I Won an Alpaca!

As I was cruising through fiber animal web sites last night, seeing if one might be a good fit for Sweetgrass, I came across an interesting contest.  Northwest Alpacas of Hillsboro, Oregon has been giving an alpaca away every month.  The newest giveaway was scheduled to happen January 5.

"Honey!" I hollered to my husband, who was in the next room, glued to his computer, doing meaningful, paying work.

"Yes?" he answered, somewhat dubiously.

"Can I enter a contest to win an alpaca?"

"A what?"

"An alpaca."

Silence.  Then, a fair amount of muttering followed by a

"Sure."

With a few quick keystrokes -- quick in case my honey changed his mind -- I was signed up.  Alpacas drifted through my mind as I tidied up and headed to bed.

This morning, an e-mail arrived from Northwest Alpaca's Steve Johnson:

"Thank you for entering our contest.  You have been selected as a winner.  We have either females or males to choose from.  In reading your survey I noticed that you do not own any alpacas at this time.  I am going to have Jamie Clark our herd health specialist contact you.  Along with working here and having her own herd of 30 animals, she also works with several other farms in the area and will ask you some questions regarding livestock experience, barns and pasture what your interests are with alpacas, whether it is fiber or breeding."

Reading this, I hollered a fairly loud WOO HOO!  The first hour, I felt really, really good.  Then, reality set in and I got worried.  To make things worse, today is a full two days ahead of the contest deadline.  A serious stream of doubts began to rattle my brain:  What if there's a world alpaca glut?  What if there's no market for the the cute little camelids and their oh so soft fleece.  Maybe someone is trying to downsize in this downturn by giving alpacas away in... contests.  YIKES!  What if... I'm just another SUCKER?

So I wrote Steve back and thanked him before getting down to business.  With the precision of a journalist, I shot him a list of questions about the alpaca market.  Stay tuned, dear readers.  The alpaca may or may not land at Sweetgrass.

In the meantime, here's a snapshot of my neighbor's alpacas.  Pretty cute, huh?