I can home from the swap yesterday to find my 5 year old male llama lying flat on his back in the pasture. I'm talking legs in the air, neck stretched out, mouth open. I was sure he was dead, I know that cows and goats in that position can died. I was abut 4 feet away from him, ready to drag his carcass to the ditch when he sprung up and loped across the pasture. Does anyone else have llamas that sleep this way?

-- Dianne (yankeeterrier@hotmail.com), May 06, 2002

Answers

Dianne, Yes, my llamas have given us a lot of heart attacks over silly positions they sleep in. When they are laying on their sides in the sand pit, in the hot summer sun, it really gives you bad feelings about what's going on.

Last week, I got home from work, went out on my back porch to look for my animals and found my male llama sleeping in the "cush" position with 5 or 6 ducklings and goslings sleeping up into his arm pit. Crazy animals

-- Emily in Central Ky (bellyacresfarm@kyk.net), May 06, 2002.

Mine sleep on there backs from time to time. They also lay out flat on their bellies, head down. Looks like a big lump in the field.

-- Gary (gws@columbus.rr.com), May 06, 2002.

This is hilarious. I've got to get me a llama.

-- chuck in md (woah@mission4me.com), May 06, 2002.

Hey Chuck. You buy one and I'll buy one and we duct tape their butts together and tour with a "push me, pull you" :>)

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), May 06, 2002.

I am just Ga-ga over llamas and am trying to talk my husband into getting one...or two...or several...so far...no luck! I am just slapping my hand away from the telephone. An ad in our local shopper here in NE Texas is selling llamas. The man is 75 years old and needs to retire and is selling his herd. I think they are registered. Anyway, I told my husband that the first person to offer me a trade for my fur coat ( it is expensive and brand new...I am just not a fur person) for a llama or two has a deal that I won't refuse. Seriously....llamas are the greatest and I love to read all the stories yall tell about these beautiful animals.

Evelyn

-- Evelyn Flesher (etflesher@netexas.net), May 06, 2002.

my llama likes to lay where ever there is lots of short pieces of hay or straw, that way his fur gets realy scraggy looking....

i havent seen him on his back , but i have seen him sleeping on his side, with a couple of the younger goats on him and curled up by him... oh btw, i have a few horned does, he hates those girls, tries to spit at them and all... luckily they will be dehorned in the next few days(when the vet gets here)

-- Beth in ND (famvan@drtel.net), May 06, 2002.

How a llama rests depends upon whether it is literate or illiterate. Dianne's is obviously in the first category. An easy way to determine which is which is to examine the place where it was lying; if, besides a flattened patch of grass, you find an article such as an egg or a brick, it was laying, but still qualifies for the first. However, if all you see is flattened grass, your llama (through no fault of it's own - it is, after all a native of the Andes) belongs in the second category. ;>)

-- Griff in OR (griff@hangnail.com), May 06, 2002.