Another tragedy sadly hits us!

I have been putting off writing this blog post for a couple of weeks now, but I'll have no interruptions sadly, so I need to get this one out of the way!

Well we have pretty decent fencing around our alpacas, but our boys are of the "Houdini" variety, and will squeeze through, under or over any possible obstacle, or indeed fencing they can.  We remember the date very well, July 4th last year, an easy date to remember.  We did a weekly shop and were out for a few hours.  As we drove up towards the house, there in front of us were the 3 girls in a row, all facing the same way.  Cassandra and Lily each with a male on top of them orgling away, and Bermuda sitting in the middle patiently waiting for her turn!  Alan screeched the car to a halt and we leapt up shouting and waving our arms frantically, to try and break the romantic Barry White moment.  Well it did work, although the boys were a little .... er put out shall we say, however we managed to usher them back to the boys paddock, and gradually all settled down to normality.  In our mind it would be an easy date to remember and therefore calculate any impending births.

We have n't bred any of our girls for a couple of years, as we do not really have enough land for many more, plus there are not really the clients about that we had hoped to sell them to.  In my dream, our clients would become friends, and part of our AEDA society and we could help them as much as possible, and be involved a little with the alpacas and their new owners, basically be of support.  I know everyone's ideas are different, but when you have lost a few animals you tend to cocoon those you have, and try and do what you think is the absolute best for them.

Well as we have been handling Lily, which we do very often, as she has a bit of a mite allergy problem, she was being a tad more grumpy that usual and even a little spitty, but we did n't  really take too much notice.  In hindsight maybe we should have taken a male to her, and done a spit off, but we decided to play it by ear and if a baby came along, we would deal with it, and hope and pray it was ok.  We took that attitude as two years ago when I was in England, the day my beautiful granddaughter as born, Lily gave birth to a cria who was about 3 or 4 weeks early.  Sadly she died!  The first 2 or 3 days she seemed to be doing fine and then she went downhill extremely fast.  Alan took her away from Lily, and took her to the Veterinary University Hospital in Cordoba, but her lungs were not developed sufficiently and she died there, as they were treating her.  For about two weeks, whenever Alan went near Lily she hummed loudly, and was in great distress for her baby.  It was a terrible nightmare for Alan, he was here on his own, and I was going through so many emotions seeing my first granddaughter born, and then the wonderful news that a cria was born, and then the tragedy of losing her and of course knowing that poor Alan was having to deal with it alone.  It was very tough all round.  She would have been our first girl too.  Do to circumstances that I wont go into right now, we have 3 young males born that have lived, but we have lost 6 crias, including the little beauty this year, and sadly 2 have been girls! So only 2 girls from 9 babies and we lost them both!

Ok where was I... oh yes, well occasionally with let the girls into another tiny paddock, just for an hour or so where we let the weeds grow and give them a change of scenery as their paddock is smaller than the boys.  On route to it is a gravel type path and they all love to have a roll on the way.  Alan called out to me "Oh my God you should see the size of her boobies!" Haha!  I was sure he was exaggerating, however on cue she rolled for me, and it was like "OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!"  Alan did a bit of research and was happy to read the nipples can swell from about a month before the cria is due.  That would make her dates just right, so we settled into the idea that sure enough we would be having a new baby alpaca soon'ish! 

