My teenage sons and their friends couldn't resist trying to ride Gizmo the camel soon after he arrived (read how we got the camel) . Just how to accomplish this feat seemed to elude them. Now you must know that we do not have a camel with two humps...so deciding where to sit is a challenge. Do you try for the top of his hump hoping not to slide down the backside over his boney rump and onto the ground at the tail end? Or do you try in front of the hump at the base of his neck, arms wrapped around clinging for dear life? They soon found out that it really didn't matter much...on top, in front, or around, the only place these boys were gonna ride was on the seat of their pants dumped on the ground with no reguard from the camel for their tender male egos.
First they tried climbing the rails of the stall in the camel shed and climbing aboard. Never mind that the stall needed to be cleaned and there were mounds of camel manure as well as a few deposits from the goats as well as the llama. As you can guess the first kid ended his split second ride on the ground beneath Gizmo's feet in a pile of poo. Unfortunately I missed witnessing this attempt but heard about in in full Technicolor detail for weeks after (I did get to see the resulting stinky laundry in person though...lucky me!) I'm glad I didn't miss the next episode of boy vs. camel!
One beautiful afternoon I noticed a parade walking through our pasture...Stefan, Dane, Christopher, and bringing up the rear was Gizmo. Now how in the world are they getting that camel to follow them? Then I saw they were waving a maple branch, Gizmo loves maple leaves and will do just about anything for them. They were leading the camel down to the largest of our maple trees. To bad they weren't moving fast enough... now they are running through the field because Gizmo is chasing them trying to get the branch...run boys run! They drop the branch under the tree and scramble up while Gizmo looks at them suspiciously and then begins to eat the abandoned treat.
Next thing I saw were leaves fluttering down from the tree...its June, why were there leaves falling? The kids were picking and dropping them under a low growing branch trying to get Gizmo to walk under it...ahhh now I had figured out what they are up to! The camel final comes into position, his hump just a few feet under the branch. He has no clue what is about to land on him! After much encouragement from the onlookers Christopher quickly drops from the tree onto his Gizmo's back. Now our camel is usually a slow moving rather relaxed creature but you should have seen him move. First he began to run with Chris clinging to his hairy neck I thought for sure he would try to buck him off like a wild steer in a rodeo but Gizmo had a better plan. He decided enough was enough so he reached his long neck around, grabbed Christopher by the pant leg with his teeth and yanked the poor boy off depositing him unceremoniously in the middle of the pasture. The whole ride lasted less than 30 seconds but one of the most hilarious 30 seconds I could recall!
Score: Camel 1 Boy 0 ...but the game was far from over!
