The Fonz

Last weekend Rodney and I went to stay on an alpaca farm in Bridport, Vermont (Champlain Valley Alpacas). Jenny and Les Foshay were great hosts and we had a fantastic time meeting them, their goats, horses and alpacas. They had several pregnant female alpacas and we were lucky enough to be there when two of the girls gave birth. We were able to help dry off the babies (called crias) and fit them with the cutest little jackets. : ) The second baby was a little boy born to an alpaca named "Felicity." The Foshays were trying to think of a name beginning with "F" (they like to keep all the names of a family line starting with the same letter, as a way of remembering who's related to whom). I suggested the name Fonzie. I'm not sure if they will call him that but he'll always be little Fonzie to me. Fonzie was up walking within 15 minutes of his birth, although he was a little wobbly at first.

This was the first baby born - a little girl that we would later refer to as "little red jacket" (they put a red jacket on her to keep her warm, as the nights were pretty chilly up in Vermont)

The goats hang out by (and on) the trailer
Fonzie makes his debut covered in membranes
Fonzie and mummy Felicity meet face to face for the first time
Hey, you on the left - what's so funny?
This is "little yellow jacket" and friends
It was great to be out in the country for a couple of days. We stayed in a small cabin next door to the main farm house. We woke up in the morning to see the alpacas grazing right outside our window. Best. Weekend. Ever.Fonzie is lucky he still needs to nurse from his mum or I would have had him in the back of my car on the way back to New Haven. Actually I thought of swiping him and his mum but I thought the Foshays might notice if there were too many animals missing from the pasture. ; )