Well, I got word from my sister that Cagney is having some problem with his ear. It seems something punctured it and left a decent sized wound. Since my sister works in the health field, I totally trust her judgement and let her take care of him. She cleaned the wound and bandaged him all up. They have been checking on him and he seems to be improving. As far as what caused the puncture, we are not sure. At first we thought Cagney and Ike had a little fight and maybe Ike got a hold of Cagney's ear but on closer inspection, Ike's fighting teeth were not long enough and usually when fighting, they go for other 'more sensitive' spots. We ruled out the fighting and moved on to other possibilities. Upon further inspection we think he caught his ear on some part of the fencing, although they checked out the entire fence and found nothing. Meanwhile, he is healing up well and it doesn't seem to be bothering him at all.
The Winter weather has been a bit drastic this year. The blizzard that took over the mid west earlier in the week also had an effect at the farm. My sister and brother-in-law had to shovel out a path for the alpacas to get to their water source. The animals were nice and warm due to their wonderful fleece but moving around was a bit of an issue due to snow but now they have a nice path to follow and make their way around the meadow. I can't wait until spring so I can go work with Cagney again. My goal is to get him leader trained this summer so that I can easily work with him later and get him better trained handling wise. Meanwhile, I will keep working with his fleece here at home during the cold months. Here are some of the items I have made as of late.
3 ply alpaca yarn with clear beads spun into the yarn
