And then there were seven . . . . .

Today has been a very significant day in the life of the Lamas de l’Aubaine.

We woke up this morning at the usual tardy hour of 7.30 am, and, as has become our accustomed routine, I picked up the binoculars, opened the bedroom curtains and proceeded to do the usual llama count. “There’s one….two, three, four….five, six…seven. Seven?!!!!”

Yes indeed. Despite all our careful monitoring over the last week, and endless watching for signs of Fatma’s impending delivery, we managed to miss the birth. Of course, on the plus side, this means we managed to miss all the stress and worry that would no doubt have been associated with observing the process. Instead, we just awoke to find it had all happened, and that mother and baby were doing well.

Of course, we got dressed and headed straight up to the field, Simon checking he had enough charged batteries for his camera, and me stuffing my pockets with Sainsbury’s carrier bags, so that I could remove the placenta, which I knew would be hanging around somewhere. Funny how I get all the nicest jobs! (Note from Simon: see the full fun of this task here!)

It is truly amazing to see something so small and defenceless stumbling around on such long and wobbly legs. The slope of the field was clearly proving something of a challenge for the somewhat unstable creature, but all the other llamas showed such an interest in the new arrival, that it was unlikely that they would allow any harm to come to it.

We failed miserably to get a good enough look at the baby’s rear end to be able to tell for sure whether it was a boy or a girl. However, after closer inspections of some of the photos, and a detailed phone conversation with our llamas’ previous owners, we are reasonably certain that it is a girl. When Simon asked me how I knew, I had to reply that of course it must be a female, because that’s how the plan goes. Since the day we decided to focus on llama breeding, rather than trekking, we’ve always hoped that both pregnant females would give birth to girls.

So, all is well with the Universe and we are happy bunnies (and llamas). And to cap it all, we are off to the notaire this afternoon to sign the promesse de vente for the eight hectares of land we are buying to accommodate our growing herd.

More pictures can be found by clicking here