Lost Creek Ranger Cricket
ILR # 235970
female b. 12-12-2001
Ranger Dusty x Snake River Molly
click HERE to see Cricket helping demonstrate pack saddle fitting on YouTube®
Cricket has matured at 44.5" and 280 pounds, a very functional, versatile size. Like her (now deceased) brother Owyhee, Cricket has decided that she likes Gwen best.
Cricket shows nearly all the traits we can expect to see in an outstanding packer, including a seasonably shedding classic coat, albeit longer than our personal preferences, and (thanks to her mother’s curaca influence) a “stickier” undercoat that doesn’t comb as easily as a true Classic.
Cricket is an eager learner, amenable and adaptable to new experiences, and she is also prone to looking to her handler in stressful situations. Cricket's only deficit is a degree of her mother's tendency to be more easily startled, especially by anything that even looks canine. Even with this problem, however, we are considering Cricket to be a breeding-quality animal, well-suited to passing on her sire’s best traits.
Cricket occasionally traveled with Gwen back when Gwen was neglecting her sleep to assist with Get Connected! training workshops. Workshop attendees thought Cricket did great demonstrations; Cricket thought it was just great to do familiar things with Gwen, even if it had to be in strange locations.
In her prime, Cricket pursued a bit of packing and (for the brief period when a separate division for Classic llamas was in place) a little showing here and there — mostly halter classes, but also, rather by accident, a few performance classes as well. Cricket’s halter class show record is spotty (typical for any good working llama), and her performance class record is abysmal according to the final placings. In reality, Gwen has been exceedingly pleased with and proud of Cricket’s willingness to step outside her comfort zone, and also to clearly state what bugged her in two extremely distracting and challenging situations in which even seasoned performance llamas were clearly rattled.
Cricket shares her sire Ranger Dusty’s gaits, energy, and powerful rear end muscling, and that’s what counts on the trail. We were really looking forward to enjoying some offspring from Cricket, but it turned out that she inherited all of her dam's multiple conception challenges, and so the buck stopped here.
Cricket is now retired and living out her senior years with her sisters, keeping growing new youngsters in line. Even at 22, she still likes to explore, run with the babies, and do leaping twists straight up in the air. :-)
Like most crickets, Cricket is both black and a highly accomplished leaper. She's much more muscular and flexible than the insects, though! Although completely unintentional when she was named, it turns out that Cricket is very much "into" wireless communication as well.