Cute, don't you think?
The llama (pronounced “yahma, for those of you from Borrego
Springs) is nearly my favorite beast.
They are soft, docile, dumb-looking, and covered with soft wool from
which one can make excellent rugs and ponchos.
It often is said that their only means of self-defense is a mouthful of
warm spit, but that isn’t exactly true; they can rise up on their hind legs and
deliver a nasty blow using their sharp little front hooves. Nevertheless, they are no candidate for
guard-animals. They are a lot more like
sheep than wolves.
Nevertheless they are far from helpless: I once got a large
glob of warm camel-spit in my face in Ecuador when I got to close to one. It wasn’t at all pleasant!
But because in most respects llamas are so charming, they
are now being used as comfort-animals in places like nursing homes. ‘Bout time.