It was I think only two days later when we had a little day trip out to the gorgeous Cordoba Patios, which was my last blog post.  We pulled up in the car, Cassandra and Bermuda were outside and Lily was inside the stable area.  This was nothing unusual as they spend most of the day in there when it is hot.  As we drove past and adjusted our eyes to the darker stable, Alan said concerned "Oh no a dog has got in there with her.................... ON NO IT'S A BABY!!!!!!!!"  We leapt out and sure enough there was a beautiful little brown cria, sat, wobbling, but upright next to her mum, Lily.  There was afterbirth on the floor plus a rather large pool of blood too.  The cria was fairly clean but had a little dried afterbirth still on her.  As we picked her up to have a look at her, we realised her umbilical cord was bleeding, a lot.  The first thing we did was to ring our vet, who we could n't get hold of.  So as the mum and cria were stable, Alan drove into town to try and find the vet, hoping maybe he was already out on an emergency call in the campo, or even better having a siesta!  No luck sadly!  Alan quickly researched online regarding the bleeding umbilical cord, as we knew we had to stop it, as soon as possible! We found a plastic clip that seals a bag, and wrapped it in a betadene soaked cloth and he managed to clamp it, onto the remains of the cord!  We were n't sure of course how old cria was, but the next most important thing was to get her drinking from Lily.  I had already been trying this, when Alan went out to find the vet, and could not manage it.  She was strong enough to stand although Lily was not happy standing still for her, all she wanted to do was eat! Good sign for Lily though of course!  

The next step was to try and milk Lily, to get some colostrum into the little one.  I could not manage it at all but luckily Alan did, from all of the nipples, so the routine was for one of us to hold Lily still, whilst the other held the baby up to try and feed, and then to feed her with a syringe tiny amounts, but better than none of course.  This was going to be the routine for the night, every hour.  Lily was not showing to be a great mum but in my heart I wondered if she remembered what had happened before, and did n't want to become too close, or in hindsight did she know this gorgeous girl was n't going to make it?

During the night Lily's maternal instincts seemed to kick in, and she began clucking to her cria, and even nudging her towards her nipples, we were beginning to feel quite positive.  The baby was looking stronger and standing quite well, but could n't seem to suck well, so we kept the hourly feeds going.  Around 5am Alan said he was going to have a couple of hours sleep, I did not want to sleep.  I had a feeling that if I went to bed Alan would check on the baby, and come back and tell me she had n't made it.  That had happened with the new born foal just a matter of weeks ago, and I could n't go through that again. So I stayed up, in the kitchen and had a look online, and read, and dozed but we had decided to leave the baby for a couple of hours, hoping she would sleep well and become a little stronger.  

Dawn broke about 7am and I went to the stable to see them.  Lily was fine but I could tell immediately the baby's breathing had changed.  It was a little laboured, and I knew she was n't going to make it!  I woke Alan with the sad news, and we held each other and I had a little cry.  Alan got dressed and immediately we went back out to them.  During the course of the morning we phoned our vet, and had a talk to him.  It had been a day of celebration for his family, the previous day as his daughter had made her First Holy Communion, and of course they were partying, we must however try and get hold of another emergency vets phone number,  we had already made the decision though we were not going to take Lily's baby away from her this time!  

The day became all about keeping the baby comfortable and Lily too, and allowing them to be together.  Alpacas are great mums and I, and especially Alan had seen how Lily had grieved when she lost her previous baby!  Around mid afternoon, it became just too much for us to bear, the baby was struggling to breath and we could not help her.  We decided to ask Andres the vet to come and allow her to be out of any pain and discomfort.  The decision was made that if she passed away before he arrived home, I would phone, just in case he had n't already picked Andres up, and then of course he would nt need to come, although we wanted a general antibiotic for Lily, although that would be no problem we could give that to her.

After Alan had been gone about an hour, I picked up the cria and gave her a little cuddle, as I put her down again close to her mum she made a strange almost choking sound.  I wiped her mouth  and she had in fact taken her last breathe.  It was so very sad, although a relief she was no longer in discomfort. I phone Alan as planned and choked back the tears as I said "She's gone1"  The vet knew by Alan's reply to me and did n't speak another word the whole journey! 

