David teaching the finer points of toenails cutting to Shamus, with Glenn and me holding our respective ends of April.

Jj is for Jottings 32. Toenail Time.

For our family, doing toenails has always been a three-person job: I’m at the head end because the alpacas know me best – keeping them still if necessary, calming them and whispering sweet nothings in their ears (which may or may not make a positive difference, but I like to think so); a strong person (Kieran or Antony) is at the back end – holding them up if they choose to stand or, if they lie down, pulling the back end over so the cutter can access their feet (they always tuck them right under so you have trouble getting at them) and generally making things easier for the cutter; and David was the cutter, although my boys have done that part of recent times.
It was toenail time a few weeks ago. Since my two sons live in Canberra, we enlisted the help of Shamus – my step son-in-law. Shamus had helped out once before, but this time we decided that, since Shamus lives close by, David finds the process rather tiring, and the chances of my sons being around these days when toenails need doing are not all that high, it was time to add “alpaca pedicurist” to Shamus’ CV . Shamus is a lovely, big, obliging fellow – a sort of amiable giant. My step-daughter, Jan, had also enlisted the help of her youngest son, Glenn (she told him it was good for him to do some community service – I’ve never thought of myself in that light before!) So Jan, Shamus and Glenn came to help with toenail-cutting, although Shamus had no idea that he was about to be promoted to pedicurist-in-chief and to have an incredibly useful skill with such a wide application added to his list of qualifications. I think he had thought he was going to be “chief manhandler” like he was last time. David taught Shamus what to do on April. We did her first so as to reduce the stress on her since she is very old – 19 years. After that, David was able to step back and let Shamus, Glen and me do the work while Jan took photos, most of which you will see accompanying Jottings articles in the future.