“When you go on a bike path with a llama, you meet lots of people”

Sometime the bond between an animal and its caretaker is strong, but this story from neighboring Lexington, Massachusetts is particularly poignant.  The Boston Globe tells the story:

Something was wrong with Belle. Of that there was no doubt.

She was getting old. She’d developed arthritis. Her eyes were failing. And now, Jim Wilson knew, something else was deeply troubling her. She missed her faithful friend, Karen. You could see it in her eyes.
“Karen had some medical issues of her own and was in the hospital and in rehab for almost three months,’’ Wilson told me, squinting into warm springtime sunshine the other day. “And Belle definitely sensed something was wrong. She was standing at the end of the barn.

“We don’t cage Belle. Belle wanders free. She really didn’t have any parameters and she would stand by the barn door at the times when Karen would likely come. You could see she was waiting for someone who didn’t come.’’

Jim Wilson is one of the owners of a 32-acre farm here that bears the name of his family. They’ve worked this land since 1884 and the place now bustles as nature pivots firmly away from winter.

As mulch, fertilizer, and flowers fly off his shelves, the story of Belle the llama and Karen, her faithful caretaker, is in the air. It’s a good story, one of devotion and a special kind of mutual aid that dates back a couple of decades.

“Belle was really sweet,’’ Karen Sidley told me. “I loved her.’’

Read more of this sweet llama love story.

RIP Belle. You were a good llama.