Homeowners Using Live Animals As Lawn Decorations - Llamas Everywhere!

[matcom]

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Every morning, four llamas bask in the morning sun on a hill near Shirley Pringle's house. Later, in the heat of the day, they retreat to the shade of a nearby oak. It's just the sort of picturesque scene Ms. Pringle envisioned when she bought the animals for $1,000 apiece to roam the 7.5 acres surrounding her rural Kelseyville, Calif., home a couple of hours from San Francisco.

"It's exactly what I had in mind -- a minifarm," said Ms. Pringle, who also has pheasants and chickens on her fenced property. Ms. Pringle doesn't breed the animals: She just likes to look at them. "My land is definitely unique when you drive down the road and see these four llamas," she says.

People have used animals as prey, pets and food for thousands of years. Bored with conventional landscaping, some homeowners now are using bulls, sheep, chickens and other live animals as outdoor decor.

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