Here is some nice news! The airport in Portland, Oregon, has come up with a new way to calm anxious flyers, and it is the best and most effective idea I have ever heard of in all my life — they will have a llama and an alpaca there for people to pet and hug. Can you think of anything better? Because I cannot.
Judging by this article on NPR and the pictures of them absolutely beaming while hanging with Beni the Llama and Captain Jack the Alpaca, travelers to the airport agree!
I am so happy for this one lady!
“You can tell by my response how joyful I feel to see these animals out here,” says Lori Sackett, who is on her way from Portland to San Antonio with her husband to see their adult daughter. “What a gift.”
Sackett is especially nostalgic about llamas since she worked with them in the 4-H youth group when her daughter was young – the same daughter she’s on her way to visit. “She's gonna just go wild when she sees the pictures,” says Sackett. “I mean, it's a magical thing.” […]
[T]he fervor on this day transcends the description of stress reliever or nature observation. Over and over, people gasp and cry out in amazement as they embrace the gentle animals’ long necks or pet their fluffy ears.
Sackett says the llama magic is hard to describe without experiencing it. “Have you touched one?” she offers in explanation – “I mean - they are soft and beautiful. The sweet faces.” […]
“I think dogs elicit the same emotion,” says Sackett. “But isn’t this a million times more magnificent?”
SHE IS NOT WRONG. I love her and how excited she is about llamas, and I hope all of the people at the Portland airport are just as excited. Or that everyone is as excited about something as she is (and I am) about llamas.
I have personally touched a llama and it was, in fact, fucking magical. Some of you may recall that I went to the Minnesota State Fair last year to see the 4-H llama costume contest and got to go “backstage” to meet some of the glamorous contestants before the show!
The article notes that the llamas will also do a trick called “carrot kisses” where they will eat a carrot out of your mouth. Honestly have mixed feelings on how good of a time that would be, but it would certainly be a nice way to distract oneself from the onset of terror that they are going to miss their plane or accidentally lose something really important on the way to their plane because they are carrying too many things.
I suppose other people are probably more afraid of planes than of the airports themselves, but I imagine the llamas will be helpful regardless of the reason for one’s anxiety.
Honestly, today would be a much easier day to get through if we all had some emotional support llamas around. They should have them at the polls! Possibly in costume! I mean, I’m not saying I think we won’t win, but it’s pretty stressful! I feel like seeing a llama dressed up as a taco would do a lot to ameliorate that.
The one-l lama,
He's a priest;
The two-l llama,
He's a beast.
And I will bet
A silk pajama
There isn't any
Three-l lllama.
— Ogden Nash
Tester up by 4 points in today's final MT. poll.