Photo: Prairie Patch Farm
The laidback llama pack atPrairie Patch Farmhas become famous on TikTok for playing dress-up.
“I love the joy that it brings people,” says their owner, Kahle Boutte, 37. “That’s truly why we do it — to bring more happiness and hope and joy.”
“The shock and awe and joy that it brings to people is really what fuels me,” Boutte tells PEOPLE of what inspires her to craft her llamas' costumes. “What can we come up with next to put some more positivity out there and to make people smile?”
Prairie Patch Farm
“People have been dressing llamas for thousands of years,” Boutte adds. “The costumes just kind of became a thing. Something really quirky and funny that we get to do with them.”
One Prairie Patch Farm llama, Earl, loves it the most.
“Earl is just the most easy-going llama, he will let us put anything on him,” his owner says. “He likes it. He knows when it’s dress-up time, and he’s like, ‘All right, I’m here for it.’ "
Prairie Patch Farmis a 50-acre nature preserve in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and has been in Boutte’s family since the 1980s. Boutte and her husband Andy bought the farm about four and a half years ago when Boutte’s uncle passed away.
After buying the farm, Boutte saw the opportunity to make her childhood dream of owning pet llamas come true and adopted two llamas three years ago.
“Llamas have been my favorite animal for as long as I can remember when I was a kid, and I said, ‘If I could ever have llamas one day, I would get them,'” Boutte tells PEOPLE.
After adopting the first two llamas, Boutte started making llama-corn (the adorable combo of a llama and a unicorn) costumes. This interest in animal fashion grew into an annual Llama-ween celebration, where Boutte dresses her llama herd in an elaborate group costume. The first year she dressed them as mummies and pirates. This past year, she did Llamas of Oz — dressing the herd asWizard of Ozcharacters.
Boutte, a former music therapist, takes the costumed llamas to nursing homes and schools “to spread more joy and love to our community.”
“We need it now more than ever,” she adds.
Prairie Patch Farm offers opportunities to meet the llamas on the property, too, with llama yoga classes and llama hikes on the nature preserve.
“It’s just been really fun spreading happiness,” Boutte says. “And doing something completely different than what people might see going to a zoo or a farm.”
source: people.com
