A wonderful treat from very far away!

The mail I get at work is usually very ordinary. It's all work-related and, although it's my job, it's not "exciting" mail - it's mostly letters from the US Patent Office and letters from other patent offices around the world, and also correspondence from foreign law firms who are handling my patent docket overseas. Sometimes we get some beautiful Christmas cards, but otherwise, it's all business. Today was a very special exception.

I often work with a wonderful lady in Argentina named Rosario. I think that is a very pretty name. Even though I have not met her in person, we send lots of letters and e-mail and sometimes we talk about the weather and other things in our lives. Recently, I told her about my llamas, because I knew that llamas were from South America, and I thought she might be interested to see their pictures. I told her about my blog, and she has visited it to see my llamas and my other farmyard friends.

Rosario went on holiday in Argentina recently, and she went to a place where lots of llamas live and she saw them and took pictures of them. While she was on holiday, she thought of me with my llamas, and you can't imagine what she sent me today!
Isn't that the cutest little llama you ever saw?! It is just like Hazel - the perfect color! I am so excited - I never saw a llama finger puppet before, and this one is just perfect. I love the little blanket on its back, and the fun colors on its ears. It even has pretty blue eyes!

Did you notice that it is knitted? Do you think it is made from llama wool? I can't tell, but when I am better at knitting, I will try to make one and see if I can use my own llama's wool to knit one. For now, my Argentinian llama will live on the top of one of my favorite pens that I keep at my desk at home. I would hate for it to disappear at work!

I didn't know about the tassels that the llamas in South America wear on their ears! But then I did some Google searches and I learned that the llama herd owners each have their own tassel colors so that they can identify their own animals. I don't know what Hazel would think if I tried to put tassels on her ears.

There is no way I would mistake her for anyone else's llama!

THANK YOU ROSARIO!!