The Saga Continues... Into the Trailer

With much prodding and encouragement from the Oasis Camel Dairy "fans", I am back on the keyboard to finish our story.

Before we go there I have to ask.... where does the time go? The telling of this story began in May and here we are on the first of February. Before we blast back to the past let me begin by saying that Boo boo is a gorgeous huge gelding who has incorporated beautifully into our herd and is becoming a favorite among guests to the dairy. He is friendly and his giant sized is dwarfed by the magnitude of his gentle nature.

But for those of you who read the first installment of this story, you already know it did not begin this way. Don't worry that it has been a long time since the story actually took place. It is vividly etched in minds of all participants.

As we approached the enclosure, the giant mountain of a bull camel sprang easily to his feet to come over and say hello. Not a mean bone is his massive body, he simply wanted closeness, touch, affection and treats. He was truly one of the most spectacular camels I had ever seen. Glistening straight cinnamon colored hair covered his giant frame. Large, dark searching eyes were shaded below lush, long curing eye lashes. He was in a word, magnificent.

However, Mister Magnificent quickly demonstrated his lack of training and handling. Treats are great, hay is stupendous but wearing a halter and walking into a trailer... no thank you! Over the next forty-five minutes, we tried everything in our "bag of tricks" to get the big boy on board.

Ideally, we could take several days to train him to walk into the trailer... ideally. But, with new camel calves on the ground at home, we were in no position for a mini-vacation in the desert. Plus, judging by the large scrapes and scratches on his broad chest and the spaghetti like bends in his paddock, he was not long for captivity.

We began by coaxing him to the edge of the trailer with treats. We easily slipped a lasso around his neck and secured him within three feet or so of the back door. He hit the breaks as we anticipated he would, and we all stayed with him, supporting him and actually pushing into his hindquarters with our bodies. Although he stayed taught on the lasso, he did not twist or fight. With this tautness, it was easy to slowly, carefully fit him with a camel halter and lead.

Just before haltering him, I made probably one of the biggest mistakes I have ever made handling an animal. Instead of walking around the back of the camel and trailer to go retrieve the halter, I decided, with time being of the essence, that I should quickly duck under the taught lasso and go through the trailer.... a much more direct route.

In an instant, I was on the ground! Struggling to recover my breath, I had been struck with what felt like a piece of 1 inch square stock steel or a piece of re-bar swung by a large man. Of course, the large man was the camel and the re-bar was his left canine. (camels, especially bulls have very large canine teeth. Usually called fighting teeth, they can easily put an African lion's to shame) When I ducked in front of him, he came down on me with a side sweep, hitting with the tooth as apposed to biting with it. I am not ashamed to say for a forty six year old gal, I can scramble pretty fast!
Cool side note: I don't want to brag but I did get the coolest bruise on my back! It was huge! I felt like a real cowboy I mean girl.

That was pretty much the only time he moved forward. All his other intentions where back, back, back. With the halter now on quite comfortably, we could take a moment to develop and try a new plan. We weren't going to be able to just coax or pull this 2000 bull into the trailer. Gil came up with an idea. Something to try anyway. He would go to the cab of the truck and pull the truck forward. This of course would pull the camel forward and then.. just when all his momentum was forward, Gil would "back up really fast while we used the halter and our bodies against the camels rear legs to maintain the gained ground." We rehearsed our plan with NASA worthy precision and coordination.

The execution was perfect except for one detail that we now can share with you: Camels can back up really, really fast. By this time, our big bull was seeming to enjoy his ability to physically dominate the entire situation. He calmly held his ground while we moved this way and that way, trying to leverage even an inch of his giant body into the doorway of the trailer. With hands petting, massaging, pushing and nudging, we slowly made our way, inch by inch to the wide aluminum threshold. With a handler on each leg, we moved him closer and closer, coaxing and petting, nudging and pushing, inch by inch. We could see success within our grasp. We could almost get a foot up onto the trailer edge. Although weary and reluctant, he worked with us making minuscule baby steps to the opening.

Just when we thought we had him going with the program, he unleashed his secret weapon. With one grand sweeping gesture he leaned back, whirled his massive neck, kicked his feet out from under himself and landed on his side on the ground. He scolded and squalled. I felt horrible. I think we all did. I felt we had broken the spirit of this magnificent beast. And then... he tipped his hand.

As Gil went to readjust ropes to make sure the camel was safe and comfortable, he moved the grain buck out of his way. In the blink of an eye, that camel went from victim to brilliant scam artist! Keeping his body prostrate on the ground, he lifted his head and blinked his beautiful big brown eyes. Ears forward and voice soft, he searched the bucket. What we had just witnessed was a hand raised baby camel tantrum ... super sized! He wasn't a raging bull, he was an overgrown baby boy who had no friends, no mates and no clue.

As he laid there on the sand, Gil and I sat facing him on the lip of the trailer entrance. Still magnificent although, somewhat silly looking, Gil observed him for a long while until finally submitting; "I don't think this is going to happen. I don't think we can take him" I was so disappointed. We both just knew that if we could get him home and start working with him, he had a chance at a great life. But how can we tell him that? We needed something bigger and stronger to help us get him into the trailer. Camel's owner, who is just one of the nicest guys we have ever met, could see his chance and his property fences slipping away. Quickly he sprang to his feet announcing that he had a 100 feet of 3000 lb test rope and a Toyota Tacoma. Game on!

We waited until Camel got tired of laying on the ground in the aftermath of his tantrum. After he got up, we gave him some grain and just petted him for a while. While petting him, we began to rub him with trucker's tie downs: large, two inch yellow webbing.. thick, strong and smooth. We worked the webbing over his shoulders and carefully joined it between his front legs. We also attached a piece at each shoulder back around the hump. Still petting and talking to him, we tied one end of the 100 foot rope to the web ends pulled forward between his front legs. Gil then fed the rope through the trailer, out through the front side panel across the driveway to the Toyota. Camel, back to his more confident self, stood chewing his cud, seemly watching with great amusement. With everyone at the ready, we counted down to initiate operation "you're comin' home" and with that I will say goodnight... but I promise to finish our story very, very soon.

As always for more information about the Oasis Camel Dairy, our camel milk soap or to visit our dairy farm, please visit our website: http://www.cameldairy.com/ See you very soon... I promise!