Sweet Sir Galahad

Sir Galahad, sitting peacefully on the floor of his stall in the barn. This was a week or two before his passing.

  The post below originally appeared on our blog, "What I Learned from Daniel" in 2009.   This post talks about the loss of Sir Galahad, a beloved alpaca of ours.



On a farm, loss and death are inevitable, though for years we have gone without losing very many, and we tend to lose sight of this. This year though, there was still another loss to come. Sir Galahad is a fine 13 year old alpaca we purchased from the Pacific Northwest some years ago. Galahad's sire, Max, originated from a herd of alpacas who were from a herd in Australia.   He was a half brother to one of our dear breeding females Queen Isabelle, and he is unquestionably a dear friend in his own right. Galahad is a favorite because he is a gentle giant, and has always been a calm and loving creature. We have been aware for some time that Galahad had a low level ongoing medical problem, and this was being watched and followed. In late July, Sir Galahad did not look well. In the course of a day he did not eat, looked short of breath and did not move well. With hard work to feed him, medicate him, conversations with the vet, and even antibiotics, he began to improve a bit. I cautiously believed he might survive this particular illness. We even took him for walks while tethered, to different parts of the farm to keep his energy and mood up. At the end of July very quickly in the course of an hour, Galahad deteriorated, and while I sat with him, he passed. In those last hours, I had called the vet to euthanize him to prevent any suffering, but she did not arrive in time, and he passed quickly anyway. Daniel now has many animals he knew over the years, our golden retriever Susan, his German Shepherd Jake, two large white chickens, and now dear sweet Sir Galahad. Galahad also joins his sister Queen Isabelle,  who passed of a brain tumor a couple of years ago, and his niece alpaca named Shakria who died while a (young) cria.  (An alpaca baby is called a cria) I hope they are all together and all happy. It has taken me two weeks to be able to write about this. I know that when we love, being parted and losing is inevitable, but we seem to have more of our share of this lately. Sir Galahad received a farm funeral fitting for any royalty or head of state. Be sure to spend time with your beloved animals today.








 Alpacas can live  fifteen to twenty years in captivity when receiving terrific care.  Those with longstanding medical problems can deteriorate very quickly and can be very challenging to their farm veterinarians.  Sir Galahad was known to have a congenital issue.