Our Past Brightens Our Future  Donley and Dolores Gardner purchased their first llama, a male, in 1986 as a source of fiber for Dolores to spin and weave. At the time they were also raising Angora rabbits and Pygora goats as other fiber sources. Before the young male was brought home, Donley purchased a nine-month-old female. She remains in the Gardner herd today. Dolores promised her two years ago if she would have a female, she would retire her from breeding. She now lives in the front pasture with the mothers-to-be and the new babies; she teaches all the new mothers how to be good llama mamas. She produced babies that won in the ring if they were shown. One of these became a halter champion by age 13 months and is also a performance champion. The Gardners did not buy their first female to produce nice, correct llamas; in 1986 they didn’t know the difference. By 1988 they had learned a little about llamas. Dolores read everything she could find and Donley talked to everyone he knew who had llamas. They realized that the young male they had bought in 1986 was not herd sire quality. They bought an outside breeding and their llama business began as Diamond Oaks Llamas. Because Donley had been around dog shows, he was adamant about not entering any llama shows. In 1994, Dolores convinced him they had two llamas worthy of showing. By then they had attended several shows and he had decided that perhaps politics did not play as big a part in the llama industry as it did in the dog world. They went to their first show and one of their boys was first in his class and grand champion. Their other boy stood second behind his half sibling. Donley was hooked! During the first six years the Gardners had llamas, there was no veterinarian in the Dallas-Fort Worth area who would take care of the llamas. Dolores and a good friend, a human doctor who also had llamas, developed a feeding program and a general care program. A veterinarian in Mansfield, Texas, provided them with medicines and advice only. One day the doctor and Dolores, a nurse, decided the books had to be wrong about not being able to hear fetal heart sounds in llamas. After all, they had both been listening to fetal heart sounds in humans collectively for 50 years! How hard could it be? After six hours, they decided maybe the books were right. For ten years the Gardners breeding program produced only one female. All other births were male. So much for beginners’ luck! They did acquire a few females along the way though. In 1996 it was apparent they had outgrown their place. They had designed and built a house and were somewhat reluctant to leave it, but a decision had to be made. Sell the house or sell half the llamas? They made the decision to sell the house. After looking for homes and property in New Mexico and Colorado, Donley convinced Dolores they needed to be in East Texas near her parents, who were getting older. The search was on for a farm. Dolores would design another house. Donley would design the llama barn. Dolores’s mother convinced them to look at a home and property in Daingerfield, in the Northeast part of Texas. It had 25 acres and a six-acre spring fed pond and a house, which needed complete remodeling. After working for several months on new fences, repairing an existing barn, building another barn and remodeling the house, the Gardners moved in the week before Thanksgiving in 1997. Their llama herd continued to grow and in 1998 when asked by a friend about the goals of their breeding program, Dolores answered, “We want structurally sound, conformationally correct llamas and more champions and ROM’s than any other breeder. In 2001 they achieved this goal and walked away from the Grand National Show with the Grand Champion Light Wool Female and three others placing in the top ten in their classes. Donley hugged Dolores so hard he cracked three of her ribs! During the celebratory dinner they recounted all the fun they had had in the llama business and planned for future success. In their non-llama lives Donley owned and operated a business to provide physicians to hospital emergency rooms. He also consulted for health care businesses in administrative matters. He graduated from the University of Texas and earned a Masters Degree in Hospital Administration from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. Dolores has a nursing degree and a management degree from Texas Christian University in Ft. Worth, Texas. She currently is a legal nurse consultant for a law firm, which has offices in Daingerfield, Texas, Shreveport, Louisiana, Texarkana, Texas, Albuquerque, New Mexico and Saltillo, Mexico. She is enrolled in law school. She and an attorney co-author have completed a medical-legal mystery novel and are re-editing. Their agent tells them it will sell. The Gardners have been active in the llama community. Donley was a Level III performance judge and Dolores a Level III judge. They enjoyed judging together. Donley was chairman of the performance committee for ALSA and had an active youth group. Two of his “kids” received scholarships for a total of $10,000. Dolores served as president of the South Central Llama Association and on the education committee for ALSA. They often took llamas to schools and nursing homes. On October 11, 2003, Donley unexpectedly passed to another life. Diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma in April 2003, his chemotherapy had arrested his disease. However, the second to last treatment caused him to develop lung complications that could not be effectively treated. Dolores had to make some tough decisions. Stay in the llama business? Get out? Cut down? The herd was between seventy and eighty llamas. She knew she couldn’t take care of that many llamas by herself. She did have some help during the week, but felt she needed fewer so she could give each llama the individual care it needed. She sold llamas and today her herd consists of about thirty llamas. Along the way, she made some more decisions. Since she had decided to stay in the llama business and wanted to be profitable, she added a few suri llamas to her herd, as they seemed to be selling for higher prices. Then, she started looking at all the llama organizations. Did any one of them have a marketing program that could reach potential new owners and present owners? The answer was a resounding “NO!” Each organization had bits and pieces of a marketing program but most seemed geared to other llama owners. She saw the first ad in the Llama Banner for the Collectible Llamas, Inc. and read it with interest. She began to think perhaps this organization had some specific goals for marketing and sales. She made numerous phone calls to people she trusted, including one of the members of the CLI. She joined. Believing that she had talent and time to offer CLI, Dolores inquired about becoming a member of the Executive Management Council, the management team for CLI. She is delighted that she was accepted. Dolores is excited to be a part of an organization that is working toward a breed standard with those standards in writing. She sees the potential in a national advertising campaign.  Her vision for the future of the llama industry is focused on positive results for all llama breeders.