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Show Wn)irwwM from mm 1 mi.nt,.-.'y nimn , j 1 mm 11 11. i 1 j , . . If.. V 1 v., &i 1 j J f . 1 : . II Vl&i i - v i'. ' . -. , ; - f ms 4 .... - :t r Ai Open Letter From Radar Dear Friends, even those 1 haven't met yet. THIS IS a very special time nt' year for families and friends to get together and exchange their gifts of love. 1 too hav e much love to give, and I'm verv luckv to be able was coming from. In fact that is how 1 got my name , "Radar." It is just like radar in submarines and such. Then once I was close enough. I could smell her scent and feel the bottle on my nose. It was much nicer to eat that way than through the needle in mv lea. It discovering each other and loving together. IN FACT, it was so wonderful wonder-ful that when I get a little older and have some more llama training. I get to work with the Shriners Mounted Patrol. Then I'll get to meet all kinds of children. I'll get to go to parades pa-rades and the circus and especially espe-cially the children's hospitals, you know the ones I mean? There is Primary Children's Hospital and the Shriner's Children's Hospital, both in Salt Lake City. Then I can really show off my stuff. Just what little I know of doctors and nurses, I know the ones at these children's hospitals hospit-als w ork very long and hard to help those children get well. So I'm going to help them as much as I can. If I can make these children smile and maybe get a kiss or a nuzzle from them, that would make me very happy. hap-py. Then I could help pay back all the nice people who helped me so much. WHEN I'M in the parades and at the circus, you will have to say hi to me, so I'll know w here you are. I won't be able to wave with my foot, but I'll wave with my ears and then vou w ill know that I hear you. Okay? Also you can do something to help me. Have your parents take you to the Zoo in Salt Lake City. I know this is a busy time of the year for them, but they would not have to do it right away. The Zoo is open every day except Christmas and New Years, and there are so many things to see, and so many beautiful animals you can learn about. Besides, without with-out your help from the admission admis-sion fees and donations from people, just like you. there would not be much of a zoo. When you are there, go see my mom and dad and ail my llama relatives. I know they will enjoy en-joy seeing you too. WELL THAT'S my story and 1 guess I better close this letter for now. I still have to eat my lunch and finish my list to Santa. I'm looking forward to meeting all of you. Please take care and maybe I can write to you again. A Merry Christmas, with love. Radar to gie it. THIS CHRISTMAS will be very special for me, not just because of Santa and presents, but because of love and concern con-cern that made it possible for me ot just be here. It all started on Aug. 18. 1481. You see it has to start there because that is the day 1 was born. LIKE TOO many other babies, animal or human, I came into this world with a lot ot problems. I was born prematurely, prem-aturely, that means before I had finished grow ing inside my mother. So 1 was very little, weak and unable to be like other babies of my kind. I'm a baby llama. When a healthy baby llama is born it is able to stand and nurse it's mother and to play. But I was not strong and 1 was not healthy. So when 1 didn't get up and eat. 1 got sick and much weaker. weak-er. Fortunately. I was born at I logic .oo and so I was kept very close track of. by the zoo's veterinarian and the "keepers." If had been born in the wild. I would have died. There are laws of nature in the wild and only the strongest survive. l en though my parents are still w ild. they are kept in cap-mity cap-mity and so I got a second chance. WHEN THEY saw that I was not doing very well and that I w as unable to nurse, they took me to the nursery. Maybe on saw me on TV with my very nervous foster mother. Anyway, they treated me juM like they would a sick human hu-man baby. They kept me warm and comfortable, and fed me with intravenous food until I was strong enough to eat on im own. You know, being a veterinarian or pediatrician, a doctor or nurse, is very much the same. They can't ask the p.i t lent what's wrong, or where it hurts, they have just got to know. AN WAY, I'M sure that ing taken away from my real parents must have upset them tasted much better and it felt better too. It took a little longer to feed me this way, but everyone was very patient and I finally got faster at listening and finding, but my problems were still not over, because I had never nursed my real mo. her, 1 had never got the colostrum in my mother's milk. That is the stuff that protects new born babies from diseases. It is sort of like taking vaccine on a sugar cube. VERY OFTEN I would get a "bug ' in my tummy that would make me sick. But again, because be-cause of the 24 hour watch they kept on me, I was given the proper medicines 1 needed to get better. As time passed . I did get better bet-ter and 1 finally started to grow and as 1 grew, so did the love between me and mv new mom. I HAD outgrown the intensive inten-sive care I had needed earlier in my life, so my new mom asked Mr. Farnsworth. the Zoo's director, if she could take me to her families farm in Farmington. He was nice enough to say yes. so on Sept. 7, 1 moved to the farm. At first I was a house llama but like other animals that need to eat grasses and such. I was weaned from the house to a barn and pasture. I did not like it much at first, but like all new things, it became familiar to me and I discovered a lot of neat stulf. I HEARD sounds I had never nev-er heard, and smelled smells I had never smelled. I felt the warm sunshine on my back and the autumn breezes in my face. It was so wonderful to be alive. My legs got stronger and 1 started running and playing. I met the other family members, mem-bers, dogs, ducks, geese and goats, even chicken and rabbits rab-bits and lots of horses, some of them were almost as little as me. But my very favorites were the children. They were as curious about me as I was about them. We shared touching and kissing and playing. play-ing. We had such a good time .crriPiy. nui I m aiw miic nicy vure very gldd that there were people who could help me the was I needed to be helped. Isn't it wonderful that there .ue Mith people to help us I'Lihics. HKR ABOUT three day s, I finally got strong enough to il, ink out of a bottle. That's when they discoverd I had .mother problem. 1 could not see I could hear, though, and I could smell. So when it was lime to eat. my foster mother would talk to me. and I would listen with my long ears. Back .tiJ l."h m ears would goun-il goun-il I f-uicrl out where the voice |