h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

We own two llamas, and have for six months or so now. I just want to say that I have never once been spit at by either one of them. They are gentle and retiring creatures for the most part, and while not precisely happy about human company, they don't really object to it, especially at feeding time. I suspect the main reason that llamas have such a bad reputation is that many people have only met them in circumstances that do not afford the llamas sufficient personal space, such as zoos. Or else that the people themselves are stupid and do things like move suddenly towards the animal.

I don't mean to be nasty about llamas. Actually I consider attacking annoying American tourists to be a *good* feature...

Ah, I can see that. Were any annoying American tourists to show up at the farm I would happily turn the llamas loose on them. Fortunately, we're in a little backwater so there's small chance of that.

I must say, I'm now curious about what makes a person keep llamas. Do you intend to make llama wool, or do they just loaf around in a field batting their eyelids and looking picturesque?

Mostly they're here for decoration. We may start shearing them for wool in the spring, but we haven't decided for sure yet. It's not like we've a great deal of spare time for spinning at the moment. They certainly are relaxing animals, though. Of course we also have one horse, 3 sheep, 2 dogs, 7 or 8 cats, 22 chickens and 13 guinea fowl at the moment, so it's not like the llamas are a lot of extra mouths to feed or anything.