Alpacas: Pere Michel, skirting

I thought it overdue to give you some cuteness, so here you go:

This is Pere Michel before shearing. He is the youngest of the alpacas, and very soft and fuzzy. This, of course, means he has NO interest whatsoever in being touched. Nonono.  Not gonna have it.
Please note all of the grassy bits on his back. Alpacas love to roll in the dirt/grass/whatever, and the young ones especially love that activity.

THIS is Pere Michel AFTER his first shearing.

C'est tres fantastique, n'est pas? He looks a little dazed because those creatures who usually just feed him have swept him up on a table, cut his toenails and taken all his fleece. What's a boy to do? You can see his equally confused friend looking in. ( I believe that's Jubilee)

Here is his close up. Check out that weird little tilde mark on his neck. That was a surprise, if I recall correctly. It was all grey on the outside.

Now. Remember all that grassy stuff? Before he was sheared, people tried to pick out a lot of it. He tolerated that for about 2 minutes. (well, maybe a little longer, but not much)

Yesterday and today we got to skirt his fleece, to prep it for the fiber processor. OH MAN, what a mess.  His coat is very very fine. It was pretty much infused with little grassy bits, dirt, poo, seeds....whatever was on the ground. I find this a challenge, but only for a limited amount of time.