PPeruvian Senora, RIP

We lost our herd elder on Friday night. PPeruvian Senora (the 2 “Ps” signifying that she was part of the second Peruvian importation into the US in 1993) had joined us already a well-aged lady — in alpaca years — back in 02/03 as part of the deal that made us the then co owners of the North American Alpaca Stud. To put things in perspective: by the time she came here to CCNF she had already given Snowmass Alpacas, who had originally selected and imported her themselves, six live crias. That she would go on to produce five more crias in her time here in Vermont — including her Archangel daughter, Sierra, whom the Skinners actually bought from us — is really quite remarkable in spite of what some of the glossy brochures of yore might have claimed. In reality if a given female gives us six live crias total in her reproductive lifetime that is about average. At eleven live crias we were strictly into bonus time.

Our sweet old girl passed away during the night in the Arena’s warm room, having coincidentally being moved in there just the day before. She hadn’t really shown any obvious sign that she was in serious decline, other than a propensity to shiver on the colder days. Unlike many animals of her vintage, Senora still had all of her adult teeth in good condition and had you visited the farm a week ago the only thing that would have made her stand out was the groovy looking horse coat we had put on her. I guess it was just her time. Senora is survived here at Cas-Cad-Nac by her daughter Sonoma, her grandchildren Chiquita and  Solano, and great-granddaughter, Solara. Rest in peace Senora.