barn. Talk about pulling the wool over someone's eyes (llama wool) and you think we llamas have spitting matches?

So we would just like to assure everyone that we are fine and not to worry. And you know what? The animal control was swell and they thought we were great too! Come up and see us sometime. Call (208) 667-8793 for tours.

SHARON ROGERS

Harrison