Lily knew immediately, and of course I do not know who reads my blog, and if any alpaca owners read it and have had any similar incidents I would be really interested to hear about them.  Lily at the moment of her babies death made a cry like an alarm call.  I kept Lily and the baby together and just covered the baby up.  When Andres arrived he told me how sorry he was, and we spoke a lot about premature alpaca crias.  Lily's baby had been approximately 5 weeks premature.  Andres also told us he was pleased she had passed away on her own, as even though putting an animal to sleep can of course be in their very best interest it is a job he hates to do.  I held Lily and gave her lots of cuddles, as Alan took the baby away.  As Andres was giving Lily her first antibiotic  Alan said in total shock "Lily is crying!"  I was holding Lily so I could n't see her face but both Alan and Andres saw her, our beautiful girl with a tear down each side of her face!  

For about 3 or 4 days our gorgeous girl hummed loudly whenever she saw us, but to be honest the hardest part was seeing her taking herself away from the other females, and see her alone in the stable, lying where her baby was.  We will one day mate her again, however two losses for her broke her heart and ours too!

The Stunning Cordoba Patios

Every now and then, Alan and I love to play tourists for a day, in the gorgeous city of Cordoba which is just a three quarter of an hour drive from our door, or fence, should I say!  During the month of May we have the Festival of the Patios and this is just a must.  For the past 3 years we have headed into Cordoba, camera in hand.  We hear many different languages as we wandered through the tiny streets in the city centre, as visitors travel from near and far, to view the amazing patios.  There are three main routes and in the last 3 years we still have not managed to see every patio, although I am pretty sure we have seen some of the best, as certificates are placed outside some entrances.  

We are totally blown away at the displays on show, and get very frustrated when we cannot keep a handful of rose bushes alive, or our beautiful delicate bougainvillea which we sadly lost this winter also.  I guess it's a frost issue, and this year we had many a morning that we had to scrape ice off of our car, plus our rocky soil certainly does n't help!  

It was probably the first real hot day of the year and it reached 39 degrees outside and it was a ridiculously roasting 50 degrees inside our car when we returned to it later in the day!  We had to queue for many of the patios, as some are tiny, and can only fit it handful or so of people at a time.  So we spent quite a bit of time standing perspiring, no let's be honest about this, blooming sweating, as we waited in line.  

Having said that, I personally will want to do it again next year, although I did say to Alan maybe we should make a decision to view only 5 or 6, otherwise you are just drained and exhausted walking around in the heat and queueing.  

I hope you like the photos, I shall let them do the talking about this fantastic festival!

Love the statue in this one hehe!

 What's that, you want a close up?

A group of musicians and singers

Yes this was the temperature!

A day out with two Besties!

Two of our bestest friends here in Spain are Mike and Linda, who live blooming 3 hours away in the beautiful town of Ronda.  We would so love to live nearer, to each other, and therefore be able to spend more time together, but such is life, and we have been so lucky and appreciative that twice they have come to us on the train.  We have then met them and spent the day in Cordoba together.



For our last get together we decided to go to the beautiful Madinat Al Zahar, which is an amazing archaeological site in the hills of Cordoba.  Within it are the ruins of a huge, fortified Arab Muslim medieval palace-city, that was built in the 9th century!!!  This medieval city included vast ceremonial reception halls, mosques, administrative and government offices, gardens, a mint, workshops, barracks, residences, and baths. There are archaeologists working full time on the site, what an amazing job that must be!  We visited the beautiful Madinat Al Zahar, and had a lovely catch up, as always, the temperature was a practically perfect, mid 20's with glorious sunshine.  


We finished off the day with a beautiful lunch by the waterfalls on route to the station.   Can't wait to do it all again!

Our lovely friends, Mike and Linda!

The Day we found a Foal!!!

We were so excited that work was actually beginning on the worse part of our track.  We had been promised this would happen before even before we moved here, however Spain is all about getting things done "mañana!"  Well signs had been going up over the last few days, and mañana had in fact arrived.  Alan has on ocasions turned into an old Spanish man, no he does smoke cigars or drink "whi'ky"  but he does like to stand around and wtach the men work... in secret of course.  It was during one of these secret spying sessions he actually noticed a tiny horse with the work men.  We wondered if as a joke one of the men had actually brought his baby horse to work with him.  I admit we see loads of dogs in tractors and with the local farmers when they are working.  This was a first though!

