Cassidy

LLAMA

• From: Paradise, California

• Adopted: 2019

Months after the Camp Fire destoyed the entire town of Paradise, the locals observed two extremely neglected llamas wandering the area.

They were left behind to defend for themselves for nine months. Luckily, they stayed around their old home which had a year around creek. They were seen by the locals soaking in the creek to cool themselves during the intense summer heat. It was obvious that their coats had not been sheared in years...probably never.

I saw the FB plea for help and I deferred to our llovely llama lady, Joy, who has been shearing our llamas for years. She got into contact with Paradise Animal Control and then we made the 2 hour drive to rescue them.

The llamas were somewhat contained on the property but the sloping terrain with the creek in the middle of it made it challenging for all of us. I had worked a 12 hour graveyard shift in dispatch the night before, too! But the excitement of this rescue kept me up!

The llamas jumped over fencing and broke through our makeshift fencing. Animal Control Officer Molly called in for reinforcements and more officers responded from Animal Control and Paradise Police Department.

After about 2 hours, we were able to wrangle the lloose llamas. Joy and her husband, Ron trailered the girls back to our place. We named the llamas, Molly and Cassidy, after the two female officers who helped us.

Joy and Ron returned the following week to shear the girls. They sheared over 20 pounds of fiber off of them. And they looked and felt so much better!!

Afterwards, our good friend Jim (a former Paradise resident and Camp Fire survivor) took in the girls. He needed guards for his goats, including the famous Feather. And since we had limited room, we felt it was a good match.

Well, fast forward .. two years later and the llamas are home with us! It turns out they would rather chase down the goats than protect them. We had always told Jim that we would take them back. And with our new property being twice the size of our former place, we have room for them now.

Everything works out when it is supposed to. We generally do not adopt out our rescues but we felt that they were just on loan to Jim and now Molly and Cassidy are permanent residents of the sanctuary!