Introduction

At last! Time is forced upon me to begin this long anticipated blog. It's not often that time is doled out in sufficient lumps that enable one to catch up on writing, but I am stranded here at the University of Saskatchewan, whilst one of our Llamas undergoes some difficult surgery to repair a knee joint.

Having driven the long-suffering 'Bella' nearly 1800kms across Canada to one of the few places that felt sufficiently confident to treat her, Bella's experience, ours and certainly that of the Saskatchewan University veterinary clinic, will hopefully go some way to filling the knowledge-void of llama medical know-how.

Our experience with Llamas is far from considerable and we entered this mysterious camelid domain completely 'green'. Through careful observation though we have developed a canny knack of interpreting the body-language, llama sounds and needs of our herd or perhaps I should say that the Llamas have spent many hours teaching US how to behave in their presence! It is hoped that we can share some of this knowledge and learn from the experience of others.

The journey, thus far, has been demanding, entertaining and extremely rewarding. At this particular moment in time though, I don't think Bella sees life quite that way. Her story will unfold here as it happens!