So much for peace being restored. Yesterday was one of those days that made me wonder what I am doing and if I am really cut out to be an alpaca farmer or any kind of farmer for that matter.

I looked out the kitchen window shortly after lunch and noticed that Prince was favoring his left rear leg. Oh NO! My stomach suddenly didn't feel so great. I delayed going out because I was hoping against hope that my eyes were deceiving me. They weren't. I went out a little before feeding time, and sure enough there was blood all over the ground by the gate and corner of the pasture where Tinker has been forcing Prince to stay. Prince had a gash in the side of his foot. He had to have gotten it while fighting Tinker. I'm pretty sure now that both of their injuries are due to the barbed wire perimeter fence.

We had to wait until our children returned from town before we could help Prince. We were watching our grandson and cannot work on an alpaca and watch him at the same time. At least I knew what to do this time. We still have bandages and antiseptic for Tinker. It was about 5pm when everyone returned and would be dark soon. Steve and I went out and chased all five boys around until we captured Prince. Steve held him as I haltered him. Tinker would not leave us alone. We practically had to beat him off to keep him from biting Prince while we removed him from the pasture.

It was a little easier to take care of Prince's wound because he is smaller than Tinker and because it was his rear foot. He didn't rear up. I held his head and Steve washed the wound. Then we had to get our son-in-law to help bandage the tear. Prince didn't like it but he seemed calmer after it was done.

I knew what would happen if I took him back into the field with Tinker so we decided to put him in the chicken pen instead. He let me lead him over there very easily but he wasn't sure about his new surroundings. I was afraid he would try to jump the fence. So, back out to the pasture we went to catch someone to place with Prince. Since Tinker has been so brutal, we decided that little Stewie would be the best choice. We spent another 15 minutes trying to round him up. He finally got trapped in the catch pen in the shelter. We had to protect him from the harassment of the others too.

Stewie isn't as familiar with being on the lead because he is young. He went along fairly easily though. He would hop up on his front feet a few times like he wanted to rear but I kept talking to him and stopped whenever he wanted to look at something unfamiliar, like the car. So he finally got in the chicken pen with Prince. They both started eating hay and I knew they would be ok. I did check on them several times before I went to bed to make sure they were calm and resting. Prince's foot bled quite a bit in spite of the bandage. He is not limping or anything,not like Tinker was. I think he should probably have antibiotic shots like Tinker had and I will call the vet about it.

There is no shelter for Prince and Stewie in the chicken pen. The chicken house is small and the roof is caving in. There is really no other place to put them right now. I was so stressed and sick feeling after all of this that I couldn't eat my dinner. I asked Steve if my adrenalin was flowing while we were dealing with all of this. He said it probably was, but he didn't have any trouble eating his dinner. Ha! I had a mostly sleepless night. It is supposed to be easier to have an all male herd. With no females around they are all supposed to be buddies and get along! Right! Prince and Tinker will never be able to share a pasture again. I will have to build another enclosure and another shelter. I don't know when we will have the money for either or when Steve will have the time. Once again we will have to make do, the best we can. We are going to place another fence between the barbed wire perimeter fence and the alpacas. We can do that fairly easily. We already have the fence material, we just need to get a couple of fence posts.

One kind of funny thing, Steve has started calling Tinker,"Rex" as in Tyranosaurus! He sure seems like a big mean dinosaur when he starts bullying the others.