Nikita and Wooly Bear: A Love Story

Nikita (right) is one of the first llamas to arrive here. Wooly Bear (left) the alpaca came here a couple of years later.

It was love at first sight. At least on Wooly Bear's part. Nikita is basically indifferent. Poor Wooly Bear, his love is unrequited.

He is her protector. If another animal gets too close, he is right there giving them what for. When she had a cria, he paced around like a worried daddy. (He is a gelding, so not the daddy.) He extended his protector status to the cria (Kiwi)too. He always tried to keep himself between me and Kiwi. As the cria grew, he (the cria) knew that he had a protector besides his Mom. One day I saw Kiwi go up to the biggest llama in the pasture and challenge her, nose up, ears back, like he was going to spit at her. She wasn't about to take that from the young whippersnapper, and rounded on him to put him in his place. He ran and stood behind Wooly Bear, and Wooly Bear protected him. Kiwi grew up knowing that he could always run to Wooly Bear, and so constantly bugged the other animals, then ran to Wolly Bear. Bully!

Wooly Bear is usually just a few steps away from Nikita. She moves a few steps to graze, he moves with her. She cushes to chew her cud, he cushes next to her. She heads to the poop pile, so does he.

The other day, I let them out into the yard to "mow the grass" for me. She moved to an area on one side of the house, and for some reason he didn't move with her. She ended up on one side of the house, he on the other. Pretty soon I saw him running up and down the driveway, looking all around, and humming in distress. Where is she, where is she? He finally spotted her, ran to her side, and fell back to grazing. All was right in his world again.

I will never willingly separate them. If I have to sell the animals, those two are a package deal.