He was six-months old and strawberry blonde. His big brown almond-shaped eyes and long eyelashes were mesmerizing. He came over to us and gently nuzzled his head against our outstretched hands. It was love at first sight.
It was 1993, My Mother and I were at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo watching the llama show. I knew from the look in my mother’s eyes, and by the way she stroked his long, graceful neck and silky-soft fur, that we weren’t going to leave the show without purchasing that little llama. That, and the fact my Father wasn’t there with us to talk her out of it meant it was a done deal.
The deal was made with the llama owner and my mother began guiding the handlers to the car. They took one look at my mother’s four-door Cadillac de Ville with beautiful leather seats and said, “You want us to put a llama in there?” She began to explain that she would put towels down on the seats and open the sun-roof for the llama to stick his head out. Reluctantly, the handlers agreed.
Unfortunately, half-way down the road a police officer pulled her over stating traveling with a llama’s head sticking out the sun roof was unsafe and she would be fined. After taking a breathalyzer test and proving she wasn’t drunk, she was able to talk her way out of a ticket. An agreement was made that she would have the handlers deliver the llama to our home the following day with a horse trailer.
The next day around noon a “Llama Farms” truck pulled up in front of my parent’s acreage home. They were pulling a horse trailer containing little Leo the Llama, as he would be called.
Thank heavens Dad was at work because he would have made the truck turn back around.
The llama folks carefully escorted Leo out of the trailer and then looked around the 6-acre yard. There were no visible fences or pens built yet for containing a llama. “Where would you like him?” they asked while scratching their heads. Mother said, “Well, until my husband gets home from work and can build a proper llama pen, we’ll just put him in the house.”
I thought the llama folks were going to faint. “In the house?” they asked in total disbelief. “Yes” said my Mother. “He’s not yet big enough to destroy the house. He’ll be fine.”
Although still technically a baby, Leo weighed over 100 pounds and had a head height of over five feet. This fact did not appear to phase my mother’s decision on putting him in the house. So, the llama folks walked Leo over to the back door where I took the lead rope and lead him into the house. I watched them shake their heads as they walked back to their truck. Who could blame them, it’s a little crazy to bring a “barn yard” animal into a house… especially a well-appointed, three story, upper-middle class home.
One of the first things Leo “the baby” llama did was pee on the floor. This was not a little tinkle that you simply wipe up with a damp wash cloth. This was a fountain of pee that nearly flooded the entry way. Thank goodness for tile floors. So, the first point of order was mopping up llama pee.
While we were mopping, Leo decided to check out the living room. And before I could grab his lead rope, Leo began galloping around the furniture. The chase was on. Baby llamas are darn quick. Finally, he stopped running just in time to check out a floor lamp. (Llamas are curious creatures.) Suddenly, his head was inside the lamp shade and the lamp went crashing to the floor. Now we had a scared llama, with a lamp shade on his head, galloping around the living room.
Together, Mom and I finally caught Leo and removed the lamp shade. With that, he stood up on his hind legs gave a gleeful whinny and knocked us both to the ground. It was at that point, we both gave up and just sat there. It was going to be a long afternoon.
I sat on the couch and flipped on the television. I might as well catch my breath. Suddenly, Leo walked over closer to the T.V. and sat down tucking his legs underneath him. He sat there watching the television as if in a trance. Who would have thought llamas liked T.V.?
But the best part was yet to come. You see, my mother hadn’t told my father that she bought a llama and he was due home from work at any moment.
The sound of the garage door opening awoke Leo from his T.V.-induced trance. He got up and walked over to the back door to check out the noise. Dad approached and as he reached for the back door they made eye contact. Leo’s face was peering at him through the back door window. My Dad stopped, took one look at the llama inside the house and then he promptly turned around, got back in his truck and drove off.
I guess the llama was a little too much to take in at that moment.
Anyhow, Dad eventually came back home later that night. Without saying a word, the following day he got to work building an outdoor llama pen for Leo.
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