We purchased our first alpacas fifteen months ago and everyone thought we were crazy. Maybe we were. We had no farm or ranch, nowhere to keep them. OK, so we decided to agist. (That means the alpacas would stay at the ranch where we purchased them and would be cared for and receive any necessary medical treatment.) This is a great way to find out if alpaca ownership is for you since you can buy only one and if you purchase from the right seller, you can get some hands-on experience before you take them home.
We did just that, but start with three. We bought three since we knew we would someday have our own place and would need at least two (alpacas do not do well alone) and there was a nice discount for purchasing more at the same time. Since I wanted them so badly, dear Tom gave in and we signed the contract. Two days later our fourth alpaca was born, a true black girl we named Demelza. Wow! Instant appreciation on our investment.
Over time, through additional acquisitions and births, our little herd grew to nine and we suddenly became aware that agisting fees were going to keep going up and up. What to do? We had land in Oklahoma we had purchased about five years ago. We decided to build a house and barn and take our alpacas there. Big steps for us.
In the course of building, the house developed into something like 3300 square feet with a garage (from 1600 square feet with no garage) and the 3600 square foot barn, while remaining about the same size downstairs, found itself with an approximately 1000 square foot apartment on top. As the alpacas would say, “Hmmm…”
By now we had 10 alpacas with three new crias due in the next year. Thirteen is unlucky, isn’t it? So we decided to do what anyone would do in the situation. We bought additional alpacas.

You did what?
We bought 17 females, one potential herdsire and one-half share in another and to top things off out popped someone you’ve seen in a previous blog–SkyKing, who will henceforth be known as Zena’s SkyKing by Kotzebue (gosh I hope I spelled that right.) He is the first of our own ranch-named alpacas.

Kathleen and Rhapsody Seal the Deal with a Kiss
We did not pull these alpacas out of mid-air or another dimension. Our new herd is the work or Carla and Don Llewellyn of Fox Run Suri Alpacas in Wanship, Utah. They will be concentrating on the Herdsire aspect of alpacas and we will take on the distaff obligations.
More tomorrow. Right now I need to hyperventilate into a paper bag.