Caesar and Foxy

Way back in the 1980s, our friend, Amy, and her family rescued two llamas. I don’t remember the exact circumstances, but I know both llamas, who were brothers, had been malnourished and generally neglected before Amy stepped in to offer them a better home. But even though Amy and her husband had plenty of farmland in southeastern Nebraska, they weren’t really equipped to care for the two young llamas. So, Amy talked Dad into taking them.

They came with the names of Bruno and Caesar. Bruno was the nice llama. Caesar was the naughty one, with a penchant for spitting and coming up behind someone (usually my mom) and attempting to knock her down, sometimes successfully. That’s when Mom started carrying a rather hefty walking stick along on her walks through the pasture.

Dad was always an animal lover, with a variety of unusual pets when he was growing up. Like most farm kids, he and his siblings had dogs and cats and horses, but they also raised an owl, a coyote pup, a baby skunk, a raccoon, and a hawk, to name a few, so he wasn’t intimidated by any llamas. However, Dad really wanted another horse, so he did a little horse-trading.

My cousin, Kathy, and her husband, Jim, had a young Arabian horse they were willing to trade for one of the llamas. I still remember the day they brought Char to Fairbury. My kids and I were staying with Mom and Dad for a few days. In fact, I think all of their grandkids were there that day. We all gathered at the fence to watch as Char was unloaded from the horse trailer, and Bruno was loaded up for his trip to his new and final home.

Yes, Dad traded the nice llama for the horse. There was no way he would saddle anyone else with Caesar.

Caesar and Char became good friends, and Dad made friends with both of them. Whenever we took our girls to visit, they had to go and see Char and Caesar. They always had high hopes of riding Char, either with a willing adult or on a lead. Char was too much horse for a child to ride alone.

I don’t remember when or where Dad got Caesar’s saddle, but he was so excited to give his grandchildren rides on Caesar, and Caesar seemed to like it, too. Of course, Dad always held onto the lead as the kids rode, so Caesar didn't have a chance of getting up to any shenanigans.

Meagan was three the first time Grandpa let her ride Caesar.
By the time the kids were 10, they were too big.

 

One day, when Dad was walking in the pasture, his neighbor, Mr. Schleif, who I had known as a high school science teacher, called to him over the back fence, asking if he had seen Foxy. Dad had been aware of the fox family that lived in the pasture, and had seen them from time to time, but I don’t believe he had ever named any of them. Mr. Schleif, though, had named Foxy, and as time went by, he even took some pictures.

I remember that Mom and Dad both watched for Foxy after that, often commenting on his antics whenever we talked on the phone. But the best was yet to come. Mr. Schleif reported that Caesar and Foxy had become best friends, and he had the pictures to prove it.

Caesar and Foxy

Here is the proof that even Foxy liked to ride on a llama.
He did it often.

But ask the animals, and they will teach you,

or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you;

or speak to the earth, and it will teach you,

or let the fish in the sea inform you.

Which of all these does not know

that the hand of the Lord has done this?

In his hand is the life of every creature

and the breath of all mankind.

Job 12: 7-10 NIV