Parsons' Prairie Farm

If you start out at our farm and travel, as the crow flies,  about a mile to the northwest, you will end up at our neighbor’s place, The James Farm.  This is where Jesse was born and he and Frank spent their formative years.  With neighbors like this, it should not surprise, that trouble would find its way to our doorstep now and again.

Meet the Breakout Gang:

       Frisco           Wrigley       BoulderDash       Weston         Renegade

These are my sweet boys who typically just don’t do anything wrong.  But then,  I’m sure our neighbor Zerelda James thought the same thing about her kids too.  Anyway, they are our five younger males who are not quite grown up enough to be herd sires or act like herd sires yet….thank goodness.  They all get along and, in general, are the most social of all our alpacas.  These are the guys that get to be front and center during farm visits, pose for pictures, are the best at standing still when we want to show off fleeces and overall make perfect fiber farm pitchmen.

So imagine our surprise when we drove up to the farm on Sunday afternoon and found them grazing contentedly in our front yard!  Somehow they had gotten out of the people gate that goes from their pasture into the back yard and munched their way to the front yard.  Now since they broke out through a smaller people gate and they are herd animals, one of these five had to be the ringleader, instigator, gate crasher and general troublemaker that led them all into the yard.  Here are the five suspects.  You can decide who was the first out of the gate.

Frisco – Probably the most popular of the boys.  Frisco is very social and loves to give kisses.  He is very curious and always wants to be in the middle of whatever is going on.  Frisco is easy to recognize because of his crooked neck.  We are not sure how he injured it, but my guess is he was trying to get one of the older boys to play and things got a little rough or he was simply sticking his neck somewhere  it didn’t belong.   Since Frisco always wonders if the grass is greener in the other pasture, it would not surprise me if he was out the gate first.

Wrigley – is the oldest of this group of boys.  For the longest time we thought Wrigley was the sweetest of all the boys  until Frisco came along and took the title.  Wrigley is quite calm and really doesn’t cause much of a problem.  I have noticed that, since he is now the oldest in the pasture, that he is feeling his oats a little more, picking on the younger boys and pushing his way around more.  Maybe it is just spring fever or maybe he is growing up but he seems to like showing off more every day.  Since Wrigley is trying to show everyone what a herd sire he could be, maybe he was the first one out of the gate.

BoulderDash (alias The Dash) – BoulderDash is the absolute cutest alpaca in the world.  I have seen lots of alpacas and feel I can say this without reservation.  He is the youngest and smallest of the group and with all that cuteness, you would never think that The Dash would do anything wrong.  But BoulderDash LOVES his mama!  Even though he is heading toward two years old he would still prefer to be by his mama’s side.  So it would not surprise me at all if The Dash headed out the gate first looking for mama.  I’m not kidding…..this guy really LOVES his mama!

Weston – He is our Nervous Nellie of the group.  Weston always hangs out on the edge so as not to get too close…..very wary of humans.  He is very cagey and a little on the sneaky side.  He can certainly get into trouble but is a master at not getting caught.  I would never pick Weston as being the first out of the gate, but I would bet my last dollar that he whispered to BoulderDash that his mama was on the other side and then followed him out.  That would get him out of the pasture, essentially accomplish the same thing, but keep himself out of trouble.

Renegade – he is absolutely just that…..a renegade.   He is young, the same age as BoulderDash but much bigger and braver.  He is not afraid of anything, even being in the same paddock with the big boys.   He is always trying to act older and more important that he is.  He doesn’t care what anyone thinks of him, he goes his own way.  I can easily see Renegade being the first out of the gate, he wouldn’t think twice about it.

So, there you have it, The Breakout Gang.  I think you will be pleased to know that once they got caught, they all filed right back inside their pasture via the same gate they snuck out of, just like it was a little holiday.  No one was hurt or looked distressed in any way.  But at the same time, none of them looked the least bit guilty or took responsibility for the breakout in any way.  So what do you think?  Who was the first one out the gate???