We walked our dogs as usual then decided we would take a wander down to the foal and take our camera, great for the blog, I thought.  Little did I know the impact this little foal would have on our lives over the next 24 hours!

The foal who appeared to be with the work men

Little beauty!

Now you can see how tiny she was!

As we walked down to where the men were working they seemed pleased to see us.... they thought the little foal was ours, and had escaped from our house!  We explained that she was n't, and we had no idea who's she belonged to, or where she had come from.  Alan went on a little walk about to see if he could see any other horses around.  As you may have read in my blog around our Christmas time we often have "visits" from horses that, have let's say "inadequate fencing".  Alan however could not see any other horses around this particular morning.

We could see she was extremely young and looked very unsteady on her feet, and we soon realised we really had to do something!  The decision was made that we would take her back to our house, about a few hundred meters away, but up a bit of a hill, and go from there.  Alan phoned Andres, the vet, for his advice who assured us that as we did n't have horse milk, then any milk was better than nothing.  As I walked the little girl up to the house she became weaker.  At one point she fell on the ground and I cuddled and stroked her until Alan came back with milk in an old coca cola bottle, with a teet on it.  Luckily we had one in case of a baby alpaca emergency.   She was very weak but we managed to get some milk into her, and almost immediatly it gave her a new lease of life , we were so pleased!  We managed to get her into a little stable and fed her with milk and lots of cuddles.  She was beautiful!

Meanwhile Andres did a bit of private investigating and told Alan that sure enough Ramon, a neighbour, whose horses always escape, was expecting a foal around this time.  So we were very grateful that he phoned him and told him we had the foal.

Is n't she gorgeous!

Happy times!

The plan was that Ramon was going to turn up with his son, and bring the mare to us.  We had suggested they leave them in our stable overnight to bond, and to make sure the foal was feeding from her.  A couple of hours later, of me having the wonderful task of feeding the foal and having lots of cuddles with her, Ramon turned up with his horses.... yes all of them!   He did first have to find them of course!  I believe he has a leader who decides on the walking route for the day and the others all follow!  So Ramon brought this huge mare on a lead (sorry I'm not actually sure if you would call it a lead for a horse haha)  and sure enough the others followed behind.

Alan outside as ALL the horses arrive!

Ramon with a couple of the dogs he brought with him, there were others!

Ramon even had to bring in the "lead" horse, to encourage the mare to come right into the stable.  After getting out the leading lady we closed the stable door, and watched and waited.   I have to admit, although if it was an amimal of ours, we would have been waiting with bated breath until the baby was born, and we were sure it was healthy, before we could do anything else with our life that day, or possibly the next few days.  BUT life is different here, Ramon's horses are in extremely good condition, possibly due to the fact that they roam our countryside, and most of the year there is plenty for them to eat.  None of them look thin, and he looked totally delighted when he saw his new born filly!  His horses also are not hobbled which some are.  He had checked on the mare the day before, and they must have done their normal escaping trick after he left them, to go back to his house in the town.  The mare who was a first time mum, must have given birth whilt they were "out and about" and sadly panicked.  She did n't know what to do so she left left the little foal.

Over the course of the next few hours we watched the mare and foal become reacquainted, and watched her find her mothers milk, it was wonderful to watch them.  Ramon had told us he would come back the following morning to check on them, and take them home, although he suprised us by returning again a few hours later, that same day.  He was over the moon with her!

