Camelids With Attitude

"Did you know," the woman behind the register says, while I pet the small, long-haired dog sitting in his accustomed place on the counter in the upscale Brooklyn clothing shop, "that llamas and alpacas can be certified as therapy animals?"

The dog tilts his head back obligingly and offers to let me scratch his chin as I say that, while I could see alpacas being pretty good at it, llamas always struck me as kind of mean, and she agrees.

"You could always threaten to shave an alpaca if he got out of line, they're so shaggy," she muses as the dog rolls on his back for a belly rub. "But  llamas, man, llamas got nothing to lose."