Songs, sketches and a llama delight children at Scoville Memorial Library

SALISBURY — Danny Tieger is known for “Danny Sings About Everything,” a series of children’s events at the Scoville Memorial Library featuring Tieger, his guitar, an easel with a sketch pad and markers, and a crowd of children brimming with suggestions.

From this mix, Tieger creates extemporaneous songs and drawings.

On Sunday, Aug. 23, things got more specific. “Danny Sings About a Real, Live Llama” featured a llama named Harley and his owner, Debbie Labbe of Country Quilt Farm in Cornwall.

Tieger got the 18 or so children primed during the half-hour before Harley’s arrival.

He started with a couplet:

“We’ll have songs and very silly dances/At the end we hope the llama prances.”

He then asked the children to name an animal for a quick song.

“A duck!” said a child with a squeaky voice.

Tieger thought for a moment, strummed a chord and launched into it.

“Ducks are excellent/Of them I am fond/I look for them in rivers/In lakes and in ponds.”

The group then worked up the beginning of a song for Harley, leading into a chorus of “Hey! It’s a llama.”

Then it was time to sing it to Harley, who entered the children’s area of the library led by Labbe on a loose leash.

Harley turned out to be a placid, unflappable llama, although Labbe asked the children to wave their hands rather than clap.

Labbe pointed out the different colors of Harley’s fur: brown, black, gray and a little white around his nose.

“Those are the basic llama colors, and it’s how we tell them apart,” she said.

Labbe said Harley, a fully grown 4-year-old llama, weighs 350 pounds. Llamas typically live 18 to 20 years.

Harley lives at the Cornwall farm with five other llamas.

Labbe runs programs for older adults at nursing homes, convalescent centers, assisted living facilities and adult day care centers, as well as programs for children at libraries, schools and day care centers.

The llamas are friendly with people, and petting is encouraged.

Labbe, with Harley beside her, read “Is Your Mama a Llama?” by Deborah Guarino, and shared additional llama facts.

“You can’t ride a llama,” she said. “They’re not designed for it.

“But they are excellent pack animals and can be trained to pull a cart. So that’s how you could go for a llama ride.”

She asked the children whether they had heard Harley make an identifying sound, the way a cow moos.

The children said no.

“They’re very quiet,” Labbe said. “When they do talk to each other, they make a humming sound.”

An exception is when there is cause for alarm, such as a coyote sneaking up on a flock of sheep the llamas are guarding or a bear appearing at the perimeter of the farm.

Labbe described a llama’s alarm call as a cross between a donkey braying and an alarm clock going off.

“It’s really obnoxious.”

The children got to pet Harley, who took the attention in stride.

Whether Harley liked the song was difficult to gauge. He remained poker-faced throughout.