At almost 21 years of age, Ginger is my oldest alpaca. She’s also the smallest alpaca on the farm, but don’t let her size fool you. This little blue-eyed cutie is my spiciest girl. She’s a bit grumpy and frequently let’s her herd mates know she is not happy with them. She stomps, grunts and groans about pretty much every thing they do. And if anyone does anything she doesn’t like, watch out! She is a deadly aim with her spit cannon and it’s never an airy spit. Little Ginger brings the big ammo every time! Thankfully she never spits at tour guests because they bring food, and she loves to eat. I am usually the one that get a face full of her anger because I am the one who has to treat her or work with her during shearing. Even though Ginger is spicy, she is still one of my favorites. I guess I am just a glutton for punishment.

Fun Fact: Ginger is what is known as a blue-eyed white (BEW) alpaca. BEWs carry the gene for deafness. Thankfully, Ginger is not deaf. For a long time, breeders passed over BEWs at breeding time to avoid getting a deaf cria (baby alpaca). But at some point we learned that it took a BEWs to get the popular grey alpacas. It turns out that if you breed a BEW to an animal with not even a spot of white, you can avoid deaf offspring and often get a pretty grey baby.