Snakes, Llamas and Dogs. Don't Mix.
Today we headed up to the Pedernales River to shoot some pics, hike around and be frightened by the possibility of rattle snakes. As they keep telling us down here... "Snakes are on the move." And indeed... they are. We saw one snake (not a rattle snake) cross about two feet in front of us on one trail and I heard my very first rattle snake while walking down another trail edged by tall grasses. Because of the grass I could not see him but I sure as heck did hear him loud and clear. I was just scouting the trail for future hikes while Billy waited in the car with Rudy so that was the end of that scouting trip. I turned back so as not to tempt fate. We did decide that the next time we head up to Pedernales we will leave Rudy at home. It is way too snakey around in there for little dogs who like to stick their snouts in to every hole to be creeping around.
Anyway... the river was freakin' beautiful! I guess they have crazy bad flash floods in there (I am sure this happens in the spring) and you can see where the water level could potentially go up by like 12 feet in a matter of a few minutes.
Right now it's all rocky and the water is really low (no rain for like 6 weeks here) but there are still falls and rapids and the color of the water is amazing.
Rudy enjoyed himself on the banks of the river. Getting dirty and digging holes of course. He actually got all the way in the water dunking his head under a few times to retrieve a stick which is kind of a big deal for him to do. He usually hates getting his crabby old head wet.
On the way back to camp Billy pulled off the road to shoot some pics of a field full of goats for possible painting purposes. There was also one enormous alpaca hanging out in the field and it decided it did not like Billy getting so close to it's hood so it charged him. It ran straight up at full speed to the fence and snarled at him. It was super funny.
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If that fence had not been there I think I would have witnessed Billy McLane get his ass kicked by a llama. And if you take a close look at those teeth I think we can all agree that it would not have been pretty.
4 comments:
We have a pasture and we let a friend keep her llamas in it. A couple summers ago the neighbor's teenager decided to take a shortcut through the field with his pit bull. He dropped the dog over the fence then jumped over himself. The llamas immediately ran up to him (all four of them) and started trying to step on the dog. He was yelling and waving at them, the dog was running around, and the llamas were chasing them all the way across until the jumped the fence on the other side! That's why people use them as guard llamas!
Now they were fine with us and our dogs, but I wouldn't test them. They're kind of aloof and grumpy at the best of times!
I haven't seen that kid use our field as a shortcut since!
The llama makes me think of the Whos in Whoville (Grinch). I think it's the face and teeth. Kinda creepy.
I would give just about anything if you all could hear and see Billy do an impersonation of the llama attack. It's almost better than what the llama could do himself.
Stef... You are a brave woman to keep such creatures in close proximity to your home! Lol!
Yeah, they're pretty fierce :) Don't tell Billy, but I am a 4H volunteer, and we encourage small children to show their llamas. Here's a picture http://tinyurl.com/ywjumy from a show this year where my dog and I were an obstacle - the kids had to hold their llama still while we walked a circle around them, without attacking the dog - or me I guess! They all passed!
If you visit when you get up this way I'll introduce him to some nice llamas ;-)
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