This precious little cria is the first one born to my friend, Dawn. (Dawn and I met through the blogosphere. You can check out her blogs at Kaiser Mommy and Room 704). Dawn is currently boarding her alpaca herd with us, and we are so excited for her and her family that their first cria is here. The fact that it’s a girl and that she’s got some of the coolest color markings we’ve seen is a nice holiday bonus.

Here she’s just lounging, but it gives you another view of this interesting color pattern that she is carrying. I’ve never seen one where it looked like there was a straight line of color change in the middle of their back (top). Plus she has the whitest legs with dark spots on them and some white spots in the blanket. Outstanding. I could watch her for hours!

Here she is with her sweet momma, Montreal and her little coat to keep the chill away. Baby’s back half of her blanket is the color of her dam’s. Her sire is SCA Peruvian Shawnee. For those of us breeders who are into color genetics, I’m thinking that her sire contributed both a white spotting AND a dark spotting gene to this little princess. (and he will probably do it again which will bring us more wild color possibilities in the future.)

Congratulations again Dawn! Can’t wait to watch her grow.

UPDATE: Dawn’s naming her Josie!