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We Put A Llama In Our Car... Yep, You Read That Right *Video*

written by

Liz Cunningham

posted on

February 25, 2019

Why did you put a llama in the back of your car?!" You might be thinking....and now I'm starting to wonder the same thing 

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You can watch the video here. But if you would like to hear the whole story of how we got to this place, and would like a good laugh, then keep reading.Here's the whole story...

In the last month we have lost 2 full grown sheep to coyotes.

Coyotes are getting really thick in our area and in the 7 years we have had sheep I have never lost a sheep or a lamb to a coyote, so I thought we were doing fine.I have had llamas in the past but doubted they were doing anything to keep coyotes away, so I sold Henry (our old llama).

Sure enough, a few months later after selling him we lost our first sheep to a brutal coyote attack. (5 coyotes vs. 1 sheep, not very fair).

Thinking it was our fault because we had the sheep too far from home we brought them closer to home. A week later another coyote attack happened less than 150 yards from our house 

 Coyotes are not usually that bold and tend to stay away from humans, so for them to attack that close to our house showed us we had a serious problem on our hands.

We started thinking that those llamas we had in the past might have actually been doing something...

Llamas are natural guard animals and do NOT like dogs or coyotes. Instead of running and fleeing they will confront them and actually have been known to kill dogs and coyotes. However, it's best to have a female llama, our last llama was male and didn't really seem to care too much for the sheep.

I was on the hunt for a female llama. All the llamas I could find were in Twin Falls, so I really wanted to stay closer to home.

Finally, a llama came up for sale in Nyssa, however, they needed to get rid of her fast and my husband was headed out of town for the weekend...

So, I came up with the bright idea that: 

  1.  I could go pick her up
  2. With my suburban (not our pickup)
  3. On a Sunday in our church clothes
  4. With my 4 children in the back of the car.
  5. Load her up without my husband's help

    The folks swore she was a really nice llama and that she was fully trained and used to load up in the back of the van.I figured a suburban isn't much different than a van, so off we went.

    When I got to the llama's home, the folks brought me over to her and were talking about what a sweet nice llama she was. She pinned her ears back at me and looked like she wanted to kill me. I started to immediately doubt whether this was a good idea or not. 

    This llama (Tina) had just recently had a baby (Lafawnduh) (yes, Napoleon Dynamite knock off) and was very nervous about her baby and anybody hurting it.

    We started to lead them to the car and she was visibly nervous, making llama noises and looking frantically for her baby (which was right on her side).

    We (the lady's husband and I) decided it would be best to load the baby up first. When he went to pick up the baby she gave him a quick swift kick in the crotch, which brought him to his knees. (I knew we were off to a good start). 

    He successfully got the baby loaded and now momma llama was now completely going crazy since she couldn't see her baby anymore.

    I went around the side and grabbed the rope through the car, so I could pull her forward while he pushed her into the car.Now that I was trying to load the momma llama up, my kids FREAKED out and jumped over the seats to the front of the car.I kept reassuring them that she was nice and that she wouldn't do anything and just at that time she looked at me and spit at me. (thankfully I had my hand up so she just spit at my hand). She then tried to jump over the back seat of suburban.

    At that point, my kids refused to sit in the back seat of the suburban. 

    After some quick car seat arranging and the llama and baby successfully loaded up. I quickly paid for the llama and wanted to get on the road home as fast as possible.

    The llamas seemed to be calming down as I drove, but just then my 8-month-old baby (who was facing backward looking at the llamas) started laughing and squealing at the site of the llama in the back of the car. This started making Tina nervous and she started to make llama noises and getting restless. I immediately told the kids to try to get the baby to stop squealing and distract her. Which they were successful at doing, but about every 15 minutes she would look at the llama and start making noises again.

     After a long 1.5-hour drive home we finally pulled into the driveway. 

    I have never seen my kids get out of the car as fast as they did that day. As the stench of llama lingered in the car.

    The easiest part was unloading them, but it wasn't quite over yet...I then needed to get the ropes they had tied around their necks off, which proved to be a lot harder than it looked. After 30 minutes of coaxing, wrestling and cursing I finally got the ropes removed.

    I then made a promise that I would never do anything that silly again...Until the next animal I really need comes up for sale. 

    You can watch the video of us getting home here.



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