What an Ordeal

Tula almost got the best of me today.

It started out on the wrong foot, and then almost got on the right track only to fall back on that wrong foot again by the end of our time together.

Kristen and I had to separate the two camels by ourselves this time. The male, while being only 2 years old, is very aggressive and unpredictable – on top of which, neither Kristen nor I are familiar with him and his tricks.

Trying to separate the two is almost impossible at the best of times. Tula doesn’t move very fast, and Knobby is quite literally trying to mount her at every possible opportunity – which annoys her and frustrates him.

Kristen went in the pen to put Tula’s halter on while I attempted to distract him in the opposite corner with treats over the fencing. He would come get an apple slice from me, then run over to the barn to put himself in between Kristen and Tula, making Kristen back off hastily in fear of her very life (okay, maybe not her life – but certainly some of her limbs were in danger).

I’d capture his attention again by rattling his feed bucket against the railing, causing him to run over to grab another apple slice from my fingers before running right back to Tula and Kristen.

Eventually, Kristen managed to get Tula’s halter on, but had great difficulties getting Tula to walk over to where she could close a gate between the two animals. We ended up having to have both of us in the enclosure, with Kristen distracting Knobby while I hurriedly closed the gate. Both of us just barely made it out of the enclosure, with Knobby hard on our heels: teeth bared and a wild look in his eyes.

Whew!

Then, of course, we had to battle with Tula and her walk. I tried my idea of going up to the greenhouse, and I must say = it worked beautifully! She walked all the way, without stopping, from her gate to the greenhouse. But, then she realized there was no party going on, and refused to budge a single step further. We even went and got some kids off the trails to come admire her for us, hoping to fool her into believing that we had that planned all along.

She finally relented and got walking again. So I decided to push my luck and go down the trail towards the eagles: I should have been happy with my little success and gone on home – but no, I had to ask for more.

There were all kinds of people on the trails today, it being a Saturday and all that, so Tula used every excuse in the book to not move. We finally grabbed Liz, her old handler, hoping she could get the darned camel moving. Liz gave me all kinds of pointers and advice, which I am very grateful for, but still we had a heck of a time with that damn camel.

I was getting frustrated, and Tula knew it. She actually reared up her head and bared her teeth at me. You could just hear her saying “I don’t have to. You can’t make me.”

Between Liz, Kristen, and myself – we eventually got Tula to walk about 2 steps in the direction we wanted her to go, then agreed that we could call that a win and turn around back to the camel enclosure. Which, by the way, was exactly what Tula wanted. She was more than happy to walk back to her barn, however I made her walk to the other end of her enclosure before letting her off the leash and giving her the grain bucket.

We talked to Shannon later on about our difficulties separating the two animals, and it has been decided that I will suspend all further walks until they can figure out a safer way to do that.

So, for now, that is that.