Elderly llama is rescued in pond by firefighters

Photo:

FRIENDLY COMPETITION
FRIENDLY COMPETITIONPicasa055Jordyn is one40

NORWAY — The Norway Fire Department was forced to call on a large animal emergency rescue expert to take care of an unusual problem on Saturday.

Rescuers were called to the farm of Caroline Thermaenius on Morse Road to respond to reports of a llama that had passed out from the heat and fallen down a steep hill into a pond.

Vicki Schmidt, the large animal rescue expert who lives in Hebron, was enlisted to help pull the animal to safety. Schmidt said that the llama was 22 years old, well past the normal life expectancy of 15-16 years, and roughly equal to a 98-year-old person.

"This was my first llama call," said Schmidt, who has worked with animals her whole life and teaches a class to first responders on rescuing them. "He was a nice llama. I had read that they could be a little bit dangerous, kicking out at people, but he seemed to know that we were there to help."

Schmidt said that she, along with the responders from the fire department, put a sling around the creature before three people hauled it out of the lake and roughly 20 feet into the shade of a nearby tree, where it could be kept cool. She said it was actually lucky that the llama fell into the pond because the water helped to bring its body temperature down.

The llama reportedly escaped unharmed.  Thermaenius keeps it to frighten coyotes away from sheep that she keeps on the farm.