Rojo the Therapy Llama

Life is slower at the beach. And our days are often more interesting than at any other time in our lives.

Yesterday after a two-hour, beautiful drive along Highway 30, we met Rojo the certified therapy Llama who lives at Mountain Peaks Therapy. We also met his alpaca buddy Napoleon, other friends in his herd and his human family, Lori and Shannon (author of the children’s books, “Where is my Hair?” and “The Perfectly Imperfect Llama”). Our treat of the day was carrots and they did almost everything possible to sample the wares until my bag ran out.

I must tell you the sight of Rojo trotting at full speed to meet me was brilliant. His red fur flew along behind him. His eyes were huge and he held his head high. I suspect he was hoping to go bye-bye as his van and trailer were parked behind me. He decided that he was pretty pleased with the carrots instead.

It’s different spending time with animal that can meet you eye-to-eye. My life is filled with pets of the domestic kind much closer to the ground versus ones that stand as tall as I do. As these animals gathered around for carrots, looking me straight in the eye, I remembered my manners a few times and looked away first. “Your herd, not mine.” But looking into their huge eyes, wondering what they were thinking (“food?”) fascinated me.

Rojo is a cuddler and he often placed his head on my shoulder. His fur (fiber as they call it) is extremely soft and he liked the neck strokes the best, These therapy animals often visit hospitals, nursing homes, rehab centers and struggling individuals. They can help with PTSD, depression, anxiety and much more. When people have difficulty being comfortable with other people, animals can often bridge that gap. If you follow their Facebook pages, you will see that Napoleon recently even went to church. These animals also attend private events, including 30-50 weddings a year, birthday parties and more.

Thank you to Mountain Peaks for a wonderful visit. We enjoyed getting to know both the humans and the herd!