Chased By A Llama

You may think by the title of this post that I'm kidding, far from the truth!  The story goes a little something like this...

On Thursday afternoon, Amanda, Judy, & myself decided it was a beautiful day for a walk.  So we decided to walk from Baby Center down to Lord Edgerton's Castle.  It's a beautiful property tucked away out in the "country" about a 10-15 minute walk away.  Amanda & I had been down there before, but this time was different...much different.

On the property are a couple of llamas.  There is a pin that they are normally kept in, at least they were last time we visited.  Today, however, they were out grazing in the yard.  And so begins our adventure.

We walked up through the gates at Castle and began making our way around the yard.  It's gorgeous and there's so much to see and walk around.  As we were walking, Amanda pointed out excitedly that the llamas were out grazing in the yard.  They were on the other side from where we were.  No big deal.  Yeah, right!  No sooner than she pointed the llamas out, the white one stood up, stared right at us, put its ears back, & started running.  Where was it running, you might ask?  Right towards us!  The llama was charging ahead full speed and we were its target!

My first reaction was to freeze right where I was.  I think it was a mix of shock and fear that kept me standing there trying to understand what was happening.  Meanwhile, Amanda was ducked behind me (great friend, I know).  Once it hit me that the llama was headed straight for me, fear turned into sheer panic as we bolted for the nearest escape.  The only thing close enough to us was a stone staircase leading up to the Castle door.  I'm pretty sure we took them two at a time just trying frantically to get away!

All the while, there was a group of Kenyan women just basking in the shade of a tree across the yard.  Their laughter could be heard over our cries of sheer panic & terror!  I'm sure the whole scenario was highly entertaining to them!

You would think that climbing a staircase would provide some level of security from said llama, or so we thought, until the llama put its front hooves up the first step!  Are you kidding me?!  Since when do llamas climb stairs?!  I began looking around for any other means of escape if the llama would in fact make it up the stairs.  We were trapped if the castle door was locked, though I was fully prepared to bust through if needed!!!

Finally, to our "relief" the grounds keepers made their way over to the stairs shaking their heads at us laughing.  Then one of the guys looks at me and says, "Don't run.  Llamas are a very social animal, he just wants to say 'hello'!"  Yeah right, like I'm gonna think a llama just wants to be friends that sees me from across the yard and charges straight for me with ears back!  You must be joking!

Reluctantly, we made our way down the stairs toward the llama that was waiting for us.  "Just touch it like this," one grounds keeper said as he demonstrated how to be friends with it.  I'm pretty sure that even as I pet it, it was trying to eat my face!  Amanda wouldn't go anywhere near the thing.  You gotta love the fact that she continued to hide behind us the entire time!!!  The closest she got to the llama was when a tractor was between her & it!

Charging Llama

This is as close as Amanda got!

Never in my life did I think I would find myself getting charged by a llama!  Just one more life experience to add to my journal!