Sections
Our Animals
Welcome to the heart of It’s Always Something Farm—our animals! Each one has their own story and personality, from our curious alpacas to our loyal livestock guard dogs and lazy barn cats. What started as a simple curiosity has grown into a small, joyful farm filled with life, fiber, and a lot of character. Meet the animals that make our farm feel like home.
Fluffernutter “Fluffy”
Fluffy is the granddaughter of Jaci, her color is Beige officially. As I describe it, she’s white with peanut butter on her butt. This is our most shy alpaca, she actually won’t even eat from our hands like the rest of them will. Every morning when it’s time to eat, Jaci tries to push Fluffy out of the way unless we intervene to let her back in to eat.
Pearl
Pearl is our special girl, our youngest (as of now), and her color is Silver Gray. We’ve had Pearl since her first shearing when she was just one year old. She had an injury early on, when our indoor dogs got into the pasture. We didn’t have Livestock Guard Dogs then. Lavender and Jaci stood their ground but Pearl ran, and one of the dogs ran after her. When she squeezed herself through part of the fence that was wire, she lacerated part of her face. We actually did not think she would survive. After an emergency vet visit, IV fluids and wound care, she made it. We have a lot of different fence types and part of that was to close the gap between what used to be the lowest rung and the ground where the dogs snuck in.
.png)
.png)
.png)
Dill
The second cat I had no intention of having. One afternoon in December I was coming home from work, our trash barrels at the end of our driveway. It was just before Christmas and we were about to get the coldest winter spell I’ve ever experienced here. When I looked over at the barrels as I was pulling in, I saw a tiny gray cat on top of them. I stopped my car and opened the door, not actually expecting the cat to come to me. He didn’t hesitate. I scooped him up into my lap, closed my door and continued up the driveway. I said “Well, you’re mine now.” I set him up in the garage with something to drink and texted my husband that I’d found another cat. This one is a fierce predator. While that’s a good function for a barn and outdoor cat, I’d prefer not to see his work. He usually greets me when I get home, even when I get home from work in the middle of the night.
Pickle
In 2019, just a few months after we brought home our first three alpacas, I took one of my indoor dogs at the time (Rhys, Chesapeake Bay Retriever) on a local hiking event. There were vendor tents setup at the entrance, one of them was The Humane Society. We were perusing when a man who’d been camping in the area overnight brought a tiny kitten to the workers of the humane society asking if they could take it. The kitten had come up to their camp overnight, they called her Pickle. The Humane Society workers said they would have to check with their boss. Since I was standing there, I said I’ll take her. They all said really? I said sure, I’ll take her. The man handed her to me and said his request was that I kept calling her Pickle. I agreed. Pickle was tiny. I tucked her in the neck of my shirt and she rode home with me that way. My Chesapeake had a high prey drive so I also had to keep her away from him. I got her situated at home and she’s been a great barn cat ever since. She keeps close to the barn (closer than Dill) and loves to relax and rock in our rocking chairs. But make no mistake: she is everyone’s boss.
.png)
Radar
To me, he’s a big white teddy bear. To anyone else that he thinks could invade his territory and threaten the alpacas, he’s a scary beast. Radar was our first Livestock Guard Dog and he does such a good job. He’s named after Radar from the TV series MASH. In the show, Radar is a company clerk for the medical unit in the Korean War. He had the ability to hear incoming helicopters before anyone else and spread communications. Our Radar doesn’t even tolerate birds landing on his fence line. He came from a goat farm. When we picked him up, we had our choice between him and a couple other males. He was floppy and fluffy, and he was ours. He was covered in mud. He was small enough then that I could stick him under the sink to wash him off. He quickly grew to about 120 pounds.
.png)
Hawkeye
Our second and impromptu Livestock Guard Dog, is a little bit different than Radar. He’s smaller and has a different personality. Frankly, he’s sometimes scared of being outside, or rather some noises outside. He became fearful one summer around the 4th of July when there were frequent fireworks. He still doesn’t tolerate loud noises very well, so sometimes he retreats to our garage and lets himself back out. His bark is big which is often all these dogs need to use.
