For Children

Stories usually begin with "once upon a time" but this alpaca's story started with it's feet.  I was just walking around minding my own business when I noticed Gabby acting weird.  She was walking around in circles on the poop pile.  I went in the pasture to take a better look.  Right away I could see she wasn't pooping and I knew, even though I still didn't know too much about alpacas, that the poop pole was the last place that Gabby should be.  I screamed for my Mom, which did the trick because Gabby ran off the poop pile and over to the grass.  My mom must of guessed what I was hollering about because she arrived with a camera in her hand.  What happened next I saw through the lens of the camera, because my Mom made....

I saw feet -- sticky gooey wet feet.  And then I saw a nose, followed by the rest of the head.  I saw a cria, a baby alpaca about to be born, or in the process of being born, I should say.  It lifted it's head and looked up at me.  I always knew alpacas were curious, but I thought they'd at least get born before checking every thing out.  It scared me, to have Gabby walking around and eating grass with a half born cria hanging out of her.  But in a minute or two, Gabby laid down and little Mexico was born.    That's his sticky picture.  Before long, Gabby was cuddling her baby and Mexico was up trying to run around.