The Last of the Fink Family Farm Llamas

 

  Our last living llama, Lindoro, died on Tuesday, June 29, 2021, after making it through to the last day of the horrendous heat wave. He was 22, which is old for a llama. They are said to have an average lifespan of 15 but can live to be in their 20s.  Now the only llama on the Fink Family Farm is the artificial lawn llama that I wrote about in my last blog post.

Our llama project started many years ago when friend Velta gave us a llama gelding who was trained to lead and pack and was a sweetheart, but no longer useful in her ever-growing llama herd. Percy was a most wonderful animal, so when our daughter-in-law Jessica's mom was offered two aged llamas but had no place to keep them and asked us to get them instead, we said sure! We all traveled together to Idaho to the llama farm and loaded up Aria and Brie. Aria was a sweet, good-natured llama. Brie was not. She was a spitter. And she was barren. Her owner had never been able to get her bred. Brie did not come willingly. It took several of us pulling and pushing and getting spat upon to get her loaded. What were we getting into?

Percy, old by this time, pretty much ignored the newcomers, preferring the company of our livestock guardian dog. But we enjoyed our first female llamas, so long as we didn't annoy Brie and get spat on. Our friend Velta had several handsome studs and let us bring one to our farm so we didn't have to try to load Brie in a trailer again. Aria got bred. Brie was having none of it.

Aria gave birth to Lindoro one year later, in 1999. He was atypically friendly for a llama from the start. But we did not need a stud llama so had him gelded when he was a year old, in 2000. The next year, old Percy finally passed away. Lindoro and his mom, Aria, became the friendly llamas everyone liked to visit. 

The same year that Percy the gelding died, 2001, I looked out the kitchen window one day and saw Brie walking with a brand new baby llama following her. I blinked and rubbed my eyes. This was impossible! Brie was barren and we had not had any of Velta's stud llamas over here since Aria got bred in 1998. The only possibility was that Lindoro had bred Brie before being gelded... at under one year of age. We named the baby Milagro, since he was a miracle birth. He looked almost identical to Lindoro.

 

Aria with her new miracle baby and Lindoro, the proud father

Milagro and Lindoro became fast friends, especially after their aged mothers died. But sadly, in his teens, Milagro developed a tumor in is neck and died. So only Lindoro was left of our llamas, but he seemed happy to hang out with old Shirley, our livestock guardian dog, until she died last year.

Lindoro seemed happy to hang out alone or with whatever person or animal was around. He was always the greeter when kindergarten classes came for annual farm visits. And always ready to give attention to whomever might like some. One of my favorite photos is of Lindoro, Johnny and Mr. Smith, my Morgan gelding.

 

 Lindoro was the perfect llama, content to keep company, or not, with whatever animal chose to keep company with him. We miss you, Lindoro. Thanks for giving us so much pleasure for so many years.