Over the last couple of days, I have noticed one of the llamas seemed a little aloof from his pen-mates. Nothing too serious, but he did not come last night at feeding time. Instead, he just sat over where he was and that is about it. Again, nothing really noticeable or different in his behavior. He has done that many times before. But today, when I went out to do a midday feed, he was lay on his side with his neck bent back towards his body, and he had obviously been kicking a little bit. The dirt was disturbed there. He was dead within half an hour.
Aspen came to us on Thanksgiving Day, I believe it was 2013. Here it is Thanksgiving Day tomorrow, 2024, and now we have lost him. He might have lived longer, as this was a low average lifespan, and I can’t help but to think he left us a bit early. He was the big boy on the farm, and I am sad he is gone as he was born and lived his whole life here. I am sad too, as this is the second animal we have lost this fall. Honestly, all this time I have expected Mystique to go first, and if these things really do come in threes, then I would expect her to go next as she is in the worst shape, is the oldest, and has a hard time getting around due to her arthritis. But we keep her in a smaller pen where she does not have to go far to get from bed to water to feed. But she has room to move around and go for small walks. So, it works out.
In better days, Aspen lived in the back field for a while, but managing animals meant that he could not be kept where he could reach his son over the wire as they always wanted to fight.
We are down a male llama, and that comes a bit unexpected. I will have to figure out how things can be moved around with the space free. His son, Hedwig, is the difficult one. Hedwig is eager to mate his sisters, and eager to fight males. He dominated the middle field, and honestly, I could do without that. But the two gelded males I have this side of the street are here because they are in pens they cannot escape or hut themselves in. They each tried one when they first came here. One escaped, and the other fell into the canal and nearly drowned. What a time it was! What a day!
I have cleaned up the corpse and put it where they go for natural decomposition and their conclusion. He won’t be composted. But nature will do its thing, naturally. We have the space to do that, luckily. Also, I have the tractor to make it manageable. I could not have done this on my own without it as he probably weighted about 400 pounds or more. If we were to put him at the dump where they have a spot to dump dead livestock. we would have to wait till Friday, as they are closed for Thanksgiving tomorrow. I am positively boggled that he came and left on Thanksgiving.
Now, I have a photo of this llama on my phone’s lock screen. Should I keep it? Or is it time to change that? I am going to miss the big lummox, and I am not sure I want to be reminded so much. I think it is a better space for family or the like.