When we picked out two baby alpacas back in 2018 to join our family, we had picked two white ones.  However, before the time arrived for us to take them home, a little brown one had got very attached to one of them and the brown one would have been very stressed to have been parted from her, so it was a natural decision to adjust our choices to suit the affections of ‘Mulder’ as she was later named.  The white one was named ‘Scully’ as both alpacas are named after two main characters from the X-files TV series.  After Mulder and Scully have their annual clipping, they do tend to look a bit like alien’s with their long skinny necks.

Both alpacas have their own particular character.  Scully is a bit of a diva and doesn’t have to do anything special for Mulders devoted attention.  Wherever Scully goes, Mulder follows closely behind.  Even when it is time to clip them, if we get the halter on Scully, we can walk her to get clipped and Mulder will follow after her without having to be on a lead.  If we did it the other way, I think Scully would be quite ok not to follow, though Mulder would be stressed out being taken from Scully.

I’m not sure why, but Mulders teeth grows a lot faster than Scully’s.  We have had to get her teeth ground down once before (a frightening business) and we need to get it down again.  As her face and eyes are black, sometimes the only thing you can identify on her face is her teeth.  This picture of her has the sun giving highlights that give some definition of the shape of her face, otherwise her face would look like a dark mass with some teeth.

Mulder likes to get into water, maybe it could be that she gets extra hot due to the colour of her fleece – especially before she has been clipped.  We have bought a few cheap paddling pools over the years and had them in the paddock for her.  One by one they all got deflated or torn so we now have a smaller plastic clam shell.  Mulder seems to find a way to get herself squished in there and it cools off her tummy, and it looks quite sweet too.