Another llama on the lam!
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- Created on Friday, 01 October 2010 13:55
- Written by Dena Rosenberry
Homer the llama was rescued off Pikes Peak a year ago. Now there's more llama drama in the area. Black Betty is on the loose in Black Forest.
BY CARLYN RAY MITCHELL
THE GAZETTE
Woody Woodbury has named the llama he has come within 5 feet of "Black Forest Betty."
Workers at Fox Run Park named the same llama "Black Betty" before she slipped through the fence in which they had her briefly contained.
"Either way, she's a Betty," Woodbury said.
Woodbury, owner of Colorado Country Alpacas, was alerted Tuesday to a llama on the loose by a neighbor. He has tried twice to capture her.
Once, the young llama - Woodbury estimates she's 18 months old - jumped a 3-foot-tall barbed-wire fence. Woodbury was called Thursday to help park workers with the animal - and he watched her slip away again.
"I think it has been on its own for at least a couple of months," Woodbury said. "The weather has been great. It's been eating the grasses out here and probably drinking water from people's pools."
But Woodbury, who cares for 7 alpacas and 1 llama of his own, is concerned the llama will not find adequate food and water - water sources soon may freeze - in coming months. And there's the ever-present danger of coyotes and other predators.
If Betty can be captured and no owner is found, Woodbury is ready to bring her into his pack.
It all smacks of the llama saga that unfolded a year ago on Pikes Peak. A young male llama dubbed Homer was traumatized and ran off when his mom was killed by a mountain lion. His owners searched the ranch but assumed he had been killed as well.
Instead, he was hanging out on Pikes Peak, where he charmed passengers on the cog railway and tried unsuccessfully to make friends with a herd of bighorn sheep. A llama owner from Black Forest eventually used her llama to lure Homer to his rescue and he was reunited with his owners.
Anyone who sees Betty, who is black and white and, well, a llama wandering around Black Forest, can call Woodbury at Colorado Country Alpacas, 495-5682.
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