Ramon feeding his mare

Mum and foal

I popped out last thing before Alan and I settled down for the night, I remembered thinking "God bless" and I saw her for the last time before bed!  I don't know why, she was looking good, stronger on her legs and feeding well and regularly.  In the morning Alan got up quite early and popped out to check on them.  I was totally devastated when he said we had lost her during the night.  It broke my heart, it is still very hard to write about it now.  Goodness only knows how we would have felt if this had been our beautiful baby!  We phoned Andres and asked him to please tell Ramon.  Ramon came with his son, and they took her away.  We can only guess that the hours she went without colostrum just did not give her the food and protection that she needed. It was a terribly sad day for us.  I remember our vet writing two messages to me, the first said we were the foals guardian angels and the second even more beautiful, he said " Life is full of joys and sorrows, sadness touched today, tomorrow will be different!"  That meant the world to me!

Whilst we are walking the dogs we often see the horses, still escaping although still looking good.  If you would care to look back on my blog post called "Merry Christmas"  you will see the mare very close to Alan and I, little did we know at that time how she would make such an impact on our lives!

RIP Beautiful foal

Her beautiful mum!

This years new Kitties!

Our mum cat, Barb, is the most incredible mum!  She lived here before we did, and has delivered and looked after a litter of kittens every year since we moved here.  We say she is part feral as she lives outside, or in the barns, stables etc, she certainly is not domesticated.   This year however is the first year she has felt comfortable enough around us, to let us stroke her!  We do feed the cats, most days, not everyday as she hunts, and what a hunter!  We have never once seen a rat or even mouse here, and we have spotted her with tiny snakes before.

Usually we know immediately her kittens have been born, as she straight away looks slimmer, all be it a little saggy, bless her.  This year Alan and I were feeding the alpacas, and we heard her loudly meowing at us.  She looked a little slimmer than she had that morning but we were both unsure if she had in fact had the kittens or not.  We called her and she continued to meow loudly.  Looking at her we noticed a little blood down her back legs and she was a little wet!  So I said "Have you had your kittens, Barb?  Come on show us where they are."  Well low and behold she took us around by the pool and to an area of weeds and, well junk if I'm honest, and walked down a very steep bank.  The bank has a high chain link fence around it and an old cupboard door pushed against it, as Carlos the dog likes to escape occasionally through gaps in fence.  Alan carefully followed to where she was going, and there, sure enough, were two tiny kittens, just a matter of minutes old!  She still meowed very loudly and we were a little worried, every year apart from last year she has had 3 kittens, and we really felt there was another to come, by looking at her, and she seemed very uncomfortable.  So we gave her some milk and food, and kept an eye on her.  She seemed more comfortable, after eating and we had to hope everything would be ok!

The following morning we woke up to find a third kitten and a much happier and contended Barb.  Luckily the weather was pretty good at that time and she was happy to leave the kittens there, even though they were outside and completely exposed to the elements, for about two weeks.  It amazes me the way she encourages them to be as independent as they can be, as soon as possible.  From day 1 she allows them to feed every couple of hours then she goes off for some time alone, or with last years kittens Xavi and Messi.  She is incredible!  Well done Barb, another beautiful litter!

The kittens were born down the steep bank, by the door on the right!

One of the first photos of the 3 of them

A week or so later, still in the "hole" eyes just open!

Introducing "Pedro"

"Silva" (David) also known as Smokey Joe 

and "Iker"  (Casillas)

Zumba Fun in Adamuz!

Two of my lovely, and dare I say, younger ladies, that regularly come to my zumba classes in Montoro actually live not in Montoro, but in a tiny town called Adamuz.  It crossed my mind that maybe they would have friends in their home town that may like to do zumba, but did not want to travel to Montoro.  They eagerly said yes they did, and so I was excited about considering another class in another town.  Isabel and Beatriz arranged to meet Alan and I, one day, and took us to Isabel's parents bar, where we were shown two tiny rooms, above the bar, with marble floors, introduced to her mum and dad, and brother and heavily pregant sister, then taken across the road to her parents "electrical, plus anything else you may possibly need to buy in the whole wide world shop!"  And of course shown around her house.  These two ladies are so lovely, that although the room really was n't what I had dreamt about, but we decided to give it a go.  What could we lose.... not money once again the thought of us paying a rent or hall hire had n't seemed to have crossed their mind.

