RIP Blizzard

About 9 years ago we took in three young male alpacas whose owners were divorcing and selling their farm. We eventually sold two – Salsa and Nick – but Blizzard had health issues and we never offered him for sale. Blizzard was overweight, down on his pasterns and had coarse fiber; he dragged his back legs due to some sort of neurological damage. We gelded him and put him with our males, but, as males tend to do, they wrestled and jumped and it was too much for Blizzard. No problem – he’s gelded – we’ll just put him with the females. Suddenly Blizzard was orgling and chasing the girls. He hadn’t moved that fast in years!  So Blizzard became an “uncle” to our weanling boys and he took his responsibilities seriously. Eventually, Blizzard made it back to the main males’ barn with a rather low key group of boys.

Last week Blizzard started to decline and, over the period of several days, it became very difficult for him to get up or down. We kept him comfortable and had the vet scheduled for today, but Blizzard had his own schedule and died yesterday morning. We are a breeding farm and it’s a business. Blizzard was not breeding material by any stretch of the imagination. We never considered rehoming Blizzard. He was as easy going as alpacas can be and we thoroughly enjoyed having him on our farm. We will miss him.