Cronus' Revenge

I don't think I've officially introduced this guy. His name is Sprinter.


It was an obvious name for him because on the morning he was born, late in the summer, Paul Bunyan found him sprinting around the pasture.

He's a hoot. He loves to run and jump and raise some Cain. I'm sad he's all cooped up this winter in the tent because he has no where to run and jump. I have a feeling he's making everyone in his stall a little crazy.



Sprinter is the product of an unplanned pregnancy, which can sometimes happen if Paul Bunyan (or house sitter) isn't watching too closely. For the longest time Paul Bunyan thought his dad was Lucas, who always seems to be the only male on the farm who wants to get jiggy with any of the females. If you know what I'm talking about.




But when Paul Bunyan got a call last week from ARI (Alpaca Registry Inc.) saying that there was no way in hell Lucas was Sprinter's father, he was perplexed. Who could his father be?? These were the choices:

1. Hamlet
2. Jumping Jack
3. Cronus, who passed away this fall.

You can read about his passing here, but if you don't feel like it just know he died a painful (although not long) death and he took a piece of me with him. I haven't been able to touch his blanket, which was shorn last April. We were kind of hoping it was Cronus because Cronus was the only offspring we had of Julia, who is one of the original alpacas Paul Bunyan brought onto the farm. She has since not been able to get pregnant. And we were sad that her lineage ended with the death of her son.

Well, ARI, with the help of our credit card number, was able to confirm that it was, in fact, Cronus who finagled his way into Lydia's stall to leave his mark on the world. Cronus was not loved or appreciated by all. He was a nerd. A geek. He was bullied and harassed and spit at and made fun of. We loved him. But all the other alpacas used to laugh and call him names.

And so now we rejoice in Sprinter's frolicking behavior. We rejoice when he spits at Tom Tom, who is one year older than he is, to get at the feed bucket. We rejoice when he slips into the big boy's pen and isn't intimidated or scared of them. We rejoice when he bucks and cavorts and doesn't give a shit what anyone thinks. We rejoice that he's big and beautiful and bold. It's too late to name him Cronus' Revenge, as he's already registered as Happy Hollow's Sprinter but as he stands to be our farm's nest stud, I think that's what I'm going to have to call him.