The alpacas are slowly coming to terms with the newest and loudest resident of the barn, Whisper the attack cat.

As the bravest of the kitties, he is the only one who has jumped out into the paddock to investigate the alpacas face to face. Instead of trying to stomp him to bits, which is Merlin’s default behavior with knee-high scurry-ers, or running and hiding in the farthest corner (Tuscaninnny’s MO for nearly everything), they all just stood in a line and stared at him. Or, more accurately, they looked back and forth between Whisper and Mom, trying to figure out what they were supposed to be doing about him.

Since this is yet another post that I almost started with “Alpacas don’t like XYZ”, I was inspired to start a list of the things our ‘pacas do and don’t like. I’m sure I’m forgetting a dozen things, but here are my observations so far.

At least some (but seldom all) of the alpacas really like:
1) Carrots
2) Crumbles
3) Sprinklers
4) Snow
5) Alfalfa

All of the alpacas don’t like:
1) Dogs
2) Un-identified rodents
3) Strangers (especially tax assessors)
4) Loud noises
5) Wind
6) Family members associated with dogs (me)
7) Rain
8) Coyotes

I’m sure there are more for each list…can anyone think of what I’m forgetting? The coffee has not kicked in yet.