Danica stood beside Sam and held out a handful of hay toward Flora.“Here you go, baby girl.Some delicious fresh hay.”
Flora sniffed the air again.
“Alpacas aren’t the aggressive ones, right?”Danica asked.“That’s llamas.They’re the ones that would cut you if they got their hoof on a knife?”
Sam and I both snorted.
“Pretty much,” I murmured.
“She’s so pretty and fluffy,” Sam said.“I want to bury my face in her neck.”
“Gotta get her out of that trailer first,” the driver said.
“I read that they’re herd animals.Shouldn’t we have more than one?”Sam grabbed some of the hay for her mother and took a cautious step up onto the trailer ramp.
“If more become available, we will,piccola.”
Sam took another step closer, holding out the hay.“Not going to hurt you.”
She was in the trailer now, taking slow, measured steps toward Flora.
Flora sniffed again and took one step out of the corner, her mouth moving like she wanted to grab some of the hay.
“That’s it,” Sam whispered.“You’re hungry, aren’t you?”
She was less than five feet away from Flora now, and both alpaca and little girl were eating up the distance between them.
Maybe Flora was less cautious with Sam because they were closer in size.After all, alpacas only reach about five feet in height.
They closed the distance, and Flora started to eat the hay while Sam stroked her neck.She glanced back at us, her eyes wide with excitement as the smile on her face grew to nearly reach her ears.“She issosoft.Oh my god.It’s like petting a cloud.”
Danica snorted.“Try to get her out of the trailer, hmm?”
Sam narrowed her gaze.“In.A.Minute.Patience, please.”
It was my turn to snort.
“She’s gotten cheekier since we started coming here,” Danica murmured.
“It’s all that confidence she’s gained.”
Her hazel-green eyes glittered at me as she smiled and took my hand.“Yeah.It is.”
“That’s right, pretty girl.Come on out,” Sam coaxed, walking backward out of the trailer with Flora following her.
Luckily, Raven’s owners accepted my offer of a bucket load of money and agreed to let me buy her.Once the deal was secured, I got to work building an enormous addition onto the barn—with the help of some island friends—so that Raven, Kenny, and Midnight could have a beautiful stall together.We also needed more space for future animals.Now that the addition was done, and the happy trio were in their new space, we had room to shuffle the horses around.I could have put Flora in the barn with the donkeys and ponies, but I didn’t want to traumatize her by introducing her to Piñata right away.
So for now, she would be in the main barn with the other horses.
However, Danica suggested we put her next to Ginger and Mouse, who would probably be the most welcoming.We’d also cut out windows in some of the stalls so the horses had better access to their friends.They seemed to like it.
Flora followed Sam down the ramp and into the stall, where we had more hay, special alpaca pellets, some silage, a mineral mix, and fresh water for her.Sam spent a considerable amount of time earlier today laying clean straw on the floor for Flora as well.She said she wanted everything to be perfect for our new arrival.
Once Flora was securely in her stall, we closed up the trailer.
I thanked the driver, handed him some cash as a tip, and closed up the barn doors behind him after he drove away.
Sam was still in the stall with Flora, petting her and feeding her.
