Lost Creek Ranger Kilchis
ILR # 201955
gelding b. 11-8-1998
Ranger Dusty x Hyder Llamas Sahalie
click on the photo to see more pictures of Kilchis on flickr®
Kilchis was 44" at maturity, and although very active, has a too-efficient metabolism. If mostly dry-lotted, his weight can be corralled in the 300lb range, although 275 would be much more appropriate. Jim is Kilchis's human partner.
Kilchis was bred by us and seemed to be, in nearly every way, the worthy successor to his sire that we had long awaited. Instead, upon actual trail testing, he was found to be unsuitable as a stud or as a packer — both patellas were luxating mildly on every upgrade, making any sort of significant grade painful for him. This gave us the final piece of the puzzle in full sib Olallie's and maternal half-sib Jack's patellar issues: Sahalie must have had a patellar ligament defect or weakness that manifested in offspring whose rear limbs were properly aligned (unlike her own, which would have been classified as "cow hocked", and which incidentally kept her own patellas just where they needed to be). So Kilchis, too, was only suitable as a companion and flat-land dayhiker.
Then, over the next few years, Kilchis's relatively mild (compared to the overall llama population) overweight tendencies caused his front pasterns to nearly flatten. No more hiking for Kilchis, period.
Kilchis's activity and latent sexual interest (and aggression) means we have to manage him like a stud. This is a bit of a pain (especially when we don't get the benefits of a stud in exchange for the effort). However, he is still more than capable of keeping young studs with fantasies of inflated self-worth in touch with sobering reality, and that does have definite value!
Kilchis's weight started the inevitable old-age decline, and his pasturing needs changed from "restricted" to "normal" and finally "extra". Fortunately the change to "extra" happened about the same time we acquired Joey, who was being boarded with Latte, a rescue llama belonging to a long-time friend of ours. We offered Kilchis to Marty on permanent loan so that Latte would not be lonely, and the two llamas took to each other like old friends; Kilchis greatly appreciates the extra chow and the lack of stress from defending himself in a larger group. Kilchis will spend his final years with Latte and Marty, and we're very happy for him ... and for us,too, because we'll still get to visit him.
The original Kilchis was the head of a Killamook (Tillamook) Indian band along the northwest Oregon coast when the white settlers arrived. Kilchis was markedly tall and dark, and there is still dispute over whether he was part or entirely Negro. He was described as "strong as three men and intelligent as ten," and was known to be fair, just, and peaceful in his dealings with his own people and with the whites.