Ono It's a Boy

When we were kids we loved living on a farm. When I was younger the farm across the street was mostly a horse farm. Before my time there was other livestock there and now it is a farm to miscellaneous farm critters such as cows, emus, goats and donkeys.  But when I was younger the fields were full of horses and a few ponies. There were some chickens, goats and donkeys running around the back as well.  There was one dog and lots of cats.  As kids my sisters and I spent countless hours trying to catch the kittens. They would run into one of the sheds that had an opening just big enough for them to sneak into, but too small for us to get through.  We would spend so much time trying to get our hands on the cuddly little kittens, but they never wanted anything to do with us.  Then one day we went over to the farm on our normal kitten hunt and to our surprise one of the kittens ran to us and jumped in our arms! He was a solid black kitten and we were instantly in love and of course we ran home begging our mom to let us keep him.

 

Most of the kittens at the farm were strays and it wasn't uncommon for someone to dump off a litter of kittens at the farm. So we knew this little guy had to come home with us.  I don't remember 100% the conversation of how we named our new kitten, but I know these lines were said many times that day. "Oh no a black cat." "Oh no not another cat." "Oh no you can't give him back!" When my father came home that night from work and walked onto the porch and saw us holding the kitten he said "Oh no not another cat." It was decided we had to name him Ono.

 

Ono was a great cat. I am not much of a cat person myself, but Ono was an awesome cat. He was playful like a puppy. He was an expert hunter. I think we declared him dead several times only to have him reappear a week after being gone. He lived a very long happy life with our family.

 

So the other day as I was in the alpaca field I was thinking about what Vauneese's baby was going to look like. She was bred to LMFI Peruvian Black Midnight who is an amazing black alpaca. I've heard he is amazing to see in person. Unfortunately he lives in Ohio so I haven't seen him in person.  My parents had 6 crias due in 2013. The first five were all males. In most breeding programs usually you want female crias, or males that are good enough to be herd sires. Good herd sires tend to be few and far between.  That is what makes the good males so valuable.

 

So as I was picturing Black Midnight in my head I thought if the 6th cria was a boy and was black we'd have to call him Ono. "Oh no not another boy." I laughed about it and then called over to my mother who was in the field next to me and I told her about my idea of calling the baby Ono if it was a boy and she loved it. So to tell you the truth I was actually hoping the cria would be a boy. And guess what she had a boy! Shocker right?!

He is jet black just like his father Black Midnight.

I don't have the words to describe how stunning he is to look at in person. He is breathtaking. The moment my parents knew he was a boy they knew his name was going to be Ono!

 

I have to share his birth story.

 

First off we weren't sure when Vauneese was due since she had been bred three times. We weren't sure of his due date. We weren't sure if she was due that day or in a few more weeks.

 

So my parents have started opening up their farm to the public more on the weekends. When they know they will be at the farm they put an open sign up out at the end of the street. They have two other signs as you approach the farm and they switch them from closed to open. So since they were at the farm yesterday they decided to open to the public. My mom was in the showroom spinning yarn and talking to customers while my father was out showing other customers around the farm.  He went inside and then came out and saw a baby coming out of Vauneese "OH NO!" He called my mother and with lots of onlookers they got the baby dried up and I arrived and helped get them into the barn and out of the wind.

 

I helped a few of the customers in the store and then I turned all the signs to closed and took down the open sign at the street and was back over to help with the baby. It was now about 3:00.  She had him around 2:15.

At 3:00 the Breeder's Choice Auction was about to start. My mom said "Oh no I can't watch the auction!" She was in the barn with a hairdryer warming the little guy up and I got the auction to load on my phone so I could watch it live. But the WiFi doesn't work out in the barn so I went over to the driveway. So I was watching that auction for Lot 7. Lot 7 was LMFI Peruvian Black Midnight. This new little guys father.  So Lot 7 came up and I had it going on my phone and I took my mom's phone and set it to video and recorded it.  I wanted her to be able to watch the auction and I figured this was the best way to record it.  The bidding started and "Oh no there was no sound!" So I ran into the house to get on the computer. My phone started to make sound and the bidding started $5,000.00, $10,000.00, $20,000.00, $30,000.00, $40,000.00... the bidding when on for another 8 minutes. The auction ended at $78,000.00! So in case you wonder how much an alpaca costs, this guys father cost a lot.  It was such an exciting auction and I was so glad I recorded it. My father and I were in the house watching it and I couldn't wait for my mom to watch it. She was still in the barn keeping an eye on the baby to make sure he could start nursing. 

 We all enjoyed watching the video of the auction again. We thought about his name and decided it would be fitting to call him "Arrow Acres Ono Oyes"! I hope this guy is going to be as successful as his father in the show ring and breeding. Time will tell. In the mean time I have to say his mother Vauneese has been amazing so far as a first time mother.  It is a such a joy to see how her natural mothering instincts have kicked in.  We were very concerned about her since she never seemed to enjoy having the other crias in the field by her. We wondered how she would be with her own and I can tell you she is doing an amazing job.  It was a very happy weekend at the farm.