When Ellen Brady Dunn, AS '63, talks about her boys and girls, you're not quite sure whether she's referring to the two-footed or the four-footed ones.
Dunn and her partner, Howard Abbott, are proprietors of the 17-acre Diamond State Llama Farm, located just outside Laurel in southern Delaware. In the four years since Abbott first gave Dunn two, 6-month-old llamas as a Christmas present, their herd has grown to 44. In addition to the llamas, Dunn's pets include 12 chinchillas, 13 peafowl, 20 silky chickens, two Percherons (draft horses), 10 dogs and a cockatiel. Oh, and let's not forget the cats: "I don't really know how many cats we have," Dunn confesses. "It must be 10 or 12. One of my daughters works at a veterinary clinic, and she's always bringing home stray animals. I just can't say no."
You'd think caring for that menagerie would be quite enough work for anyone, yet Dunn also holds a full-time job as a reference librarian at the Wicomico County Library in Salisbury, Md.
Born and raised a city girl, Dunn's always had the soul of a farmer. As the child of a DuPont Co. worker, she moved every two years or so, landing in such cities as Philadelphia, Detroit, Pasadena, Dallas, Portland and Wilmington. "My father always promised me that someday we would get a farm so I could have a horse and a goat," she recalls. "As a child, that's all I wanted."
Her family never did settle in the country, but Dunn finally made her dream come true when she and her now ex-husband settled on a pony farm. They lived there with their five children for 18 years before moving to the farm where Dunn still lives.
North American llamas are bred and raised as pack animals, for their wool and for cart pulling, among other things. There are reportedly more than 120,000 llamas in the U.S. today, with the largest concentration in the western states. (Lamas, spelled with a single "l," include the llama, with a double "ll," alpaca, guanaco and vicuna members of the camel family.)
Mature llamas, which stand 3 to 4 feet at the shoulder, can weigh 250 to 450 pounds. They can suffer severely from heat and humidity, so in the spring, Dunn's llamas must be sheared to help keep them cool.
Shearing yields approximately one to two pounds of wool per animal, Dunn says. The wool, which is quite popular with craftspeople, sells for $1.50 to $5 per ounce.
The librarian/educator in Dunn enjoys teaching others about llamas by taking the animals to area schools, libraries and nursing homes. In the summertime, the llamas give cart rides at local fairs. Each year, five or six members of the herd--dressed up in red and green blankets and adorned with ribbons, tassels and jingling bells--march in several Delaware and Maryland holiday parades.
Dunn also shows the animals at state fairs and other competitions. Llamas are judged on how well they match up to an ideal specimen as well as on the quality of their wool. They must also go through an obstacle course that can include bridges, jumps and pools of water.
Dunn is particularly proud of Eclipse, "a pretty, long-haired male with fine, humanlike hair," who earned a blue ribbon recently at the Virginia State Fair.
More than anything, though, the llamas are part of the Dunn family. "It was just love at first sight. I feel like they're my children," Dunn says. "You just get so emotionally involved with these animals."
There are 25 females and 19 males in the Diamond State Farm herd, ranging in age from 1 to 14 years. (A llama's average life span is 15 to 29 years.) Up to 10 babies are expected this spring.
Dunn says the llamas all have their own personalities. Diamond, a 6-year-old rose-gray female, is the curious type. She sniffs Dunn's pockets in search of treats and playfully snatches the hat from Abbott's head. Yearling Pebbles was sickly as a baby and became very spoiled, according to Dunn. Now, she craves human attention and comes right up to people to "talk" by humming.
At the end of a workday, Dunn craves the llamas' company, too. "I'm not in this for the money. It's for the love of the animals," she says. "Llamas are unique and intelligent. They are stunning, elegant animals. It's a calm, soothing experience just to sit still and watch them interact and talk with each other. I think they are the most beautiful animals God created."
-Theresa Gawlas Medoff, AS '94M