I bombarded facebook with posts about my new class, and the lovely ladies posted some posters around town for me.  The big day came, and we were met with double kisses all round, and we waited in the chosen, tiny room, with marble floor!  The class was due to begin at 7pm and at 6.57 ish there was just Isabel and Beatriz..... ho hum!  The girls decided to stand outside the door, and I guessed drum up a few friends.  Aproximately 5 minutes later the door opened and we could see many pairs of feet all making their way upstairs, to my class... yippee!

That first night was just so much fun.  We had 3 generations in the teeny tiny room, from Isabels neice and nephew of about 6 years old, to Isabel's mum and some of her friends, who took great delight in telling us they were in their 60's.  Isabel is a real chatter box, and I have told her before, that I bet she was the naughty girl in school, always talking, which her friend quickly agreed .  I could certainly see where she got it from, and the whole family were the same haha!  Singing loudly, and very often totally doing their own thing!  I loved it!!!  Sadly the free classes in Spain seem to bring lots of people in, then sadly many don't come back "because of the crisis"   Zumba is still going in Adamuz, we do not get many people in the class, however we always have fun and very often a good ole sing song too!

Brighton, and beautiful Maisie turns 2!

March, and I cannot believe my beautiful Maisie has had her second birthday!  Where oh where have the last two years gone?  I am so very lucky, two gorgeous grandgirlies, and I thank the Lord for whoever invented skype as most weeks I get to chat to my gorgeous granddaughters on there, plus more importantly see them grow into the wonderful little characters that they are, Thank goodness they can also see me too, so I'm not too much of a stranger in their lives.  I love the fact they both ask if they can talk to me on the computer!

In between Frankie working, we managed to get a day out to the Seven Sisters Sheep Farm, personally I was in my element, and we saw two lambs that had been born just half an hour before opening time, and also Kaci managed to feed an orphan lamb with a bottle too.  The plan was for Mark and Maisie to come too, although unfortunately Mark had just finished a run of 7 night shifts, and his couple of hours nap rather extended itself!  Hopefully next time!  Kaci loved it, and spent hours trying to feed possibly every sheep there!

Kaci enjoying feeding the sheep

Frankie is just a little more excited!

No fear, what so ever!

On Maisie actual birthday, I was invited along to her "grandma's" house where Becky had put on a lovely tea for us all.  It was lovely to spend time with the Callie's family and spend the afternoon with Maisie, after Mark and I picked her up from nursery.

Maisie's little tea party

 Maisie loving her chocolate birthday cake!

The following day I took Kaci along to Maisie's party and the girls had such a lovely time.  They both have had their parties at the same place so far, where there is a soft play area and it is just perfect for toddlers.  I love seeing the girls playing so lovely together.  I wonder if we will be saying that in a few years time!

The gorgeous birthday girl, Maisie!

As always, I try so hard to fit in visiting as many friends as I can, although my main priority of course is the family, and spending as much time as possible with the babies.  I did manage to see my 91 year old wee Uncle Charlie.  The last of my dear mum's generation, he looked fantastic, and as usual was getting ready to visit his local!  And I hope he can do that for a few more years to come, it was so good to see him looking so well!  I managed to fit in a very quick visit to my dear friend Wendy, and also squeeze in a sneaky hot tub night with my good friends Cathy and Claire, who I am so excited to be having over here for a few days this month!  Two of my former neighbours Barbara and Graham put up with me for a couple of hours for a catch up, poor Barbara was recuperating from an ankle replacement poor thing.  Plus as always a highlight of my week was a trip to the Haven Stroke Club to see my dear friends there! I can't believe I cannot get back until November this year, so hope my kids can manage an easyjet flight to see me here...... please!