When Life is Too Surreal

[davidgillon]

I walked into the lounge at my mother's care home this afternoon to find two alpacas holding court.

Now I knew they were going to be there as an 'enrichment activity', I was in fact there to be sure my mother got to see them if she wanted to, there was even a van outside the door advertising them (plus glamping and various other farming related money spinning projects). But I just wasn't ready for the sheer ludicrousness of alpacas in the lounge. 

It turns out alpacas in the flesh look like someone crossed a deer with an Old English Sheepdog and turned the floof dial up to 11. At which point my reality sensor threw a divide by cucumber error.

(The alpacas couldn't have cared less about the lounge, the residents, or the various toddlers and older kids that had been brought in by staff members - school holidays this week - the only thing they were interested in was the dish of alpaca feed being held under their noses)
 

Comments

Ha ha ha

[jesse_the_k]

I've never seen an indoor alpaca. Are they soft to pet? Do the handlers somehow train them not to spit?

I then wondered how they're transport, and of course, YouTube has the answers

Re: Ha ha ha

[davidgillon]

I didn't actually get the chance to see how soft they were - closest I got was the other side of a sofa-full of residents, but they looked ridiculously soft and floofy. The handler claimed they hadn't done anything to their coat before bringing them, not even brushed it, but they looked far tidier than any sheep I've seen.

As for spitting, they seemed far more interested in keeping their noses in the bowl of feed. While for transport they'd come in a rather larger van than the one in the clip.

[sovay]

It turns out alpacas in the flesh look like someone crossed a deer with an Old English Sheepdog and turned the floof dial up to 11. At which point my reality sensor threw a divide by cucumber error.

I don't blame it.

[cosmolinguist]

Wow, you very nearly got to live out one of my favorite songs! Alpaca in the lounge, llama in the living room, close enough. :)