The Schwab’s Llama Saga

A few years ago Michael had the brilliant idea of substituting our air-polluting lawnmower by wonderfully quiet, environmental-friendly llamas. Always being busy with more exciting projects than lawn-mowing, it looked like a great solution to a weekly chore.	Poncho was our first acquisition. He was very handsome, docile and extremely tender.

But of course, he needed company. After trying to pair him with a goat, some ducks, geese and chicken we finally got him an appropriate wife. Conchita, an import from Upper-Austria, became his mate and after some initial problems – like in every marriage – they got on tremendously well. Her dark head makes her a difficult object for the camera, but her majesty and coolness are just unparalleled and really impressed our young Poncho.

It did not take them long to find out how little llama babies are made and after a year on a cold morning in March, Sissy came into the house shouting: “Michael, you’ll never believe it, we have got a baby!” Sure enough, Evita was born and our life was not going to be the same any more. Conchita turned out to be a most loving mother and Poncho a very vigilant father llama.	However, Poncho was beginning to become so protective of his family that we decided it was better for him to leave. We were sad to see him go as he had been a wonderful companion for almost 3 years.

After a while, it became obvious to us that a substitute for Poncho had to be found. As we do not have a lot of land, we realized it had to be a relatively small animal – Poncho had grown to be a real giant llama and we now definitely wanted something smaller. Sissy got to meet Vasco and it was love at first sight. 2 weeks later, Vasco moved in and was joyfully accepted by the female llama community.

He quickly adopted the old dog house as his retreat when he wanted to escape the female crowd. Some of our friends said: “Well, he is really cute, but he will never breed, he is much too small…” Well, size is not everything and after sticking with the ladies for 2 years, the result of his family planning became visible – and his critics were silenced when Sancho, our best looking llama, was born. He is completely white, has a great head and terrific ears and a friendly character like the rest of them.

Thanks to the nourishing food provided by leftovers from a local school kitchen – our thanks go to Mrs. Prettenthaler – it grew to be a strong, healthy llama in no time.

We even hit the paper twice when Mama Conchita got her first baby llama and when a newspaper reporter got word of the fact that Sissy was using the llamas as part of her therapy for hyperactive children or even children in general. There is no better ice breaker than animals and llamas seem to be particularly good for that. Anyway, it is time for a change again and sad as it is, Vasco will have to leave us shortly as there is simply not enough space for four of them on our land. We hope to find a good spot for him – if you know of any, let us know. They are wonderful creatures and have added a lot of joy to our lives. Hope you enjoyed our llama-saga. Mike and Sissy Schwab